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2004

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The Reconstitutive Power Of Wovoka's Prophetic Discourse: A Rhetorical History Of The 1890 Ghost Dance Prophet, Alexander David May Jan 2004

The Reconstitutive Power Of Wovoka's Prophetic Discourse: A Rhetorical History Of The 1890 Ghost Dance Prophet, Alexander David May

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The tremendous influence of Wovoka, or Jack Wilson as he was commonly known, was manifested through his message of peace and renewal. The Ghost Dance Prophet of 1890 outlined a new way of life for "his people" which included every native nation, not just the Paiute. Delegations that came to hear Wovoka speak and letters he sent to the faithful spread the tenets of the religion among the indigenous people. Wovoka's rhetorical history illustrates the interplay of first persona, substantive message, and second persona as a means of transforming an audience. In addition, the parallels between the Paiute Prophet's discourse …

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Revolutionary Idealists To Revolutionary Statesmen: Bolshevik Foreign Policy, 1914 To 1922, Benjamin Carlos Montoya Jan 2004

Revolutionary Idealists To Revolutionary Statesmen: Bolshevik Foreign Policy, 1914 To 1922, Benjamin Carlos Montoya

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

From 1917 to 1922, the Bolsheviks conducted a foreign policy that melded their background in Marxist ideology with the exigencies of state power. The Bolsheviks believed an international revolution would imitate their socialist revolution of October 1917. When it became clear this would not happen, V. I. Lenin and his comrades chose to preserve their revolution in Russia; The Bolsheviks believed peace would induce revolution throughout war-torn Europe. After the October Revolution the Bolsheviks immediately sought an end to the Great War. Only Germany accepted this proposal of peace, however, and the Bolsheviks were forced to accept a harsh peace …

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Characteristics Of The Mechanical Impedance Of The Hand-Arm System, Ahmed Moustafa Jan 2004

Characteristics Of The Mechanical Impedance Of The Hand-Arm System, Ahmed Moustafa

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The mechanical impedance of the human hand-arm system was measured within the frequency range of 5--1000 Hz. A handle specially designed for such measurements, was used. The studies were carried out on ten healthy male subjects during different experimental conditions defined by, three different vibration amplitudes (0.01, 0.005, and 0.001 m/s) different combinations of push (0--75 N) and grip (25--50 N) forces, and two different methods of handle mass subtraction (mathematical and electronic). The effect of test subjects' weight on the results was also studied. The outcome shows that the mechanical impedance of the hand-arm system depends on the frequency …

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The World Bank And Development: Measuring The Effectiveness Of Lending Programs In Sub-Saharan Africa, Tina F Mueller Jan 2004

The World Bank And Development: Measuring The Effectiveness Of Lending Programs In Sub-Saharan Africa, Tina F Mueller

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study tests the assumption that borrowing from the World Bank, specifically the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), promotes economic development. The focus of this study is the poorest region in the world today, Sub-Saharan Africa, for the 25 year time period of 1974--1999. Other hypothesized influences on wealth include human capital, debt, aid, foreign direct investment, savings, regime, and population. Two models include 36 countries in the data set and estimate the coefficients using generalized least squares regression. Two additional models use a data set that is complete for 27 countries …

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Spray Characterization Of Water Truck Nozzles And Proposed Nozzle Modifications To Improve Spray Uniformity, Shibi Paul Jan 2004

Spray Characterization Of Water Truck Nozzles And Proposed Nozzle Modifications To Improve Spray Uniformity, Shibi Paul

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Dust suppression by water application constitutes a major part of the total construction water use in Clark County, Nevada. This study investigates the efficiency and uniformity of water application from water trucks by characterizing their water spray patterns. Two field methods were developed to evaluate water application, the 'moving truck method or trench method' and the 'stationary truck method or gutter method'. The moving truck method adequately simulated a construction site but was time-consuming. The field portable stationary method provided rapid feed back about spray distribution. Various nozzles types, their different geometric configurations and simple design modifications of the existing …

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Current Video Compression Algorithms: Comparisons, Optimizations, And Improvements, Douglas Scott Price Jan 2004

Current Video Compression Algorithms: Comparisons, Optimizations, And Improvements, Douglas Scott Price

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Compression algorithms have evolved significantly in recent years. Audio, still image, and video can be compressed significantly by taking advantage of the natural redundancies that occur within them. Video compression in particular has made significant advances. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, two of the major video compression standards, allowed video to be compressed at very low bit rates compared to the original video. The compression ratio for video that is perceptually lossless (losses can't be visually perceived) can even be as high as 40 or 50 to 1 for certain videos. Videos with a small degradation in quality can be compressed at …

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An Examination Of Interactions Between Computer Support Staff And End Users, Kim Mia Price Jan 2004

An Examination Of Interactions Between Computer Support Staff And End Users, Kim Mia Price

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

For those employed as information technology support professionals, the message they are receiving is that communication skills are as important as any credential or certification they may possess in terms of staying competitive in the current job market. The goal of this study was to determine the importance of communication skills in interactions between information technology support staff and the end users they support in relation to factors such as stereotypes and expectations. The results of this study suggest that positive end user evaluations of these communication interactions do not rely solely upon the communication skills of the technician, but …

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Finite Element Analysis Of Failure Of High Voltage Current Joints, Kiran Kumar Pusthay Jan 2004

Finite Element Analysis Of Failure Of High Voltage Current Joints, Kiran Kumar Pusthay

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The Thesis provides the finite element analysis of high voltage current joints for atlas pulsed power machine. The role of preload on maintaining joint integrity for multi-bolt assemblies is discussed. The importance of using correct preload is illustrated, along with the types of failure that result due to improper preload. Various techniques used to model bolted connections for finite element analysis are explained in detail. The high voltage current joints are modeled using Solidworks. The pretension effects of multi-bolt assembly are simulated using Ansys Workbench software. This research successfully simulated the stage-I self-loosening behavior of the bolted joints. The stage-I …

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Assessing The Nutritional Quality Of Boy Scouts Of America Camp Menus, Gregory Scott Ramin Jan 2004

Assessing The Nutritional Quality Of Boy Scouts Of America Camp Menus, Gregory Scott Ramin

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This case study focused on one Boy Scout Council to determine whether the type of foodservice personnel employed affects the nutritional quality of the menus. The study compared a contract foodservice management team to the members of the Council hired foodservice and administrative management team. The data were collected through a combination of written surveys, follow-up personal and telephone interviews, and nutritional analysis of the menus that the Foodservice Directors provided; Findings and conclusion. The hypothesis for this paper stated that the nutritional content of Boy Scout Camp menus from a selected Boy Scouts of America Council will vary according …

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Attention And Memory Bias For Positive Emotional Words, Gregory P Strauss Jan 2004

Attention And Memory Bias For Positive Emotional Words, Gregory P Strauss

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The current study examined the relationship between attention and memory for emotional words. Theories of "basic emotion" divide emotions into positive and negative classifications, and propose that discrete categories exist within the larger positive negative dichotomy. Previous research on emotion has yet to investigate the areas of attention and memory by dividing positive/negative words into discrete emotional categories. Participants included 30 undergraduate students between the ages 18--40. Attention and Memory were examined using an Emotional Stroop task, The Emotional Verbal Learning Test, and the California Verbal Learning Test-II, respectively. Stimuli for emotional tasks are divided into five emotional word categories …

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Calibration And Application Of A B-Dot Sensor To Study The Initiation Of Vacuum Surface Flashover, Vijay Anand Subramanian Jan 2004

Calibration And Application Of A B-Dot Sensor To Study The Initiation Of Vacuum Surface Flashover, Vijay Anand Subramanian

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

'Calibration', as the name suggests is the act of checking or adjusting the accuracy of a measuring instrument by comparison with a standard. Two techniques, the "equal length test" and the "short circuit test," have been developed to determine the characteristic impedance and propagation coefficient of a single lossy transmission line and a lossy transmission line network in cascade based solely on the input reflection coefficient S-parameter, S11, VNA measurements over a wide bandwidth of frequencies. For the transmission line network case, the characteristic impedance and propagation coefficient for each line in the cascade, excluding the last line, are known. …

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A Model Of Presidential Power Adjustment During Wartime: "How Curious George Went To Washington And Has Been Detained Ever Since", Joseph Szewczyk Jan 2004

A Model Of Presidential Power Adjustment During Wartime: "How Curious George Went To Washington And Has Been Detained Ever Since", Joseph Szewczyk

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The President's power is in a state of constant flux. During times of war, the President is allowed an expanse of power normally not available during times of peace. After the war ends or becomes too unpopular, the President relinquishes the power gained. This effect, labeled in the thesis as "Expansion and Constriction", has occurred in the major war eras of the past and is predictable. It is the focus of this thesis to show the existence of the pattern and to use the pattern to discuss the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and …

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Handwritten Character Recognition Using A Gradient Based Feature Extraction, Ravi Kiran Reddy Veligati Jan 2004

Handwritten Character Recognition Using A Gradient Based Feature Extraction, Ravi Kiran Reddy Veligati

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Handwriting Recognition is the task of transforming a language that is represented in its spatial form of graphical marks into its symbolic representation. In Offline Handwriting Recognition, there are three steps: preprocessing of the image, segmentation of words into characters and recognition of the characters. In this thesis I implemented two methods for character recognition, which is the most important step in Offline Handwriting Recognition. The heart of character recognition is the features that are extracted from the character image. The accuracy of the classification of the character image depends on the quality of the features extracted from the image. …

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Power Quality Issues Related To Variable-Frequency Drives, Mahesh M Venkateswaran Jan 2004

Power Quality Issues Related To Variable-Frequency Drives, Mahesh M Venkateswaran

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) are widely used in industrial and commercial applications due to their ability to reduce energy demand. A VFD, however, is not only sensitive to poor power quality (e.g., voltage transients, sags, and swells), but is also considered as a source of harmonic pollution. Harmonic currents generated by VFDs are often blocked by passive shunt or series filters. The impact of line reactors on voltage disturbances originating from the utility side is not fully explored. Other issues like the use of output reactors with long motor leads and grounding of the power distribution system are also important …

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Zero Energy House For The Southern Nevada Area, Elena Nikolaevna Wilkinson Jan 2004

Zero Energy House For The Southern Nevada Area, Elena Nikolaevna Wilkinson

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Las Vegas, Nevada, is one of the country's most rapidly growing cities. With the high cooling loads required in this environment, the summer demand peaks for electricity are particularly severe. The main emphasis of this research was placed on the energy conservation methods for a planned zero energy residential home in the Southern Nevada area with the cost outcome being a secondary issue. The model selected for this study is reflective of the local construction practices, a single-family one story, 1610 ft2 residential house with north facing facade and an attached two-car garage. The computer simulation package Energy 10 version …

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The Faith Community Response To The Bush Administrations Faith-Based Initiatives, Thomas Clark Wilson Jan 2004

The Faith Community Response To The Bush Administrations Faith-Based Initiatives, Thomas Clark Wilson

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Since George W. Bush won the presidency in 2000 one of his top domestic priorities has been to elevate the role of religion in America. He is attempting to correct a perceived wrong that the federal government has hindered religious group's ability to compete on a level playing field with secular groups in acquiring funds for social service programs. Bush believes that faith-based groups hold the answer for healing society's ills. As a result his administration has set up The White House Office Of Faith-based and Community Initiatives to accomplish the goal of a more faith friendly public square; Theological, …

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Tropi Can Can: Race And Performance In '50s Las Vegas, Malcolm Womack Jan 2004

Tropi Can Can: Race And Performance In '50s Las Vegas, Malcolm Womack

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

In 1955 the Jim Crow resort town of Las Vegas opened its first interracial hotel/casino, the Moulin Rouge, and staged its first all-black production show, the Tropi Can Can revue. On the Cafe Rouge stage were the wild antics Stump & Stumpy, bringing a sad reminder of the past; the romantic music of the Platters, bringing a hopeful note for the future; and the very non-traditional showgirls, bringing a host of audience expectations about the immediate present; This paper attempts to deconstruct and analyze that show and the theatrical elements of the resort, the differing experiences of white and black …

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Instrumentation Of Ysz Oxygen Sensor Calibration In Lead-Bismuth Eutectic, Xiaolong Wu Jan 2004

Instrumentation Of Ysz Oxygen Sensor Calibration In Lead-Bismuth Eutectic, Xiaolong Wu

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Although liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) is a good candidate for the coolant in the subcritical transmutation blanket, it is also known to be very corrosive to stainless steel, the material of the carrying tubes and the containers. Such a corrosion problem can be prevented by producing and maintaining a protective oxide layer on the exposed surface of stainless steel. Proper formation of the oxide layer critically depends on the accurate measurement and control of the oxygen concentration (tens of ppb levels) in the liquid LBE. An Oxygen Sensor Calibration/Measurement Apparatus is designed and built to deliberately calibrate the Yttria Stabilized …

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A Study Of Pre And Post Cold War Presidential International Crisis Rhetoric, Flora Anne Jackson Jan 2004

A Study Of Pre And Post Cold War Presidential International Crisis Rhetoric, Flora Anne Jackson

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study examines three speeches delivered by U.S. presidents during times of international crises, Woodrow Wilson's speech on April 2, 1917, George H. W. Bush's speech delivered on January 16, 1991, and the speech by George W. Bush delivered on September 20, 2001. Elements of epideictic, deliberative and forensic strategies were applied to the discourse to determine whether the speeches conformed to expectations for presidential international crisis rhetoric. This thesis extends a study completed in 1989 in which Bonnie J. Dow argued that only epideictic and deliberative strategies appear in international crisis rhetoric. In contrast, this study found that, in …

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Community Notification Laws And Sex Offender Recidivism: A Study Of State Laws In Pre And Post Time Periods, Rachel Katherine Abrams Jan 2004

Community Notification Laws And Sex Offender Recidivism: A Study Of State Laws In Pre And Post Time Periods, Rachel Katherine Abrams

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

In response to public concern, all states currently have some form of a sex offender community notification law. The enactment of these sex offender laws has sparked many debates regarding their implications and overall effectiveness. Sex offender community notification laws differ in their restrictiveness between states, which, in turn, may affect the overall effectiveness of these laws. The current study examines secondary data on released sex offenders before and after implementation of community notification laws. Three different states with available pre and post notification data on their released offenders in 1994 were used for analysis; Upon examination of these state …

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Lower Limb Bone Shape And Structure Among Populations Of Differing Lifestyles: Effects Of Biomechanical Stress And Inferences Of Activity, Michele Marcela Bleuze Jan 2004

Lower Limb Bone Shape And Structure Among Populations Of Differing Lifestyles: Effects Of Biomechanical Stress And Inferences Of Activity, Michele Marcela Bleuze

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

It is known that activity-related stresses and mechanical loadings affect adult bone morphology. The purpose of this study is to examine how well presumed subsistence-related activities correlate with bone morphology; In addition, this study will investigate the degree to which sex differences can be explained by differences in mechanical loaDing If such differences in expression are apparent between males and females within a population, then it can be speculated that the sexes were participating in different activities---or at least in activities that yielded different mechanical loadings; Although there have been several biomechanical studies that have looked at the relationship between …

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Determining Capable Guardians In Rape Incidents, Alicia A Boots Jan 2004

Determining Capable Guardians In Rape Incidents, Alicia A Boots

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Crime prevention is crucial to safeguard individual freedom and maintain social order. This is especially true in rape incidents as consequences may have long-lasting physical and mental effects on individual victims and great social costs. This study employs the routine activities theory to examine whether and how capable guardians (e.g., the presence of bystanders, the use of physical resistance, forceful verbal resistance or non-forceful verbal resistance) are likely to affect rape outcomes; A sample of 638 females who were the victim of a single offender male perpetrated rape incident was drawn from the National Crime Victimization Survey, ranging from 1992 …

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A Case Study Of Culture And Change In A Small Architecture Firm, Valerie L Bugni Jan 2004

A Case Study Of Culture And Change In A Small Architecture Firm, Valerie L Bugni

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Founded in 1982, Elphant1 is a 25-person architecture and interior design firm located in one of America's most "postmodern" cities (Venturi, Brown and Izenour 1977; Fontana and Preston 1990; Gottschalk 1995; Dickens 1999). In order to design better buildings that respond to as well as support people, organizations, and society, Elphant is engaged in an organizational change effort to incorporate sociological theories and methods into their design processes and operational activities; According to organization culture theorist Joanne Martin (2002), few researchers have integrated what is known about organizational change with cultural change. Applying Martin's (2002) three-perspective approach and Schein's (1992) …

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Gender Parity In Political Coverage: A Content Analysis Of Major Kenyan Newspapers, Kulamo C Bullo Jan 2004

Gender Parity In Political Coverage: A Content Analysis Of Major Kenyan Newspapers, Kulamo C Bullo

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Media coverage of parliamentary races should be fair and issue-oriented. This study examined the newspaper coverage of the 2002 Kenyan parliamentary elections for the seats in which there were both male and female contestants. The study examined three national newspapers from the day parliament went on recess, signaling beginning of campaigns, to eve of elections. Four hypotheses postulating differences in quantity and quality of coverage for both male and female candidates were tested and support found for all the hypotheses. The findings indicate differences in the media coverage of male and female politicians during election campaigns. Female candidates are likely …

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Effects Of Gender And Seating Arrangement On Perceptions Of Leadership, Danielle Jackson Cervantes Jan 2004

Effects Of Gender And Seating Arrangement On Perceptions Of Leadership, Danielle Jackson Cervantes

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The current study examines the effects that gender and seating arrangement on perceptions of leadership. In order to determine current attitudes regarding women as leaders, this study examines factors that may influence people's perceptions about leadership and gender. Three different hypotheses were tested. The findings are as follows: Seating arrangement is still seen as an important factor when determining leadership, specifically the head of the table positions. Secondly, in this study, men were seen as being the leader of a group significantly more often than women. Lastly, sex of the subject did seem to influence the subjects' choice of leader, …

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The Myth Of Arrival, Zachary Jean Chartkoff Jan 2004

The Myth Of Arrival, Zachary Jean Chartkoff

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A collection of poems composed between the summer of 1999 and 2003. They are in the tradition of "negative ecstasy," a philosophy that the poet is nothing more than a void: in order to create, the poet requires a willing release of the ego and self, which in turn allows the poet's void to be filled with the verse. It is similar to what the Buddhists call "no mind," a method used so that works, ideas and even lives that once appeared as imperfect or failures were, by their very nature, simply unfinished acts; The process was comparable to what …

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The Impact Of Dynamic Changes In Talker Amplitude On Recognition Memory For Words, Kimberly M Cramer Jan 2004

The Impact Of Dynamic Changes In Talker Amplitude On Recognition Memory For Words, Kimberly M Cramer

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study investigated whether dynamic changes in the amplitude of speech were represented along with word information. An emotional manipulation was used to examine if listeners were sensitive to dynamic changes in amplitude. In Experiment 1, six talkers produced 200 phonetically balanced (PB) words with different intended emotions (e.g., joy versus sadness). Intensity measurements across time were recorded for each target word. Statistically distinct amplitude contours were obtained as a function of intended emotion. In Experiment 2, listeners judged whether each word in a list of spoken words was "new" (i.e., word was new to the list) or "old" (i.e., …

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The Effects Of An Elevated Pre-Test Heart Rate On A Cardiovascular Test, Jeffrey Allen Dolgan Jan 2004

The Effects Of An Elevated Pre-Test Heart Rate On A Cardiovascular Test, Jeffrey Allen Dolgan

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of an elevated Pre-Test Heart Rate (PTHR) on the results of the Physical Working Capacity Maximum (PWC max) test and Steady State Heart Rates (SSHR) during the two workloads that are used to predict PWC max. Fifteen subjects (ages 18-33 yrs, height 169.38 +/- 9.77 cm, body mass 68.43 +/- 12.53 kg, percent body fat 22.27 +/- 7.40 %) participated in the study. PTHR was elevated using three methods prior to the administration of the PWC max test and the results compared to a criterion PWC max test that was completed after the subject was …

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Survival Of Enterococcal And Streptococcal Species In Natural Waters, Kameron L Entrekin Jan 2004

Survival Of Enterococcal And Streptococcal Species In Natural Waters, Kameron L Entrekin

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Survival capabilities of indicators of fecal pollution, such as enterococci, in the natural aquatic environment are of particular importance in proper management of a watershed. The Las Vegas Wash (LVW) is a naturally occurring and engineered tributary to Lake Mead; The ability of the Las Vegas Wash to sustain microbial viability over time was assessed utilizing ATCC cultures and environmentally isolated species. Wash water samples were autoclaved and seeded with known concentrations of enterococci. Microcosms were incubated at 25°C, and decline was measured by heterotrophic plate counts at specific time intervals. Results of survival studies using ATCC derived species showed …

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Evaluation Of The Perceptual Magnet Effect And Categorical Perception For Musical Timbre, Melissa Kay Griffith Jan 2004

Evaluation Of The Perceptual Magnet Effect And Categorical Perception For Musical Timbre, Melissa Kay Griffith

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Recent auditory research has raised fundamental questions about the perceptual magnet effect (PME), where discrimination performance is poorer for stimuli that approach best exemplars of a phonetic category. It has been suggested that the effect reflects inter-categorical comparisons, and might not generalize to nonspeech. Three experiments addressed these concerns. In Experiment 1 prototype and non-prototype stimuli were determined from goodness ratings of synthesized (violin) timbres varying in center frequencies of F1 and F2 formants. Experiment 2 evaluated for a PME using discrimination data, and influences from other categories by comparing goodness ratings from stimuli in prototype, non-prototype, and no context …

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