Digital Commons Network^™

Information Utility, Reader Interest, Publication Rating And Student Newspaper Readership, Carolyn Lin

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This article investigates student motivations for reading a college student paper, including evaluations of performance and content preferences. The declining interest in newspaper readership, particularly among college-age readers has attracted concern among scholars in recent years. In a democracy founded on freedom of the press, fewer than 40% of adults today under the age of 30 subscribe to a paper. This suggests that time spent with newspapers continues to decline even as new media use accounts for the bulk of audience leisure.

Evidence Of Scattering Anisotropy Effects On Boundary Conditions Of The Diffusion Equation, G. Popescu, C. Mujat, A. Dogariu

Faculty Bibliography 2000s

We present experimental evidence that the diffusion process close to the boundary is fundamentally different from the bulk diffusion in the sense that it is affected by the scattering properties of the individual centers. Systematic measurements show a nontrivial behavior of the extrapolation length ratio on the scattering anisotropy of individual particles. The results are compared with other works and are supported by an independent Monte Carlo simulation. A simple analytical model that emphasizes the influence of the last scattering event successfully describes the results.

Poetry As Theory: Lope De Vega's Epistola As Arbiter Of Proper Discourse, Mark J. Mascia

Languages Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to examine the ways in which Lope de Vega manipulates epistolas to serve his own ends with regards to language, both on a narrowly literary level and on a broader personal and even national one. What emerges is an epistola which blends both the self-evident art of poetry writing and critical speculation upon it, one which Lope consciously uses as a literary mode of vindication and defense for his ideas regarding proper discourse and as an attack on any type of discourse of which he disapproves.

X- And Gamma -Ray Observations Of The 15 November 1991 Solar Flare, Martina Belz Arndt

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation expands the current understanding of the 15 November 1991 X1.5 solar flare. This flare was a well observed event in radio to gamma-ray energies and is the first gamma-ray flare to be extensively studied with the benefit of detailed soft and hard X-ray images. In this work, we add data from all four instruments on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), spanning 20 keV--300 MeV. From these data we determined that the accelerated electron spectrum above 170 keV is best fit with a power law with a spectral index gamma ≈ -4.6. We determined that the accelerated proton …

Reading For *Class: Virginia Woolf, Rebecca West, And Sylvia Townsend Warner, Laurie Ann Quinn

Doctoral Dissertations

Reading for Class is a feminist materialist study of three twentieth-century British writers: Virginia Woolf (1882--1941), Rebecca West (1892--1983), and Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893--1978). In triangulation, Woolf, West, and Warner provide the specific grounding for the project's more general exploration of the intersections between class issues and literature. The Introduction forges the eclectic critical method defined as reading for class, and articulates the historical-political purposes of the method and of the study itself. In Chapter One, analyses of two of Woolf's lesser-known texts, the "Introductory Letter" to the collection Life as We Have Known It (1931) and Nurse Lugton's Golden …

Finite Element Modeling Of Tidal Flow And Bed -Load Transport In The Great Bay Estuarine System, New Hampshire, Ata Bilgili

Doctoral Dissertations

Current, sea level and bed-load transport are investigated in the Great Bay Estuary, New Hampshire---a shallow, well-mixed system with low freshwater input. Main channel tidal currents are over 2 m/sec, and its dynamic balance is dominated by the pressure gradient and bottom friction. Current and sea level forced by the M2, M4, M6 tides at the estuary mouth are simulated by two numerical models---a three-dimensional, harmonic model that solves the linearized shallow water equations (FUNDY5); and a vertically averaged, time stepping, non-linear model (ADAM). ADAM makes use of a kinematic assumption (that is, the local and advective accelerations are neglected) …

Exploring Other Worlds: Margaret Fox, Elisha Kane, And The Antebellum Culture Of Curiosity, David Alexander Chapin

Doctoral Dissertations

Antebellum Americans had a strong interest in the unknown, which manifested itself simultaneously in highbrow, middlebrow, and lowbrow culture. Venues such as scientific institutions, lyceums, lecture halls, the "penny-press," and the dime-museum all catered to American curiosity. Exploring Other Worlds examines this "culture of curiosity," arguing that curiosity was a defining trait of antebellum America, transcending many of the boundaries we often associate with the era. Curiosity promoted intellectual interest in science, but it also led to the sensationalism of modern commercial popular culture.

The inter-related lives of Elisha Kane and Margaret Fox demonstrate this thesis. Kane was America's first …

The Perceived Effects Of State -Mandated Testing In New Hampshire, Stephen A. Kossakoski

Doctoral Dissertations

The purposes of this study were: (1) to examine the perceptions of third grade teachers in the state of New Hampshire concerning the state's mandated testing program, and (2) to determine if there was a relationship between teachers' perceptions and their schools' socioeconomic status. The survey instrument designed for this study contained 61 closed response Likert scale items that measured teachers' perceptions regarding changes in curriculum and instruction, sources of pressure to improve test scores, and attitude toward the third grade test. A stratified random sample of 310 third grade teachers was selected to participate in this study. The percentage …

Piety, Politeness, And Power: Formation Of A Newtonian Culture In New England, 1727--1779, Frances Herman Lord

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores how men and women deployed the mathematical and experimental science of Isaac Newton and the new science based upon his work as the framework for a "Newtonian culture" in New England between 1727 and 1779, which established our modern view of the natural world and the authority of science. Their endeavors often involved co-opting the authority, and the cachet, of Newton's name and redirecting it toward new ends that involved both the affirmation and challenge of prevalent cultural, religious, and social values. This study examines the uses of Newtonian natural philosophy within the context of the cultural …

Nitrated Poly(4 -Hydroxystyrene) Microspheres For Optical Ph And Potassium Ion Sensing Based On Turbidity Changes Accompanying Polymer Sweller, Hongming Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

Porous poly(4-acetoxystyrene) swellable microspheres with diameters approximately 1∼2 mum were prepared by seeded emulsion polymerization. Toluene was used as the porogenic solvent and divinylbenzene was used as the crosslinker. The seed particles with diameters approximately 0.5∼1 mum were prepared by dispersion polymerization without adding porogenic solvent and crosslinker. Functionality was introduced by two derivatization reactions, hydrolysis and nitration, to form nitrated poly(4-hydroxystyrene). These polymer microspheres swell at high pH due to the deprotonation of the hydroxyl group on the polymer backbone. Swelling is accompanied by an increase in water content which causes the polymer refractive index to decrease. These microspheres, …

Transition Metal Complexes Of Novel Ligands Derived From The Cis,Cis-1,3,5-Triaminocyclohexane (Tach) Framework: Structural And Biological Studies, Gyungse Park

Doctoral Dissertations

Transition and Group IIB metal complexes of novel ligands derived from cis,cis-1,3,5-triaminocyclohexane (tach) were prepared for structural and biological activity study. Copper(II) complexes of N,N ',N″-trialkylated derivatives of tach [Cu(tach-R3)Cl2] (R = Me, Et, Pr, furanyl, and thiophenyl) were prepared from CuCl2 in MeOH or MeOH/Et2O solvent. The structures of [Cu(tach-R3)Cl2] in the solid and solution (aqueous and methanolic) states were extensively studied by UV-vis and EPR spectroscopies and were consistent to X-ray structure of [Cu(tach-Et 3)Br0.8Cl1.2] which reveals a slightly distorted square-based pyramidal geometry. Displacement of halide ions with water molecules in aqueous media was observed by the band …

Swellable Polymer Substrates For Use In Magnetochemical And Optical Chemical Sensing, Stephen Arnold Doherty

Doctoral Dissertations

Lightly cross-linked, animated polymers that swell and shrink with changing pH were prepared and evaluated. At low pHs amine sites protonate causing charge to accumulate along the polymer backbone. The polymer then swells to maximize the charge separation. The swelling of the polymer causes a change in a magnetic or optical property that can be measured and related to pH.

Animated hydrogel membranes were prepared by copolymerizing dimethyl amino ethyl methacrylate(DMAEMA) with various comonomer hydrogels. Experiments were conducted to examine the effect of formulation on the ability of the hydrogel membrane to swell. Factors examined included cross-linker type, cross-linker concentration, …

Tuned In: Television And The Teaching Of Writing, Bronwyn Thomas Williams

Doctoral Dissertations

College writing teachers often consider the reading and writing experiences students have had in elementary and high school classes as their only relevant discursive influences. When they do so they risk ignoring what is perhaps the most powerful and ubiquitous form of public discourse and communication in our society: television. This dissertation explores how the pervasive discourse of popular culture on television influences the ways in which incoming college students perceive and engage in writing and reading when they enter a first-year composition course. Through interviews with students and observations of them watching television, I have studied the skills students …

Number, Please: New Hampshire Telephone Operators In The Predial Era, 1877--1973, Judith N. Moyer

Doctoral Dissertations

The predial telephone era in New Hampshire stretched from about 1877 to 1973. This dissertation examines predial telephone operating in the state as a category of women's work. While growing out of and responding to technical invention and development, telephone operating had deep roots in women's social roles; gender defined occupational options, the work environment, the rules of employment, wages, and expectations. As the telephone system developed, differences between telephone operating in large and small exchanges developed; the urban operator eventually worked under conditions of traffic volume, supervision, and control that the rural operator often did not. To uncover the …

Disturbance Indicators For Time Series Reconstruction And Marine Ecosystem Health Impact Assessment, Benjamin Harrison Sherman

Doctoral Dissertations

A systematic reconstruction of Multiple Marine Ecological Disturbances (MMEDs) involving disease occurrence, morbidity and mortality events has been undertaken so that a taxonomy of globally distributed marine disturbance types can be better quantified and common forcing factors identified. Combined disturbance data include indices of morbidity, mortality and disease events affecting humans, marine invertebrates, flora and wildlife populations. In the search for the best disturbance indicators of ecosystem change, the unifying solution for joining data from disparate fields is to organize data into space/time/topic hierarchies that permit convergence of data due to shared and appropriate scaling. The scale of the data …

Master Of Business Administration Program For The Full Time Student, Nova Southeastern University

Huizenga Postgraduate Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Recent Books

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

Transparent Adjudication And Social Science Research In Constitutional Criminal Procedure, Tracey L. Meares, Bernard E. Harcourt

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

The Unclearly Established Rule Against Unreasonable Searches And Seizures, Brian H. Chun

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

An Actuarial Risk Assessment Of Violence Posed By Capital Murder Defendants, Jonathan R. Sorensen, Rocky L. Pilgrim

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Road Maps, Erik Luna

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

Supporting The Snakeheads: Human Smuggling From China And The 1996 Amendment To The U.S. Statutory Definition Of Refugee, Cleo J. Kung

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

Book Review

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Father-Absence On Male Sex Role, Terri L. Portrell

Theses

This study explored the effects that the presence or absence of a father living in the household has on the sex-role development of male children. With an increasing number of males being reared in fatherless, mother-headed families, it is important to understand this phenomenon. Seventy-two male college students, ages 18 to 25, were subjects. Thirty-six were raised in father-present households, while thirty-six were raised in father-absent, mother-headed households. The Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) was employed to assess each subject's sex-role. Past research suggests that males reared without fathers in the home develop a less masculine sex-role orientation and are far …

Leadership And Communication In The Transition To Virtual, Mark K. Reighard

Theses

This culminating project focuses on the transition of work teams from a traditional to a virtual work setting and the approaches and tools used by the manager to make that transition effective.

"Virtual Workplace", Telecommuting, Telework, "Alternative Workplace", and "Work From Home" are all terms and phrases used to describe a situation where at least a portion of a work team's members are not housed in a specific office day in and day out. This type of work setting has been utilized for many years (e.g. the traveling salesman) but is gaining popularity with the advent of enhanced communication tools …

The Effect Of Binaural Auditory Beats On The Anxiety And Psychological Hardiness Levels Of Graduate Students, Terry L. Moore

Theses

Three graduate students from a Midwestern urban university were selected from a pool of volunteers based on elevated levels of anxiety. The students were initially tested using the Self-Evaluation Questionnaire and Hardiness Scale. Students were provided with audio tapes using binaural beats. Each Self-Evaluation Questionnaire score was tracked for the purpose of determining the affect of the audio tapes on levels of anxiety and hardiness. All three students showed reduced levels of anxiety after using the tapes, with either a similar or higher level of Hardiness.

Abusive Relationships: Hidden Crimes, Neidra V. Banton

Theses

Domestic violence is a crime, and the first step toward addressing the problem is through communication. Making society aware that there is a problem starts the process. Once communication of the problem is known then education is the next step. Educating society and all individuals affected by domestic violence whether as a victim or as a community helper is crucial toward stopping the crime.

Research of this social problem comprises the first three chapters of the graduate paper. Chapter one addresses the thoughts and reasons behind the belief that domestic violence is criminal through the research gathered from the social …

A Study Of The Correlation Between Coping Strategies And Locus Of Control, Joyce Everett

Theses

This study explores the relationships between gender, locus of control and coping strategies. The Ways of Coping Questionnaire and Levenson's IPC scale were distributed to employees at a social service agency and at a graduate school in the Midwestern United States. The study consisted of 26 males and 26 females who volunteered to participate by returning the completed instruments. At-test was conducted. and gender differences in locus of control and coping strategies were analyzed. No significant differences were found between locus of control and gender and gender and coping strategies. A Pearson r correlation was completed to determine a direct …

Public Relations And Politics: A Winning Combination For Public School Bond Issues And Tax Referendums, Cindy L. Gibson

Theses

In 1990 voters in the Ritenour School District approved the first of several bond issues that provided for the renovation of district facilities. Following approval of the bond issues, the district success fully passed a Proposition C Rollback Waiver, a type of tax increase only found in Missouri.

Finding the additional funds to effectively manage today's schools is a national concern . Ritenour School Di strict leaders, like so many other public school officials throughout the United States, sought the financial assistance of their community by conducting tax levy and bond issue elections.

Like most successful political campaigns, school referendums …

The Effect Of The Environment On Office Worker Productivity And Creativitiy, Karen D. Clark

Theses

This paper will explore the effect of the physical and human environment on office worker creativity and productivity.

The study will begin with a discussion of creativity, addressing questions such as: Why do we want creative employees? What value to they bring to an organization? Can the elements that enhance creativity in office workers also enhance productivity? How is creativity enhanced? Why is it that many organizations successfully stifle creativity, thus hampering employee morale and productivity?

Research has shown that the physical environment affects workers' ability to think and function effectively. There is a basic need for aesthetics as a …