Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing The Classification Accuracy Of Digitized National Aerial Photography Program Imagery: Comparison With Botanical Data, Mark Arthur Alexander

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The ability to acquire and use remotely sensed data has revolutionized large-scale ecological studies by reducing dependence on difficult and expensive field survey techniques for acquisition of land use and land cover data. Multispectral satellite imagery, typically from the Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Thematic Mapper (TM) and the SPOT High Resolution Visible (HRV) instruments, has proven particularly valuable in surveying and classifying vegetation cover (Frank & Thorn, 1985). Further studies have concluded that alpine vegetation communities and habitats can be mapped successfully by including the geomorphic parameters of elevation, slope, and incidence when classifying remotely sensed data.

This research analyzes …

A Leadership Model And Supervisory Skills Perceived By Production Employees, Supervisors, And Managers As Important To The Improvement Of Employee Performance In Manufacturing, Douglas R. Hotek

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this research was to provide to industry and education a better understanding of what makes a supervisor a good supervisor of today's educated and technically skilled work force. Manufacturing firms that depend on advanced technologies and employee-technology relationships have made an impact on the role of supervision. The modern supervisor has a new role in managing production operations. The role has changed from that of directing and controlling employees to that of effectively leading the improvement of employee performance. This study builds upon previous research in an effort to further identify and authenticate a leadership model with …

The Effect Of Heat On Fingertip Sensitivity Of Meat Processing Workers, Brian James Finder

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Current research indicates that acute non-freezing cold exposure elicits short-term performance problems; namely reduced upper extremity temperature, blood flow, tactile sensitivity, and dexterity. However, various animal-related studies indicate that humans are at increased risk of incurring semi-permanent upper extremity nervous system dysfunction as a result of repeated cold exposure.

The purpose of this research was to examine various factors that may contribute to hand/arm nervous system impairment of individuals who work in a refrigerated meat-processing environment. The methodology used was primarily the Experimental Method and from studies conducted by other researchers, was driven by the following questions:

(1) How would …

A Comparison Of Web-Based And Conventional-Based Training Methods In A Leading Midwestern Company, Hani Aljadaani

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The primary purpose of this study was to compare trainees' perceptions of learning in a web-based delivery and conventional-based delivery in a leading Midwestern Electronics Company. This study examined trainees' perceptions of learning environment differences and related demographic and attitudinal perception variables. Due to the nature of human beings, interactivity is a key element in the learning process.

Two training programs were selected, one of which was Web-Based Training (WBT) and the other one was classroom based. The two have been chosen with the respect to the achievement of concepts and skills. The training programs were beginning Microsoft Word 97 …

The Factors That Affect The Implementation Of Enterprise Resource Planning (Erp) In The International Arab Gulf States And United States Companies With Special Emphasis On Sap Software, Saud Al-Sehali

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate and determine the factors affecting the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) in companies in the Arab Gulf States and the United States, using SAP software as an example.

A random sample was selected of 150 companies in the Arab Gulf States and in the United States that had implemented an ERP system using SAP software. Of the 150 respondents, 30 were companies from the Arab Gulf States and 120 from the United States. A total of 67 questionnaires were returned, a return rate of 44.7%.

The Statistical Package for the …

An Analysis Of Current Instructional Practices At Selected Universities Utilizing Interactive Television Technology, Richard Shengmao Chang

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The problem approached in this study was to compare the teaching methods, classroom management, attitudes, and demographics toward Interactive Television (ITV) classes, which were developed in the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) and National Kaohsiung Normal University (NKNU) ITV programs.

The data were collected from UNI and NKNU ITV teachers and remote site students. Two-way ANOVA and Chi-Square tests were used to identify the differences between the two programs. The significant results are noted.

Both schools' ITV teachers clearly identified the objectives of the courses, presented materials in an organized way; and, effectively employed visual teaching aids, summarizing techniques, overhead …

The Double Edged Sword Of Depersonalization: An Examination Of Depersonalization's Role In The Police Profession, Michael J. O'Connor

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The role of depersonalization is the central focus of this study. A major issue in examining the role of depersonalization is whether the present concept of burnout is an appropriate indicator of bumout for police officers. The commonly accepted conception of burnout is a process of emotional exhaustion that leads to depersonalization, followed by a reduction in work accomplishment. Depersonalization, by this conception, is a symptom of burnout. By definition,depersonalization is the psychological distancing of emotional and psychological trauma in stressful situations—a coping technique.

For police officers, depersonalization acts as a shield of emotional armor to maintain a sense of …

Book Review: The Birth Of Time: How Astronomers Measured The Age Of The Universe, T. D. Oswalt

Publications

This document is Dr. Oswalt’s review of The Birth of Time : How Astronomers Measured the Age of the Universe by John Gribbin. Yale, 2000 237p, 0-300-08346-7 $22.50.

The Printed Book: Still In Need Of Ccd, Anna H. Perrault

School of Information Faculty Publications

The present state of the printed book in the "national collection" or commons of resources owned by U.S. academic libraries is reviewed. The status of collecting of foreign language monographs is emphasized. The future of collecting printed materials is considered in the context of an international information commons and cooperation beyond the North American academic library community.

Think Global, Act Local: The Challenges Of Taking The Website Global, Anna Perrault, Vicki L. Gregory

School of Information Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Creating Local Bibliographic Databases: New Tools For Evidence-Based Health Care, Jeremiah H. Sable, Beth G. Carlin, James E. Andrews, Maryellen C. Sievert

School of Information Faculty Publications

The Internet has created new opportunities for librarians to present literature search results to clinicians. In order to take full advantage of these opportunities, libraries need to create locally maintained bibliographic databases. A simple method of creating a local bibliographic database and publishing it on the Web is described. The method uses off-the-shelf software and requires minimal programming. A hedge search strategy for outcome studies of clinical process interventions is created, and Ovid is used to search MEDLINE. The search results are saved and imported into EndNote libraries. The citations are modified, exported to a Microsoft Access database, and published …

The Freshman Connection: Implementing And Assessing A Plan To Increase Student Success, Pamela Downing-Hosten

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The purpose of this practicum was to develop, implement, and assess a plan for reducing the number of freshmen at the high school who failed the grade, with failure being defined as the inability to earn 4 credits within 1 year. From the 1993-1994 school year until the 1997-1998 school year, an average of 17.7% of the 9th-grade class had to repeat the grade. Through the year-long implementation of the plan called the Freshman Connection program, the researcher hoped that the failure rate of 21.9% in 1998 would be reduced to 10.0% in 1999.

The Freshman Connection program entailed (a) …

Teacher-Directed Professional Development: A Strategy For Instructional Improvement, John J. Salatto

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The purpose of this investigation was to analyze the effects of teacher-directed professional development on the achievement of students in Grades 3, 4, and 5 in the use capitalization and punctuation. There were 4 objectives: (a) 5 new instructional techniques or strategies will be added to classroom instruction; (b) at least 3 revisions will be made to the language arts curriculum in the areas of capitalization and punctuation; (c) students will demonstrate an increase in teacher-selected, curriculum-based pre- and posttest scores in capitalization and punctuation by a class average of at least 10 percentage points; and (d) students will demonstrate …

The Wiyn Open Cluster Study: A New Color-Magnitude Diagram For M35 - A Twin Of The Pleiades, Ted Von Hippel, Vera Kozhurina-Platais, Imants Platais, Pierre Demarque, Ata Sarajedini

Publications

M35 (NGC 2168) is rich, young, and in some regards a bet­ter laboratory for stellar cluster research at 100 million years than the Pleiades. Yet, while M35 has been the subject of intriguing photometric, astrometric, and theoretical studies, to the best of our knowledge no pub­lished CCD-based photometry exists for this cluster. We have obtained relatively wide-field (23' x23') precise UBVRJ CCD photometry for M35 as part of the WIYN Open Cluster Study (WOCS) at the 0.9m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The photometry extends from the main sequence turn off to beyond V = 19. We find that …

The Effects Of Symbol Organization Strategy On Syntactical Language Production In First Grade Children, Daniel Thomas Baier

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is the process in which a person's disordered speech is augmented or assisted with communication technology. This study investigated the effects of vocabulary organization using branching capabilities of a high technology device on sentence construction. Information about vocabulary organization strategies might be important for addressing the language and literacy deficits that were noted in previous research with AAC users. The study attempted to investigate whether or not vocabulary organization in a grammatical sequence across one page or multiple pages would improve non-AAC users abilities to retell a story using AAC technology. Six students participated in …

The Prolonged Effects Of Acute Stretching On Vertical Jump, Robert R. Hammill

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Stretching has been shown to reduce maximal power in human subjects after an acute stretching protocol. Twenty-two college-aged males performed acute static stretches for the lower extremities for approximately 14 minutes (experimental group) or sat quietly for 15 minutes (control group). Subjects received both treatments in a random order on separate evenings. Following the treatment protocol (stretch or no-stretch) the subjects performed a series of vertical jumps at 5-minute time intervals. Two trials were allowed at each data collection period. The results indicate that acute stretching has no significant effect on vertical jump, F(6,126) = 0.01, p >0.92, nor is …

Load Optimization On The Wingate Anaerobic Test With College-Aged Females, Corey Steven Crane

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of the study was to determine which resistance loads would elicit maximal values of peak power output (PP), mean power output (MP) and fatigue index (FI) of college-age females. A second purpose was to examine the predictability of certain anthropometric and performance variables on the optimal load used for the Wingate Anaerobic Test. Twenty-one female volunteers, aged 20-27 years, performed a 10-second maximal cranking test, an area of muscle mass assessment of the thigh as well as three 30-second Wingate Anaerobic Power Tests (WAT) using loads of 75, 90 and 105 g/kg. The variables PP (W and W …

The Place My Words Are Looking For And Other Stories, Karris Anne Golden

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The Place My Words Are Looking For and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction and excerpts from a novel. Each piece was written within the past two years, reflecting my work in the graduate program. The issues of identity and gender unify all the elements of this thesis. The first three pieces are short stories that explore a variety of themes. "Fish Story" is told from the perspective of a young woman recalling something that happened to her when she was six years old. Through her memory, the story explores what it means to be biracial, a mother-daughter …

Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs About Teaching And Learning, Helga M. Gudenschwager

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Research shows that knowing what preservice teachers believe about teaching and learning helps their instructors to reinforce those beliefs that are compatible with current approaches in education and challenge those that promote the perpetuation of antiquated and ineffective teaching practices. Four main research questions guided this study: 1. To what extent the beliefs expressed by participants aligned with traditional or constructivist perspectives? 2. Do elementary and secondary majors differ in terms of their preference for practices aligned with these perspectives? 3. Do elementary and secondary majors differ in terms of their beliefs about the goals of education and effective strategies …

Impairment In Dichotic Listening Following Anterior Communicating Artery Aneurysm, Paul Michael Evitts

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Dichotic listening involves the simultaneous presentation of stimuli binaurally and was initially a method for determining cerebral dominance or laterality of hemispheric function. Since its inception, dichotic listening has evolved into a method for assessing neurologic pathology. An interruption in the central auditory pathways will result in a detectable asymmetry of dichotic scores. Impaired dichotic listening has been well documented in numerous neurological etiologies, but dichotic listening in patients who present anterior communicating artery (ACoA) aneurysm has yet to be documented. Due to the location of the ACoA and the substrates of innervation, central auditory pathways responsible for the transmission …

Localism And Regionalism, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

Localism and regionalism are normally seen as contrasting, indeed conflicting, conceptions of metropolitan area governance. Localism in this context refers to the view that the existing system of a large number of relatively small governments wielding power over such critical matters as local land use regulation, local taxation, and the financing of local public services ought to be preserved. The meaning of regionalism is less clearly defined and proposals for regional governance vary widely, but most advocates of regionalism would shift some authority from local governments, restrict local autonomy, or, at the very least, constrain the ability of local governments …

The Effects Of Influence Tactics On Performance And Supervisory Evaluations Of Subordinates, Courtney L. Determan

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study examined the effects on performance and attitudes of three different types of influence tactics including exchange, personal appeal and inspirational appeal. The sample consisted of 78 undergraduate students from the University of Northern Iowa. The researcher conducting the study gave instructions for a paper-folding task to construct miniature paper tents. The instructions were given in a manner demonstrating one of the three influence tactics. After hearing the instructions, the participants' attitudes toward the researcher were evaluated using the Supervisory Behavior Description (as cited in Robinson, Athanasiou, & Head, 1974). The participants were then given materials to construct as …

Perceived Personal And Societal Control Of Events And Millennial Irrationalism, Angela Nicole Dennis

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship among millennial irrationalism and the degree to which people believe they have control over the events in their lives as reflected by performance on a locus of control scale. This belief is referred to in this study as internal or external locus of control. It was hypothesized that individuals who feel that they have considerable control over the things that happen to them would express less irrationalism than those who tend to ascribe the course of their lives more to external factors. It was also predicted that there would …

Comparison Of Health Practices Of International Students At The University Of Northern Iowa Before And After Coming To The United States, Joseph Kwesi Ogah

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The primary purpose of this study was to compare the health practices of international students at the University of Northern Iowa before and after coming to the United States (US). Also included in the study was a description of differences in the selected health behaviors by gender, age, marital status, residence type, place of origin, and length of stay in the US. A random sample of 81 international students from about 60 different countries (35% male, 65% female) responded to a 50-item health behavior survey in the Fall semester of 1999.

The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was …

The Suggestibility Of Children: Scientific Research And Legal Implications, Stephen J. Ceci, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

In this Article, Professors Ceci and Friedman analyze psychological studies on children's suggestibility and find a broad consensus that young children are suggestible to a significant degree. Studies confirm that interviewers commonly use suggestive interviewing techniques that exacerbate this suggestibility, creating a significant risk in some forensic contexts-notably but not exclusively those of suspected child abuse-that children will make false assertions of fact. Professors Ceci and Friedman address the implications of this difficulty for the legal system and respond to Professor Lyon's criticism of this view recently articulated in the Cornell Law Review. Using Bayesian probability theory, Professors Ceci and …

Building Pediatric Law Careers: The University Of Michigan Law School Experience, Melissa Breger, Suellyn Scarnecchia, Frank E. Vandervort, Naomi Woloshin

Articles

There are several obstacles to training and supporting pediatric lawyers. Children are a relatively new group of clients and law schools have not traditionally provided pediatric training. The required training is particularly challenging to deliver because it is inherently interdisciplinary, requiring faculty and students to look outside of the law school to obtain necessary knowledge. The greatest obstacle to developing the careers of pediatric lawyers is the low pay and low prestige typically afforded children's lawyers. As a result, law students reasonably question the likelihood of developing a successful career in the field. The number of available jobs is limited …

Contract Reading' In Labor Arbitration, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

A quarter century ago, I used the phrase "contract reader" to characterize the role an arbitrator plays in construing a collective bargaining agreement. This phrase has almost invariable been misunderstood to refer to reading or interpreting the contract. When I spoke of the "contract reader," it was in the context of judicial review of an award. My point was this: When a court has before it an arbitrator's award applying a collective bargaining agreement, it is as if the employer and the union had signed a stipulation stating: "What the arbitrator says this contract means is exactly what we meant …

If Taxpayers Can't Be Fooled, Maybe Congress Can: A Public Choice Perspective On The Tax Transition Debate, Kyle D. Logue

Reviews

In When Rules Change: An Economic and Political Analysis of Transition Relief and Retroactivity , Shaviro takes the various strands of the existing literature on retroactivity and weaves them together, applying his unique combination of legal expertise, political pragmatism, and theoretical sophistication in public finance economics as well as political science. The result is a subtle, balanced, and scholarly treatise on transition relief and retroactivity that should serve as the starting point for all future research in the field. In its stated objectives, the book is admirably ambitious.

This Review will, in a broad sense, follow Shaviro's characterization of the …

Review Of Alchemies Of The Mind: Rationality And The Emotions, William Miller

Reviews

Suppose that 16 years ago you had written not one but two superlative books. Would you suffer from anxiety of influence with regard to early versions of yourself, as if, to twist Harold Bloom, your early self now played an insurmountably glorious Milton to your later romantic phases? Did Shakespeare say to himself: ‘No way I can beat Hamlet, so why write again?’ Jon Elster wrote two gems in the 1970s and 1980s, Ulysses and the Sirens and Sour Grapes. Not that they have deterred him from publishing at a stupendous rate since, though he has never recaptured that earlier …

An Empirical Analysis Of The Critical Determinants Affecting Commitment And Performance Of The U. S. Firm In The South African Market: Apartheid Versus Post-Apartheid, Sonja Pollard Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as one of the world's Big Emerging Markets (BEMs), South Africa has received vast attention from potential foreign investors (IRRC 1994) and has been recognized by scholars as an excellent base for research (Hofmeyr, Templer and Beaty 1994). Unfortunately, little is known about the export behavior of the foreign firm in South Africa (Calof and Viviers 1995) given the country's history of political, social and economic instability.

This dissertation is an effort to increase the understanding of the factors that contribute to the commitment and overall market performance of U.S. firms in South …