Digital Commons Network^™

Power System Deregulation, Mariesa Crow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Given the difficulties encountered by the state of California in deregulating their electric power industry, many people are questioning the wisdom of such a move. To better understand the motivation behind deregulation, the author looks at the cost of energy nationwide in the United States. For example, she considers some of the regional energy costs from August 2001.

Pulmonary Arterial Morphometry From Microfocal X-Ray Computed Tomography, Kelly L. Karau, Robert C. Molthen, Anita H. Dhyani, Steven Thomas Haworth, Christopher C. Hanger, David L. Roerig, Roger H. Johnson, Christopher A. Dawson

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The objective of this study was to develop an X-ray computed tomographic method for pulmonary arterial morphometry. The lungs were removed from a rat, and the pulmonary arterial tree was filled with perfluorooctyl bromide to enhance X-ray absorbance. At each of four pulmonary arterial pressures (30, 21, 12, and 5.4 mmHg), the lungs were rotated within the cone of the X-ray beam that was projected from a microfocal X-ray source onto an image intensifier, and 360 images were obtained at 1° increments. The three-dimensional image volumes were reconstructed with isotropic resolution with the use of a cone beam reconstruction algorithm. …

The Speech And Language Characteristics Of One Child With Brachmann-De Lange Syndrome, Kelli Mickelson

Theses and Dissertations

Brachmann-de Lange syndrome is a dysmorphogenic disorder that has been characterized by multiple congenital abnormalities. Individuals with this syndrome commonly have mild to severe cognitive involvement. Commonly, speech and language presents a challenge to this population.

One individual diagnosed with Brachmann-de Lange syndrome has been administered a battery of speech, language, and hearing assessments to determine his communicative understanding, intent, and ability. The parents of this individual volunteered and willingly agreed to participate in the study.

Results of this study help to provide some common speech and language characteristics of one child with Brachmann de Lange syndrome. Expressive and receptive …

Planting Seeds Family Enrichment Program: Serving Rural Immigrant Hispanic Families And Their Youth In Eastern North Carolina, Ruben P. Viramontez Anguiano

Journal of Extension

The United States Census has estimated a 394% increase of Hispanics in North Carolina. The development of family enrichment programs for rural Hispanics has become a challenge for helping professionals such as Extension professionals. The Planting Seeds Family Enrichment Program focused on immigrant Hispanic families and their youth. Multiple qualitative methods were used to evaluate the program. Hispanic families and their youth actively participated in developing stronger families, leadership, community skills, and wellness. Recommendations for Extension professionals are provided.

Cpa Client Bulletin, December 2001, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Solid Waste Management In Oil And Gas Pipelines Application To Asab Field, Abdulqader M Alkamali

Theses

Managing solid waste, and any other wastes in general, is an environmental need, an economical choice and a legal requirement. Preserving the environment while lowering the cost becomes a necessity when liabilities are of concern.

Solid wastes generated from oil and gas industrial activities are very diverse in their characteristics, large in their amounts and many of which are hazardous in nature. Thus, the need to manage these wastes is an obvious mandate. Oil and gas industrial activities include exploration, drilling, production, processing, refining, manufacturing and exporting. Associated with these activities, other supporting services; such as, maintenance, civil, transportation, storage, …

Exotic And Invasive Woody Plant Species In Iowa, Donald R. Farrar

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Seventy species and hybrids of exotic woody trees, shrubs, and vines have naturalized in Iowa. Nearly half of these species (31) have become invasive pests in parts of the state or have potential do so. Most of the seriously invasive species are spread by bird ingestion of whole fruits. Widespread dispersal by birds hinders eradication efforts and should be considered a trait indicative of potential invasiveness. The economic and ecological values of Iowa forests are seriously compromised by exotic invasive woody species, especially where forests recovering from cropland and pasture are dominated by exotic species. Thus, a simple measure of …

Iowa's Non-Native Graminoids, Thomas R. Rosburg

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Iowa's non-native graminoids include 60 species of grasses and one species of bulrush. The exotic grass species comprise a large proportion (about 31%) of the total species richness of grasses in Iowa, which are second only to the Asteraceae in terms of total species. About half of the non-native graminoids (52%) occur sporadically and form sparse, non-invasive populations, while eighteen species (about 30%) are commonly encountered in large populations throughout the state. About 60% are annuals and a large majority (89%) has been introduced from either Europe or Asia. The C3 photosynthetic pathway is prevalent, occurring in approximately two-thirds of …

Invasive Birds In Iowa: Status, Problems, And Threats, James J. Dinsmore

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

A total of 18 invasive bird species has been introduced into or have expanded their range to include Iowa. These include ten non-North American species, one North American species that has been displaced and now is established in Iowa, and seven native species that have been released to reestablish Iowa populations. Twelve of those are regularly occurring species in Iowa, and they comprise 3.0% (12 of 404) of the species known from Iowa and 5% (10 of 199) of Iowa's nesting avifauna. These percentages are similar to those found in neighboring states. Several more species are likely to become established …

Characteristics Of Erp Software Maintenance: A Multiple Case Study, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Silvana Faja, Teuta Cata

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A multiple case study approach was employed to identify maintenance activities pertaining to enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation, classify them into maintenance categories, and assess their relative frequency at various stages of the ERP maintenance lifecycle. Five maintenance categories (corrective, adaptive, perfective, preventive, user support) were identified from a review of the literature on software maintenance. A new category pertaining to ‘communication, coordination and knowledge exchange with external parties’ and herein labeled ‘external parties’ is introduced to highlight the supporting role of external parties in ERP maintenance. This category includes reporting problems to vendors and consultants, tracking their progress towards …

From Product Dispensing To Patient Care: The Role Of The Pharmacist In Providing Pharmaceutical Care As Part Of An Integrated Disease Management Approach, Laura T. Pizzi, Jean M. Menz, Geneen R. Graber, Dong-Churl Suh

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

During the past decade, the profession of pharmacy has changed dramatically. The Doctor of Pharmacy degree has replaced the Bachelor of Science degree as the first professional degree offered at most accredited U.S. pharmacy schools. Advanced clinical training is now a mainstay of pharmacy training, and this has enabled pharmacists to contribute to disease management efforts. In addition, technological improvements in prescription processing have afforded pharmacists more time to participate in disease management activities. This paper describes how the role of the pharmacist has changed and reviews the results of programs involving pharmacists as disease management providers in the areas …

Europe In America: Grammatology, Legal Studies, And The Politics Of Transmission, Peter Goodrich

Articles

This Essay begins by analyzing the way American legal theory has failed to adequately address the challenges and insights of grammatology, the philological critique of the language of law initiated with Jacques Derrida's work Of Grammatology. Professor Goodrich traces the form that this failed confrontation took and then outlines how this philological critique ought to inform a study of law. Importantly for Professor Goodrich, the grammatological approach to law provides ways of analyzing not just the written legal text, but also the effects of new media technologies on the law more broadly. The changes in the law brought about by …

Habitat Utilization And Movement Patterns Of Subadult Largemouth Bass (Micropterus Salmoides) In The Ohio River, Elizabeth Marie Hoffman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Ohio River electrofishing surveys identified embayments as preferred macrohabitat of subadult largemouth bass. Catch rates within macrohabitats were low ranging from 0.00--2.73 subadult bass/hour. Embayment electrofishing CPUE was higher than tributary or main channel except in spring, when tributary CPUE was highest.;Core use areas were calculated from biotelemetry data and ranged from 88--59,400 m2, representing 0.02--89.00% of available study location macrohabitat. Subadult bass movement was limited to nursery embayments or tributaries with infrequent movement to nearby main channel areas. Bass preferred a mixed microhabitat consisting of a combination of vegetation and woody debris. This mixed microhabitat was less common in …

Raptor Abundance And Diversity And Red-Shouldered Hawk ( Buteo Lineatus) Habitat Characteristics On Reclaimed Mountaintop Mines In Southern West Virginia, Melissa J. Balcerzak

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Raptor abundance and diversity were compared between 4 treatments (grassland, shrub/pole, fragmented forest, and intact forest) over 3 seasons (migration, summer, and winter) on 3 mountaintop/valley fill mines in southern West Virginia. Habitat characteristics of Red-shouldered Hawks (Buteo lineatus) were examined at landscape and microhabitat scales. Forty-eight points were surveyed monthly (Feb. 2000--Jan. 2001) using broadcast calls. I quantified microhabitat characteristics within an 11.3 m radius plot and landscape characteristics within 1000 and 564 m buffer zones at each point. Abundance was highest in grasslands; richness did not differ among treatments. Overall, I detected a shift from a forest to …

Psychometric Properties Of The Social Interactions Questionnaire (Siq) In An Older Adult Sample, Kimberly Debra Kalish

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Social Interactions Questionnaire (SIQ; Kalish & Edelstein, 1996), a quick and efficient tool to measure negative social interactions. Overwhelming evidence has emerged over the past decade indicating that negative social interactions (NSIs) are strongly related to measures of mental and physical health. A critique of existing measures of NSIs reveals long and cumbersome interviews that are comprised of some, but not all, of the critical elements of NSIs. The SIQ efficiently measures these critical elements, which include (a) perceived versus structural components of NSIs, (b) seven different types of NSIs, (c) overall …

Stand Dynamics And Disturbance History Of Five Oak -Dominated Old -Growth Stands In The Unglaciated Appalachian Plateau, James Spencer Rentch

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Stand dynamics and disturbance histories of five eastern, oak-dominated old-growth stands were investigated using ecological field sampling techniques, dendrochronologogical methods, and a review of historical resources of original forest composition and patterns of human and natural disturbance. Witness tree tallies from 18th century land surveys show that presettlement forests in the study areas were oak-dominated forests. Quercus alba was, at minimum, twice as abundant as Q. velutina, the second ranked species. Acer saccharum and Fagus grandifolia were among the top ten ranked species at each site; however their importance value was consistently less than one-third the value for Q. alba. …

Women And Physical Culture In Modern Poland, Nameeta Mathur

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation examines the interaction between the various forces of Polish "nationalism" and "feminism" in the construction of women's physical culture in modern Poland from the late nineteenth century until the end of the twentieth century. The basic premise of this work is that unlike most western countries where sportswomen have typically been marginalized in their athletic endeavors, Polish female athletes have earned far greater respect and recognition in the development of their physical culture. On many occasions, women's athleticism in Poland was a source of immense pride and prestige for both the state and society, albeit for varied reasons …

Rates Of Adoption In A University Course Management System, David Russell Feeney

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research focuses on diffusion of an education innovation in a large, traditional University. In March 1999, the Blackboard digital course management system was installed for enterprise-wide availability at Temple University, the 39th largest university in the United States. The web-enabled database of Temple Blackboard logs the adoption date, course ID, and course title for every Blackboard course, unobtrusively, twenty-four hours a day. Temple Blackboard serves as 4 digital approximation of the cumulative recorder pioneered by B. F. Skinner, recording more than 2800 course adoptions across 30 months, in real time. Temple Blackboard course records provide unprecedented quantity and quality …

Study Of The Rheological Properties Of Nomex Fibrids, Long Han

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Paints and caulks typically contain (spherical) fumed silica particulates as viscosity enhancers. A similar viscosity enhancement can be achieved by using aramid fibrids. Aramid fibrids are believed to form microstructures in suspensions because of the "space-filling" nature of their shapes and thus provide a convenient means of introducing desired rheological behavior for various commercial applications.;The flow responses of aramid fibrids dispersed in mixtures of corn syrup and water were determined in dynamic shear, steady shear, low shear capillary, and extensional stretching flows. Yield stress, strong shear thinning, thixotropy, and strong dispersion effects were observed, and these are consistent with observed …

Development Of Environmental Health And Safety Database For Small Communities, Ragava S. Nadig

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The National Environmental Services Center (NESC) is a group of programs, national in scope, that provide a variety of environmental services directly to small community officials, engineers, technicians, regulatory officials, and private citizens.;The primary mission of each of the NESC programs is to protect public health and the environment of America's small and rural communities-those communities of less than 10,000 people. The NESC programs provide information, technical assistance, and training to help small communities deal with their wastewater, drinking water, and solid waste treatment issues.;Thousands of informational materials pass through the organization each year. This material ranges from manufacturing product …

Hagan Benefits, Inc. Intranet, Dana M. Hagen

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

In this report I will provide some background information about Hagan Benefits, Inc.

(HBI), how the Intranet application works and detail the processes, problems and solutions encountered throughout this project.

There were some specific goals I had in mind when selecting this project. I wanted to select a project that would benefit HBI and would utilize the skills learned in the MSIS program. I also needed to find a project that could be completed in a semester's time and that would be challenging enough to hold my interest. I believe I was successful in finding a good project to balance …

Delivering A Shopping Website Using Apache Web Server On Unix, Norman Dean Harrod

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

This project explores three areas related to deploying a small-scale website that can be implemented on a home-built UNIX server. The first component is the installation and configuration of a UNIX Solaris 8 operating system on a Sun Microsystems SPARCstation 5. The second area is the installation and configuration of Apache Web Server on UNIX with the PHP scripting language module. The third piece is the construction of a shopping website to demonstrate PHP programming and usability. The result is, "Delivering a Shopping Website Using Apache Web Server on UNIX."

Exploring Object-Oriented Gis For Watershed Resource Management, Nalishebo Nally Kaunda

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The adoption of object-oriented programming for spatial technological advancement is an emerging trend in GIS. This research seeks to explore Object-Oriented GIS (OOGIS) and its potential application in watershed resource management. OOGIS provides a more intuitive and realistic abstraction of real world features as intelligent objects. The ability to embed behavior, geometry, and attribution with the objects provides considerable advantages in the processing and analysis of geospatial data. The main objective of this research was to design a prototype OOGIS for watershed resource management using the object relational Arclnfo 8.1 Geodatabase. The study builds on the OOGIS concepts of inheritance, …

Reducing Aberrant Behavior Utilizing Functional Communication Training In Whole-Group, Small-Group And One-To-One Settings, Twila Dawn Sprowl Figueroa

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Functional communication training (FCT) with extinction, as well as multiple manding choices were utilized to reduce aberrant behavior with three individuals with mild to moderate mental retardation or learning disability. The setting was a self-contained special education classroom for students ages six to 11 years old in an elementary school in South Texas. FCT with extinction was utilized within whole group, small group and one-to-one instruction. The findings indicated that FCT did reduce aberrant behavior and did increase communication for all three subjects. FCT is a differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior (DRA) method which has viable uses within the …

The Relationship Between Acculturation Level And Patient Satisfaction Among Adult Mexican American Emergency Department Patients, Sharon M. Schaaf

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The relationship between acculturation level and patient satisfaction among adult Mexican American emergency department patients was explored. Acculturation level was determined by the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II (ARSMA-II). Patient satisfaction was measured with the Patient Satisfaction Inventory (PSI). The study was conducted in an emergency department in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, where 23 participants provided the data. The questionnaires were offered in English and Spanish. The independent variable of acculturation level did not demonstrate a significant relationship with the dependent variable of patient satisfaction. A statistically significant difference was identified among the subscales of …

The Effects Of Inclusion On Learning-Disabled Students' Self-Esteem, Ruth Ann Cardoza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study was to determine whether Learning Disabled students who receive all their instruction in regular education would receive significantly higher self-esteem scores than students who receive services from special education resource. The instruments employed were the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory and the Pier-Harris Self-Concept Scale in order to determine any significant differences in self-esteem between the two groups. The sample consisted of 30 bilingual Mexican-American children ages 8–12. The subjects were from public schools in the southern region of Texas on the Mexico-Texas border. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, T-test, and two-way factorial analysis of variance with repeated measures. …

The Battle To Be Mayor: A Case Study Of Interethnic Conflict In The Lower Rio Grande Valley, Adrian Cruz

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Mexican Americans and Anglos have lived in Texas for generations now. Historical data has shown that Anglos have dominated the political and economic structures in the state. A case study was conducted of the 1998 mayoral election that took place in a city located in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The study investigated if there was evidence of Anglos supporting one candidate and Mexican Americans supporting the other.

The Effects Of Multi-Sensory Teaching Practices On The Reading Fluency And Comprehension Of Bilingual 2Nd Grade Students, Gloria Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Language, the heart of the educational process, is the vehicle through which students are primarily being educated and prepared throughout their schooling (Lam, 1996). Language acquisition is described as having four processes: socio-cultural, linguistic, and academic and cognitive. Teaching, learning, and curriculum content must; therefore, be culturally meaningful, interactive, and collaborative. Since a student's learning style is a major contributing factor in teaching and not all students learn in the same manner, educators must know and understand the bilingual and bicultural child's identities and emphasize interdisciplinary, cooperative, and multi-sensory lessons in their classrooms (Chamot,1994). Educators must incorporate the wealth of …

Determinants Of Electronic Data Interchange Adoption In International Buyer -Supplier Communications, Jose V. Gavidia

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In spite of the increased interest in supply chain management in recent years, few studies have examined the adoption of the technologies that facilitate information flows along the supply chain. Information flows have been shown to have a positive effect on economic efficiency and supply chain partner satisfaction. The adoption and use of information technologies to communicate with suppliers can also stimulate small business growth and foster regional economic development.

This dissertation develops and empirically tests a model of the determinants of the adoption of interorganizational information systems, specifically electronic data interchange (EDI), between buyers and suppliers in international supply …

Social, Religious, And Personal Contributors To Prejudice, Robert Lundblad

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Prejudicial beliefs and behaviors have been viewed from numerous perspectives. Four factors, religious attitudes, pride of in-group membership, traditional beliefs, and certain personality types, have individually been shown to be associated with prejudice. Some researchers have looked at a few of these factors together, but none have looked at all four together to examine potential relationships and their individual contribution to prejudicial thinking. This research is designed to investigate attitudes toward out-groups, sources of prejudice, and religious outlook. Four measures of religious attitudes, the Quest scale of the Religious Life Inventory (RLI), the Intrinsic and Extrinsic scales from the Religious …