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A Study of the Anti-Catholic Bias Contained Within Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy: This work examines the anti-Catholic bias of Jacob Burckhardt as he employed it in the Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. A biographical chapter examines his early education in the Lutheran seminary and the influence of his educators at the University of Berlin. The Civilization is examined in three critical areas: Burckhardt's treatment of the popes in his chapter "The State as a Work of Art," the reform tendencies of the Italian humanists which Burckhardt virtually ignored, and the rise of confraternities in Italy. In each instance, Burckhardt demonstrated a clear bias against the Catholic Church. Further study could reveal if this initial bias was perpetuated through later "Burckhardtian" historians.
Financial Reporting in Poland: Privatization of Select Firms Traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange: Poland's transition from a centrally-planned economy (CPE) to a market economy began in 1989. Building a market economy out of the failures of a CPE represents an unprecedented process in the history of economic development. At the core of the transition is the privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Many problems encountered during privatization are accounting related, and before privatization can occur valuation issues must be resolved. What has been the role of accounting in Poland's transition? Accounting is an interactive process that reflects and creates reality. The accounting process facilitates the calculation of the value created by a firm by attempting to trace the flow of resources through the value-creating process, and it identifies, measures, records, summarizes, and reports transactions. How these transactions are internalized determines how they flow through the accounting process, and, because the former SOEs are complex organizations in transition, decisions concerning when and how to record events can be diverse. The primary objective of this study is to provide insight into the accounting transition in Poland by addressing issues of ownership rights, valuation, financial reporting, and disclosure. The research question is: How is accounting transforming and being transformed in Poland? The research question is addressed in the context of the political and economic environment of three SOEs privatized and traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. To identify the role accounting played, I examined the financial reports of three of the first Polish SOEs privatized, employing case study methodology. The analysis indicates that accounting facilitated the transition by creating capital with the overstatement of assets. The overvalued assets will have to be absorbed in future periods, and subsequent research should address this problem.
Examination of the Effects of Experience and Missing Information on Tax Preparer Judgment: This research examines how experience and missing information affect judgments of tax return preparers. Tax return preparers may often be faced with the problem of incomplete information, and their responses to this problem may be conditioned by whether or not they recognize information is missing. Based on the Holland et al.'s cognitive theory of induction as applied to tax judgment by Marchant et al., it was hypothesized that experienced tax preparers would correctly classify more items as to their relevance to a specific tax issue than novice tax preparers. Additionally, it was hypothesized that the strength of recommendations of tax preparers who had no relevant information missing would be greater than the strength of recommendations of tax preparers who had relevant information missing and were prompted that information was missing. Lastly, it was hypothesized that prompting that relevant information was missing would have a greater effect on the strength of recommendations of tax return preparers with lesser specific experience than it would on the strength of recommendations of tax return preparers with greater specific experience. The results suggest that experienced tax preparers do recognize the relevance of information to a greater degree than novice tax preparers. There was no significant difference, however, in the strengths of recommendation of tax preparers who had no missing information and those who were prompted that information was missing. There was a significant difference in the strengths of recommendations of tax preparers with lesser specific experience who had been prompted that relevant information was missing and those who had not been prompted that relevant information was missing. Among tax preparers with greater specific experience, however, there was no significant difference between the two groups. These results suggest that tax preparers with greater specific experience recognized that relevant information was missing without being prompted, while tax …
The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) Test Scores as Predictors of Academic Success of First-Year Clarendon College Students: The problem in this study was to determine the relationship between the scores on the three parts (reading, writing, and mathematics) of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills Test (TAAS) and the academic success of first-year students at Clarendon College, Clarendon, Texas. High school grade-point average and gender were also included in the study. The purpose of the study was to develop an equation to predict first-year college grade-point average at Clarendon College . The predictor variables were the three parts of the TAAS Test (reading, writing, and mathematics) , high school grade-point average, and gender. The equation was developed through multiple correlation/multiple regression multivariate procedures. All statistical analyses were calculated through sub-programs of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The study was limited to using only 1992/1993 Texas high school graduates who had entered Clarendon College in the fall semesters of 1992 and 1993 directly following high school graduation. A search of Clarendon College records produced 115 students from these groups who fully met all standards defined for the study. Two predictor equations were developed. One developed through a simple regression command included all five predictor variables. The second equation was produced through a stepwise procedure. This equation included only high school grade-point average and the mathematics score from the TAAS Test. The variables TAAS reading, TAAS writing, and gender were not found to be significant when used in conjunction with the other predictor variables. The strength of each predictor variable was evaluated using students from the freshman class of 1994-95 at Clarendon College. Each of these students met the same basic standards used to establish the prediction equations. The two prediction equations were found to be equal in predictive strength. There was less than one percent difference in the variance accounted for between the two equations. …
The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory: a Predictive Validity Study with Criminal Offenders Mandated to Rehabilitative Treatment: The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory was constructed to screen for substance abuse patterns despite non-admittance of respondents. Predictive validity studies of the SASSI are limited, and are not available for probationers. Participants were 147 male and 54 female probationers mandated to treatment. Overall differences among SASSI scales were significant for treatment compliance and outcome. Higher SASSI scales were found among those probationers who were compliant/successful. Individual scales were not significantly different, however, a trend was revealed; those respondents who scored higher tended to comply/succeed in treatment. The SASSI alone accurately classified 59.7% of respondents. In summary, the SASSI's use in predicting treatment outcome is limited and should be employed with concomitant data.
Rebellion and Reconciliation: Social Psychology, Genre, and the Teen Film 1980-1989: In this dissertation, I bring together film theory, literary criticism, anthropology and psychology to develop a paradigm for the study of teen films that can also be effectively applied to other areas of pop culture studies as well as literary genres. Expanding on Thomas Doherty's discussion of 1950s teen films and Ian Jarvie's study of films as social criticism, I argue that teen films are a discrete genre that appeals to adolescents to the exclusion of other groups. Teen films subvert social mores of the adult world and validate adolescent subculture by reflecting that subculture's values and viewpoints. The locus of this subversion is the means by which teenagers, through the teen films, vicariously experience anxiety-provoking adult subjects such as sexual experimentation and physical violence, particularly the extreme expressions of sex and violence that society labels taboo. Through analyzing the rhetoric of teen lifestyle films, specifically the teen romance and sex farce, I explore how the films offer teens vicarious experience of many adolescent "firsts." In addition, I claim that teen films can effectively appropriate other genres while remaining identifiable as teen films. I discuss hybrid films which combine the teen film with the science fiction genre, specifically Back to the Future and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and the musical genre, specifically Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Dirty Dancing. In my discussion of the slasher film, specifically the Halloween. Friday the 13th. and A Nightmare on Elm Street cycles, I highlight how teen films function as a safe place to explore the taboo. Finally, I discuss the way in which the teen film genre has evolved in the 1990s due in part to shifts in social and economic interests. The teen films of the 1990s include the viewpoints of women, minorities, the handicapped, and homosexuals and question …
Family and Self-concept Factors Contributing to the Adjustment and Achievement of Early Entrants: The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of students' self-concept and their perceptions of family environment in the psychosocial adjustment and academic achievement of accelerated college students in a residential program. A secondary purpose was to investigate the differential role of those factors for students of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Evaluation of a Constructed Wetland to Reduce Toxicity from Diazinon at the Pecan Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, Denton, TX: The City of Denton Pecan Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility has periodically failed effluent toxicity testing. A Toxicity Identification Evaluation has determined that Diazinon in the effluent is contributing to the observed toxicity. Chlorpyrifos is also implicated as a factor. The City of Denton constructed a half acre experimental wetland to remove Diazinon related toxicity. Results from spiking and microcosm experiments indicate that the wetland can reduce the Diazinon.
The Effects of Alternative Presentation Formats on Biases and Heuristics in Human Decision Making: The purpose of this research was to determine whether changes in the presentation format of items in a computer display could be used to alter the impact of specific cognitive biases, and to add to the knowledge needed to construct theory-based guidelines for output design. The problem motivating this study is twofold. The first part of the problem is the sub-optimal decision making caused by the use of heuristics and their associated cognitive biases. The second part of the problem is the lack of a theoretical basis to guide the design of information presentation formats to counter the effects of such biases. An availability model of the impact of changes in presentation format on biases and heuristics was constructed based on the findings of a literature review. A six-part laboratory experiment was conducted utilizing a sample of 205 student subjects from the college of business. The independent variable was presentation format which was manipulated by altering the visual salience or visual recency of items of information in a visual computer display. The dependent variables included recall, perceived importance, and the subjects' responses to three judgment tasks. The results clearly demonstrate that changes in presentation format can be used to alter the impact of cognitive biases on human decision making. The results also provide support for the availability model, with the exception of the proposed influence of learning style. Learning style was found to have no significant impact on decision making whether alone or in combination with changes in presentation format. The results of this investigation demonstrate that by using our knowledge of cognitive processes (e.g., the visual salience effect, the visual recency effect, and the availability heuristic), presentation formats can be altered in order to moderate the effects of certain biases and heuristics in human decision making. An understanding of …
Rollback Reduction Techniques Through Load Balancing in Optimistic Parallel Discrete Event Simulation: Discrete event simulation is an important tool for modeling and analysis. Some of the simulation applications such as telecommunication network performance, VLSI logic circuits design, battlefield simulation, require enormous amount of computing resources. One way to satisfy this demand for computing power is to decompose the simulation system into several logical processes (Ip) and run them concurrently. In any parallel discrete event simulation (PDES) system, the events are ordered according to their time of occurrence. In order for the simulation to be correct, this ordering has to be preserved. There are three approaches to maintain this ordering. In a conservative system, no lp executes an event unless it is certain that all events with earlier time-stamps have been executed. Such systems are prone to deadlock. In an optimistic system on the other hand, simulation progresses disregarding this ordering and saves the system states regularly. Whenever a causality violation is detected, the system rolls back to a state saved earlier and restarts processing after correcting the error. There is another approach in which all the lps participate in the computation of a safe time-window and all events with time-stamps within this window are processed concurrently. In optimistic simulation systems, there is a global virtual time (GVT), which is the minimum of the time-stamps of all the events existing in the system. The system can not rollback to a state prior to GVT and hence all such states can be discarded. GVT is used for memory management, load balancing, termination detection and committing of events. However, GVT computation introduces additional overhead. In optimistic systems, large number of rollbacks can degrade the system performance considerably. We have studied the effect of load balancing in reducing the number of rollbacks in such systems. We have designed three load balancing algorithms and implemented two of …
The Evolution of Dexter and Me: The Evolution of Dexter and Me is a collection of one vignette and four short stories. All of the stories deal with young men figuring out and coping with their daily life and environment. The "Dexter stories" deal with a character I developed and evolved, Dexter, a sane young man trying to find the best way to cope in an insane system.
Correlates, Antecedents, and Consequences of Reading Disabilities in 11-Year-Old Children with ADHD as a Major Correlate: The purpose of this study was to follow the development of children with reading disabilities only, reading disabilites and ADHD, ADHD only, and a comparison group from the ages of 3 to 18. Differences were examined on the following variables: (a) Antecedent variables- Reynell Developmental Language Scales, Temperament, and Family Adversity; (b) School-age variables- behavioral and academic self-concept ratings; and (c) Psychological adjustment variables at age 18- self-reports of delinquency. Children from the reading disabled groups exhibited receptive language deficits, were from families who during the early childhood years had less resources to cope with problem situations, exhibited difficult temperamental characteristics, and had negative academic self-concepts. Distinctions were also noted between a "pervasive" and "situational" presentation of behavioral problems. During late adolescence the reading disabled groups exhibited similar levels of delinquency as their non-disabled peers. The implications of this study and directions for future research are discussed.
An Examination of the Accounting Debate over the Determination of Business Income: 1945-1952: George O. May's (1952) prescient statement that "if accounting had not already become, it was well on its way to becoming a political phenomenon" provides the motivation for this study. Changing socioeconomic relationships in the post-World War II period make it an ideal period to examine the politicalization of accounting. Keynesian economic policies justified active government intervention in the economy to manage demand and ensure full employment. No longer could it be assumed that competitive market forces would ensure that corporations produced goods and services at a socially optimal level or that income would be distributed equitably. Claims that accounting profit provides a measure of managerial efficiency are based on these premises. This dissertation examines the political dynamics of one particular accounting measurement debate--the debate over the determination of business income. Policies, such as wage/price controls, the excess profits tax, and the undistributed profits tax, brought the accounting income determination debate to center stage. The perseverance of the historic cost allocation model in the face of significant economic changes presents a fascinating glimpse of the important role accounting played in justifying continued reliance on the private property rights paradigm. I use retrodiction (reasoning from present to past) to examine why the historic cost allocation model has been so enduring. In my examination, I use personal correspondence, transcripts of Congressional hearings, published financial statements, and relevant journal articles. My analysis indicates that, while accountants empathized with managers who claimed that inflation distorted reported earnings and recognized that a serious measurement scale issue existed, they also recognized that abandonment of historic cost would not be politically feasible. If accountants had adopted a strongly partisan position that favored management with respect to bargaining with labor, this could have undermined the profession's claim to neutrality and opened the standard-setting process to closer political scrutiny. …
Dickens in the Context of Victorian Culture: an Interpretation of Three of Dickens's Novels from the Viewpoint of Darwinian Nature: The worlds of Dickens's novels and of Darwin's science reveal striking similarity in spite of their involvement in different areas. The similarity comes from the fact that they shared the ethos of Victorian society: laissez-faire capitalism. In The Origin of Species, which was published on 1859, Charles Darwin theorizes that nature has evolved through the rules of natural selection, survival of the fittest, and the struggle for existence. Although his conclusion comes from the scientific evidence that was acquired from his five-year voyage, it is clear that Dawinian nature is reflected in cruel Victorian capitalism. Three novels of Charles Dickens which were published around 1859, Bleak House, Hard Times, and Our Mutual Friend, share Darwinian aspects in their fictional worlds. In Bleak House, the central image, the Court of Chancery as the background of the novel, resembles Darwinian nature which is anti-Platonic in essence. The characters in Hard Times are divided into two groups: the winners and the losers in the arena of survival. The winners survive in Coketown, and the losers disappear from the city. The rules controlling the fates of Coketown people are the same as the rules of Darwinian nature. Our Mutual Friend can be interpreted as a matter of money. In the novel, everything is connected with money, and the relationship among people is predation to get money. Money is the central metaphor of the novel and around the money, the characters kill and are killed like the nature of Darwin in which animals kill each other. When a dominant ideology of a particular period permeates ingredients of the society, nobody can escape the controlling power of the ideology. Darwin and Dickens, although they worked in different areas, give evidence that their works are products of the ethos of Victorian England.
A Comparison of Adult Children of Alcoholic Families with Adult Children from Non-Alcoholic Families: a Replication: The purpose of this study was to re-examine the issue of whether adult children of alcoholics experience more depression, anxiety, and lower self-esteem than do children of non-alcoholic families. This study is a replication of the study of David Dodd, entitled A Comparison of Adult Children of Alcoholic Families with Adult Children from Non-Alcoholic Families. 1990. The measures used in this study were as follows: Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, the Beck Depression Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Coopersmith Adult Self-Esteem Inventory, and a questionnaire developed by this writer designed to obtain family history regarding not only alcoholism, but other issues of family dysfunctionality as well. The subjects for this study were 231 students enrolled in the counselor education program at this university, all aged 19 or older. Of the 230 subjects, 31 were male and 199 were female. Eleven males identified themselves as children of alcoholics, as measured by the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, and 60 females identified themselves as children of alcoholics. Thus, a total of 71 subjects in this study were identified as children of alcoholics. T-tests were conducted to see whether any differences existed between the male and female groups. No significant differences were found. Results of this study showed that family dysfunctionality rather than parental alcoholism was the factor of variability regarding depression, anxiety, and self-esteem. There appears to be a strong relationship between parental alcoholism and family dysfunctionality, but dysfunctionality clearly has more impact upon depression, anxiety, and self-esteem in the adult children of these families than does alcoholism.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Quest for the Father: This dissertation explores Elizabeth Barrett's dependency on the archetypal Victorian patriarch. Chapter I focuses on the psychological effects of this father-daughter relationship on Elizabeth Barrett. Chapter II addresses Barrett's acceptance of the conventional female role, which is suggested by the nature and the situation of the women she chooses to depict. These women are placed in situations where they can reveal their devotion to family, their capacity for passive endurance, and their wish to resist. Almost always, they choose death as an alternative to life where a powerful father figure is present. Chapter III concentrates on the highly sentimental images of women and children whom Barrett places in a divine order, where they exist untouched by the concerns of the social order of which they are a part. Chapter IV shows that the conventional ideologies of the time, society's commitment to the "angel in the house," and the small number of female role models before her increase her difficulty to find herself a place within this order. Chapter V discusses Aurora Leigh's mission to find herself an identity and to maintain the connection with her father or father substitute. Despite Elizabeth Barrett's desire to break away from her paternal ties and to establish herself as an independent woman and poet, her unconditional loyalty and love towards her father and her tremendous need for his affection, and the security he provides restrain her resistance and surface the child in her.
Determinants and Outcomes of Salespeople's Coping Style: Some salespeople cope with the chronic stress that accompanies sales jobs better than others. That is, while all salespeople possess some ability for coping with job stress, some coping mechanisms work better than others. Thus, it is critically important to identify the coping mechanismwhich are associated with the most positive organizational outcomes (i.e., higher performance, increased retention). Research on the coping mechanisms of salespeople is in its exploratory stage. Increased knowledge concerning how salespeople cope with chronic job stress would help researchers and managers to clarify why certain job outcomes occur instead of others (i.e., performance, retention, and burnout). This study proposes and tests a set of relationships pertaining to the dimensionality and the outcomes of salespeople's coping styles. The model identifies the antecedents of coping style and proposes three types of coping style salespeople employ to reduce job stress- emotion focused coping (EFC), problemfocused coping (PFC) and action oriented coping (AOC). It also elucidates the outcomes associated with EFC and PFC styles. The empiricalfindingssuggest that among salespeople, those who use PFC possess a more pronounced internal locus of control, perceive higher social support, and project higher continuance commitment, and higher self efficacy than those who use EFC. The findings also suggest that salespeople who use PFC tend to be more satisfied and express greater well being than those who use EFC. Additionally, salespeople who use EFC tend to exhibit greater propensity to burnout and greater tendency to withdraw than those who use PFC. The model holds considerable promise froma managerial standpoint. Because the model partially predicts whether the outcome of a particular coping style will be positive or negative, managers can train their salespeople to cope with job stress more effectively. Additionally, it may be significantly helpful to those who recruit salespeople. Sales recruiters ought to be able to …
The Effects of Child-Centered Play Therapy Training on Trainees: This study was designed to determine the effects of child-centered play therapy as a play therapy training model for beginning play therapy students. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of child-centered play therapy training on play therapy trainees in (a) improving positive attitudes and beliefs toward children; (b) improving knowledge of child-centered play therapy; (c) improving confidence in applying child-centered play therapy skills; (d) reducing dominance tendencies in trainees' personality as measured by the California Psychological Inventory; and (e) increasing tolerance levels in trainees' personality as measured by the CPI. The experimental group, consisting of 37 counseling graduate students with a specialty in child counseling, received 45 clock hours of introduction to play therapy graduate course training at the University of North Texas, Denton. The control group, consisting of 29 counseling graduate students with a specialty in child counseling, received other counseling graduate courses training but no play therapy training at the time of their participation in this study at the University of North Texas. Both experimental and control group students completed the pretest and the posttest on the Play Therapy Attitude Knowledge Skills Survey and the California Psychological Inventory at the beginning and the end of the semester terms of Fall 1995, Spring 1996, and Summer 1996. Analyses of covariance revealed that students in the experimental group demonstrated (a) a significant improvement in their positive attitudes and beliefs toward children; (b) a significant improvement in their child-centered play therapy knowledge; (c) a significant improvement in their confidence in applying child-centered play therapy skills; and (d) a significant reduction in their dominance tendency. An insignificant result was found in their tolerance level. This study suggests that child-centered play therapy training is a viable training model for prospective and beginning play therapists.
The Impact of Contextual Variables on Internal Auditors' Propensity to Communicate Upwardly: The author examined whether contextual variables impact internal auditors' self-assessed likelihood of whistleblowing. The author synthesized a theoretical framework and developed research hypotheses that predict relationships between the self-assessed likelihood of whistleblowing and (1) magnitude of the consequences (2) channels of communication and (3) type of wrongdoing. To test these hypotheses, the author provided internal auditors (n=123) with a scenario and asked them to self-assess the likelihood of reporting evidence of a malfacation to their internal audit director even though their audit manager told them to ignore the wrongdoing.
Adult Discouragement: Traditonal College Students: This study resulted in the development of the Discouragement Scale for Adults (DSA), an assessment instrument for the Adlerian construct of discouragement in adults more than 18 years of age. The DSA is a 60-item instrument that contains five sub-scales corresponding to five life tasks identified in Adlerian literature as work, love, society, self, and spirituality. Age, gender, and ethnicity norms were established for the DSA using a diverse sample (N=586). Additional normative data was developed with a presumed discouraged sample (N=47), and a special sample of traditional college students aged 18-27 years (N=531). Findings on the norm sample indicated that females are less discouraged than males on the Total DSA and on society and spirituality sub-scales. The 18-34 year old group was more discouraged than other age groups on the Total DSA and on work, society, and spirituality sub-scales. Presumed discouraged sample findings indicated that females were less discouraged than males on the society sub-scale. College student findings indicated that females were less discouraged than males on the Total DSA and sub-scales of love, society, spirituality, and work. A significant difference was found among ethnic groups in self sub-scales. Students with no absences per week were less discouraged than students with two absences per week. Students with lower grade point averages (GPA) were more discouraged on the Total DSA and work sub-scales. DSA internal consistency coefficients were .9392, .9496, and .9327 for norm, presumed discouraged, and college student samples respectively. Correlations between DSA and two social interest surveys reflect an inverse relationship between discouragement and social interest. Results indicate that the DSA is a useful assessment instrument for research and counseling purposes with college students. Further research should include greater geographical and ethnic diversity as well as validation among diverse college samples and non-traditional students. Additionally, a standard range …
Visions of Light In the Poetry of William Blake and Emily Dickinson: In this study the author compares the broad outlines of Blake's and Dickinson's thought, pointing out evidence of decisive Biblical influence not only on the content of their thought but on their attitude toward language as well. the author argues that both poets assumed the philosophical position of Job as they interpreted the Bible independently and as they explored many dimensions of experience in the fallen world. The author represents their thought not as a fixed system but as a faith-based pattern of Christian/Platonic questing for truth.
Beyond the Merchants of Death: the Senate Munitions Inquiry of the 1930s and its Role in Twentieth-Century American History: The Senate Munitions Committee of 1934-1936, chaired by Gerald Nye of North Dakota, provided the first critical examination of America's modern military establishment. The committee approached its task guided by the optimism of the progressive Social Gospel and the idealism of earlier times, but in the middle of the munitions inquiry the nation turned to new values represented in Reinhold Niebuhr's realism and Franklin D. Roosevelt's Second New Deal. By 1936, the committee found its views out of place in a nation pursuing a new course and in a world threatening to break out in war. Realist historians writing in the cold war period (1945-1990) closely linked the munitions inquiry to isolationism and created a one-dimensional history in which the committee chased evil "merchants of death." The only book-length study of the munitions investigation, John Wiltz's In Search of Peace, published in 1963, provided a realist interpretation. The munitions inquiry went beyond the merchants of death in its analysis of the post-World War I American military establishment. A better understanding emerges when the investigation is considered not only within an isolationist framework, but also as part of the intellectual, cultural, and political history of the interwar years. In particular, Franklin Roosevelt's political use of the investigation becomes apparent. Sources used include the committee's hearings, exhibits, and reports, the Gerald Nye Papers, the Franklin Roosevelt Papers, the Cordell Hull Papers, the R. Walton Moore Papers, the Henry Stimson Papers, the Homer Cummings Diaries, and the State Department's decimal files.
Women Who Survived Childhood Sexual Abuse: Do Their Coping Strategies Vary by Personality Type as Measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?: Through a phenomenological qualitative approach, this study examined possible differences of introverted versus extraverted adult female survivors of childhood sexual abuse with regard to the coping mechanisms they chose. Preference modalities of introversion and extraversion were measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and data was collected through a semi-structured interview designed by the researcher. The interview contained questions about the 21 subjects' perceptions of their abuse and the ways in which they coped. Specific coping mechanisms included but were not limited to eating disorders, alcohol and/or drug abuse, high risk behavior, depression, anxiety, and somatic complaints. Results indicated that for both groups, the degree to which each of the individual coping mechanisms was used congregated at the level of "a driven pattern of behavior lasting for at least 7 days" or "on-going use resulting in severe problems". Extraverts showed higher percentages of severe use of the six coping mechanisms than did introverts. Depression was the most frequently used coping mechanism of both the introverts and the extraverts. Introverts showed higher percentages of stopping the use of eating disorders, alcohol/drug abuse, high risk behavior, and depression. Extraverts had higher percentages of discontinued use of anxiety and somatic problems. Introverts reported more somatic complaints, while extraverts reported more severe somatic problems. The most often reported somatic complaints of both groups were arthritis, migraines, sleep difficulty, nightmares, and gastrointestinal problems. The majority of each group used most of the coping mechanisms at some time, suggesting a need for therapeutic intervention that considers the possibility of difficulties stemming from combined use of many of these coping mechanisms in addition to focusing on the trauma of the sexual abuse itself.
The Effects of Stock Delistings on Firm Value, Risk, Market Liquidity and Market Integration: With Evidence on Wealth Effects from the Stock Exchanges of Malaysia and Singapore, Using GARCH: This study examines the effects of delisting on firm value, risk and market liquidity. In a world where markets are becoming increasingly integrated, delistings may prove counter productive. We use the unique event, free from company specifics, that occurred on January 2, 1990 in the stock exchanges of Singapore and Malaysia to test for the above effects. On that day, dual listed companies were required to delist from the foreign stock exchange. We also use this event to test if the Singapore and Malaysia markets are globally integrated. Since financial data is found to show persistence in volatility, we model the return generating process in a generalized autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic (GARCH) framework that takes into consideration changing volatility. For comparison purposes, OLS and Time-Deformation models are included. The study found delistings to decrease firm value, the size of which is related to how actively the stocks were previously traded on the foreign stock exchange. Risk levels increased following delistings. Nevertheless, thinly traded stocks showed significant changes in neither firm value nor riskiness. Further evidence of new listings to increase firm value was noted. Consistent with the political motive hypothesis, delisted stocks showed an increase in post-event volume, but however, lost relative liquidity compared with other stocks. While all portfolios considered show evidence for existence of conditional heteroskedasticity, comparison with standard OLS event-study results yields similar conclusions, although the return generating models with GARCH errors result in lower abnormal return variances. As for the time-deformation model, trading volume was found to be a good proxy for rate of information flow only for smaller capitalized stocks. Correlation and regression analyses showed that the Singapore and Malaysia markets are integrated to some degree with the international markets, such that a major delistings event between both markets did not change the pricing of risk …
The Role of the U.S. Mass Media in the Political Socialization of Nigerian Immigrants in the United States: A mail survey of Nigerian immigrants in Dallas, Texas, and Chicago, Illinois, was conducted during October and November 1995. Four hundred and sixty-eight Nigerian immigrant families in the two cities were selected by systematic sampling through the telephone books. Return rate was approximately 40% (187). The variables included in the study were media exposure variables, general demographics, immigration traits, U.S. demographics, Nigerian demographics, and political and cultural traits. New variables which had not been included in previous studies were also tested in this study: television talk shows, talk radio, diffuse support for the U.S. political system, authoritarianism, self-esteem, and political participation. This study employed multiple regression analysis and path analysis of the data. This study found that Nigerian immigrants have high preference for television news as their main source of political information. This finding is in consonance with previous studies. Nigerian immigrants chose ABC news stations as their number one news station for political information. Strong positive associations existed between media exposure and length of stay in the United States and interest in U.S. politics. Talk radio positively associated with interest in U.S. politics and negatively associated with length of stay in the United States. Thus, this finding likely means that talk radio is a good source of political socialization for more recently arrived immigrants and those interested in U.S. politics. Significant associations existed between diffuse support for the U.S. government and interest in politics and security of immigration status. This study also found that adjustment to U.S. political culture was a function of media exposure, pre-immigration social class, diffuse support for the U.S. political system, and political knowledge.
Strategic International Human Resource Management: an Analysis of the Relationship between International Strategic Positioning and the Degree of Integrated Strategic Human Resource Management: In Strategic International Human Resource Management (SIHRM), the human resource function is actively involved in the strategic activities of the firm. While the idea holds promise as a useful response to global competition, previous research has provided limited supporting empirical evidence. Specifically, few studies have sought to equate certain outcomes with the degree of SIHRM practiced across various types of international firms. By separating firms into categories such as multidomestic, global, and hybrid, and by classifying SIHRM according to the degree of integration with strategic planning, a clearer picture could emerge as to the relationship between firm and SIHRMtype. To that end, top strategic executives, such as CEOs, and top HRM executives from eighty four U.S. based firms were surveyed regarding their firm type, the degree of SIHRM practiced, and certain outcomes such as amount of expatriate training and expatriate failure. Additionally, financial results were obtained to determine performance of various firms. Results indicated that while many companies choose a highly integrated formof SIHRM, there is no significant relationship between firm type and SIHRMtype. Additionally, there was no association detected between SIHRMtype and expatriate training and expatriate failure. Finally, there was no significant difference infinancialperformance between firms with the most integrated type of SIHRMand firms with less integrated versions. Interestingly, the HRMprofessionals were more likely to equate their firms with the most integrated types of SIHRMthan were other managers. This may mean that the relationship between HRM and strategic planning is often one of perception. A model of the relationships between SIHRM, firm type, HRM activities, and outcomes is proposed, along with suggestions for future research and limitations of the study.
The Relationship between Level of Implementation of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Curriculum and Evaluation Standards and 5th Grade Louisiana Educational Assessment Program Math Scores: This study examined the relationship between levels of implementation of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Curriculum and Evaluation Standards and 5th Grade Louisiana Educational Assessment Program Math Scores with the effects of race of students accounted for. Secondary areas of interest were the relationship between LEAP mathematics scores with the effects of race of students accounted for and the teacher characteristics of years experience and educational attainment and of the relationship between level of implementation of the Standards and teacher characteristics. The population, from which a sample size of 250 was randomly drawn, was comprised of 1994-95 Louisiana public school teachers who taught in a regular 5th grade or departmentalized math class. Survey research was used to place the responding teachers at one of the five levels of implementation. Hierarchical Multiple Regression was used to analyze the question of primary interest. Race of the students was found to have accounted for nearly 9% of the variance in LEAP mathematics scores. This figure was statistically significant. The independent variable Level of Implementation of the Standards produced ambiguous results. Students of Level 1 (non-implementers) teachers were found to have statistically significantly higher LEAP scores than did students of Level 2 teachers. The Level 1 students had scores which were non-statistically significantly higher than did those of Level 3 and 5. Students of Level 4 teachers had scores which were significantly higher than those students whose teachers were at Level 2 and 5. No significant relationship was found to exist between student LEAP mathematics scores and teacher characteristics of years experience and educational attainment nor between levels of implementation of the Standards and the same two teacher characteristics. Despite these findings, in light of the amount of research pointing to their value, implementation of Standards is still highly recommended.
A Study of the Relationships among Relational Maintenance Strategy Usage, Communicator Style and Romantic Relational Satisfaction: This thesis examined student-participants' self-reported use of romantic relational maintenance strategies and their partners' reports of relational satisfaction. Additionally, individuals outside the romantic relationship reported on student-participants' general communicator style. The research proposed that general style reports would be predictive of relational maintenance strategy usage and of romantic partners' relational satisfaction. The study found that general style behaviors may not be indicative of relational maintenance strategy usage or romantic partners' relational satisfaction. Tests of sex differences revealed that females' expression of various relational maintenance strategies and style behaviors are associated with male partners' relational satisfaction; however, no results were obtained indicating specific behaviors expressed by males result in female partners' relational satisfaction.
Model for Long-range Correlations in DNA Sequences: We address the problem of the DNA sequences developing a "dynamical" method based on the assumption that the statistical properties of DNA paths are determined by the joint action of two processes, one deterministic, with long-range correlations, and the other random and delta correlated. The generator of the deterministic evolution is a nonlinear map, belonging to a class of maps recently tailored to mimic the processes of weak chaos responsible for the birth of anomalous diffusion. It is assumed that the deterministic process corresponds to unknown biological rules which determine the DNA path, whereas the noise mimics the influence of an infinite-dimensional environment on the biological process under study. We prove that the resulting diffusion process, if the effect of the random process is neglected, is an a-stable Levy process with 1 < a < 2. We also show that, if the diffusion process is determined by the joint action of the deterministic and the random process, the correlation effects of the "deterministic dynamics" are cancelled on the short-range scale, but show up in the long-range one. We denote our prescription to generate statistical sequences as the Copying Mistake Map (CMM). We carry out our analysis of several DNA sequences, and of their CMM realizations, with a variety of techniques, and we especially focus on a method of regression to equilibrium, which we call the Onsager Analysis. With these techniques we establish the statistical equivalence of the real DNA sequences with their CMM realizations. We show that long-range correlations are present in exons as well as in introns, but are difficult to detect, since the exon "dynamics" is shown to be determined by theentaglement of three distinct and independent CMM's. Finally we study the validity of the stationary assumption in DNA sequences and we discuss a biological model for the …
Faculty Preparation in American Higher Education: Academic Lineage as a Predictor of Career Success: The purposes of this research were to determine (1) the extent to which faculty are employed by the types of institutions from which they earned their doctorates in the United States, (2) the extent to which faculty have higher professional rank at employing institutions tat are the same type of institutions as those from which they earned their doctorates, (3) the extent to which female faculty are employed by the types of institutions from which they earned their doctorates, (4) the extent to which female faculty have higher professional rank at employing institutions that are the same type of institutions as those from which they received their doctorates, and (5) the extent of variability across academic disciplines in which faculty are employed by types of institutions from which they earned their doctorates. An exhaustive review of the literature on academic lineage was used to develop this research. All stratified random sample of 260 institutions from 2,873 colleges and universities was selected by Carnegie Foundation classification categories. Institutions were selected at random until the number of faculty members in each category corresponded to the estimated national distribution of faculty across Carnegie classification categories (n=3,940). The analyses revealed that the majority of faculty (74%) employed at all types of higher education institutions obtained their doctoral degrees fromresearch I institutions. Professional academic rank is an interaction between doctoral-granting institution and employing institution combined with gender. Male faculty are following the traditional "trickle down" theory of academic lineage while women faculty appear to be charting a different career path. Another unique finding was that there was not significant variability in the findings across academic disciplines. Academic success is a complex phenomenon that is not singularly explainable by academic lineage. As more women are entering into the academic ranks of higher education, changes in academic …
Job Satisfaction Among Women Accounting Educators: A national survey was conducted to investigate job satisfaction among women accounting educators at four-year college and universities in the United States. The purpose of the study was to determine if differences existed among women accounting educators at research, doctoral, master's, and baccalaureate institutions in three areas relating to job satisfaction: levels of job satisfaction, individual sources of job satisfaction, and structural sources of job satisfaction. Also, the relationships among these three areas of job satisfaction were examined. A stratified random sample of 755 women accounting educators was selected from the population of 1,519 women. A mailed questionnaire was used to collect data. A total of 495 (66%) questionnaires were returned. Women accounting educators expressed satisfaction with co-workers, supervision, and work. They were neutral regarding satisfaction with pay and dissatisfied with promotion opportunities. A difference was detected between satisfaction with pay and type of institution. Differences were found between individual sources of job satisfaction and type of institution. The differences were attributable to education level and the personality characteristics of conscientiousness and openness. Differences were detected between structural sources of job satisfaction and type of institution. Academic rank, salary, tenure, institutional resources, and job functions accounted for the differences. Significant relationships were found between individual and structural sources of job satisfaction and levels ofjob satisfaction. Satisfaction with co-workers was related to agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, institutional resources, mentoring, and time spent on research. Satisfaction with pay was related to neuroticism, salary, academic rank, and institutional resources. Satisfaction with promotion opportunities was related to agreeableness, salary, tenure, institutional resources, mentoring, networking, other job functions, and type of institution. Satisfaction with supervision was related to personal roles, agreeableness, salary, institutional resources, mentoring, research, and advising students. Satisfaction with work was related to marital status, personal roles, agreeableness, neuroticism, institutional resources, and mentoring. It …
Myths and Movies: a Mythographical Methodology of Motion Picture Analysis: Over the past decade, cinema studies scholars have begun to recognize the value of mythographical methodologies for motion picture analysis; however, most of the scholarly research in this field has focused either on mythic archetypal images or on monomythic narrative structure, rather than combining the two approaches into a unified theory. This essay addresses the problem by proposing a mythographical methodology of motion picture analysis based on Carl Jung's theory of archetypal images and Joseph Campbell's theories concerning the monomythic structure of heroic narratives. Combining the two approaches of myth interpretation results in a more comprehensive methodology for interpreting the mythic elements of motion pictures. This essay illustrates the application of this methodology through a detailed analysis of Terry Gilliam's film, The Fisher King.
The Impact of Word Processing on the Written Expression of Students with Learning Disabilities in the Area of Written Expression: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of word processing on the quality of written expression of students with learning disabilities identified in the area of written expression. A examination of existing research revealed that most studies do not focus on word processing independent of writing instruction. Therefore, the consensus among researchers that word processors make a difference is limited by the influence of instruction within the research setting. Therefore, this study sought to determine the impact made solely by word processing by controlling for instruction. The 75 students who participated in the study represented three groups--students with learning disabilities identified in the area of written expression (LD-W), students with learning disabilities identified in an area other than written expression (LD-O), and general education students (NA). Each student completed four writing samples: (a) descriptive - handwritten, (b) informative - handwritten, (c) descriptive - word processed, and (d) informative - word processed. The writing samples were scored according to the TOWL-3 on the three Spontaneous Composite subtests (e.g., Contextual Conventions, Contextual Language, and Story Construction). In addition, Word Perfect 6.1- Grammatik was used to determine the number of syllables, words, and sentences in each writing sample. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used in the analysis in conjunction with univariate F-Tests and Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) test. General education students scored consistently higher than LD-W on all subtests even when handwriting and word processing were considered. They also generated more syllables, words, and sentences than students with learning disabilities. In addition, all students scored higher on subtests when writing descriptive samples rather than writing informative samples. No practically significant results were determined for the effect of word processing. Therefore, word processing alone does not have an impact on students' quality of writing. It is simply a …
Library CD-ROM LAN Performance and Patron Use: a Computer Simulation Model: In this study, a computer simulation model for library CD-ROM LAN systems was created. Using this model, the system optimization problems were examined. The simulation model imitated the process of the actual decision variables changing their values and generated the corresponding results. Under a certain system environment, if the values of decision variables are changing, the system performances are getting changed also. This study investigated these relationships with the created model. The system users' interarrival time, service time, and other relevant data were collected on randomly selected days in a university library. For data collection, both of the observation and the system automatic metering software were used. According to the collected data, a discrete events simulation model was created with GPSS/H. The simulation model was proven valid and accurate by a pilot test and by the calculation with queuing theory. Statistical tests were used for data comparison and analysis. In addition, animation technique was used to show the simulation process by using Proof Animation. By this technique, the simulation process was monitored on the screen.
In Awesome Wonder: The dissertation is a collection of eighteen short stories. These stories relate the life experiences of the first-person narrator and chronicle a period of twenty years. They are arranged in five thematic groups: Expectations, Questions, Lighter Moments, Answers, and Separation. The focus of each one represents the narrator's experiences with his father, as the narrator attempts to understand a man who exerts such control over his life. Expectations contains three stories, with the first depicting the narrator's earliest association with his father. The other two represent significant growth experiences. The five stories in the Questions portion focus on the youthful narrator as he tries to understand the reasons behind his father's values and moral lessons. In the section, Lighter Moments, there are four stories in which the narrator is in his late teens and recalls four incidents that lacked the usual serious undertones prevalent in most of his experiences with his father. Answers is composed of three stories in which the narrator, nearing manhood, struggles with feelings of disillusionment with the life his father has planned for him, as well as the realization that his father controls every aspect of his life. The final section of three stories, Separation, depicts the narrator, a young man in his twenties with his own family, coping with the need to escape his father's control.
Friendship, Politics, and the Literary Imagination: the Impact of Franklin Pierce on Hawthorne's Works: This dissertation attempts to demonstrate how Nathaniel Hawthorne's lifelong friendship with Franklin Pierce influenced the author's literary imagination, often prompting him to transform Pierce from his historical personage into a romanticized figure of notably Jacksonian qualities. It is also an assessment of how Hawthorne's friendship with Pierce profoundly influenced a wide range of his work, from his first novel, Fanshawe (1828), to the Life of Franklin Pierce (1852) and such later works as the unfinished Septimius romances and the dedicatory materials in Our Old Home (1863). This dissertation shows how Pierce became for Hawthorne a literary device—an icon of Jacksonian virtue, a token of the Democratic party, and an emblem of steadfastness, military heroism, and integrity, all three of which were often at odds with Pierce's historical character. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the Hawthorne-Pierce friendship. The chapter also assesses biographical reconstructions of Pierce's character and life. Chapter 2 addresses Hawthorne's years at Bowdoin College, his introduction to Pierce, and his early socialization. Chapter 3 demonstrates how Hawthorne transformed his Bowdoin experience into formulaic Gothic narrative in his first novel, Fanshawe. Chapter 4 discusses the influence of the Hawthorne-Pierce friendship on the Life of Franklin Pierce, Hawthorne's campaign biography of his friend. The friendship, the chapter concludes, was not only a context, or backdrop to the work, but it was also a factor that affected the text significantly. Chapter 5 treats the influence of Hawthorne's camaraderie with Pierce on the author's later works, the Septimius romances and the dedicatory materials in Our Old Home. Chapter 6 illustrates how Hawthorne's continuing friendship with the controversial Pierce distanced him from many of the prominent and influential thinkers and writers of the day, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. Chapter 7 offers a final summation of the influence of Pierce …
Women's Reproductive Rights in Developing Countries: A Causal Analysis: The issue of women's reproductive rights has become an international concern in the recent decade. Ongoing debates on women's reproductive rights in world conferences and conventions have heightened the need for empirical research and theoretical explanations of women's reproductive rights Nevertheless, very few sociological studies have treated women's reproductive rights as a dependent variable. This study examines the effects of family planning programs and the processes of modernization on women's reproductive rights. Several facets of modernization; processes of socioeconomic development, secularization, women's education, and levels of gender equality are considered. The study involves 101 countries identified by the World Bank (1994) as developing countries. It is argued, on the one hand, that variations in women's reproductive rights in developing nations may be explained by the social changes brought about by modernization processes. On other hand, the universality of the anti-natalistic population policies in developing countries in the late 20th century provides a strong state control over fertility rate, which may contribute to the attainment of women's reproductive rights. Using linear structural equation analysis, the study finds that fertility decline due to family planning programs leads to the achievement of women's reproductive rights. The empirical findings support the hypothesis that socioeconomic development has a positive effect on women's education, and that there is no statistically significant relationship between modernization and gender equality. The results of the study, meanwhile, indicate that, in developing societies, women's education is negatively related to women's reproductive rights. The study suggests: first, family planning programs as a social policy in developing countries influence fertility decline, and enhance women's reproductive rights; second, gender equality in society is an important factor that increases the level of reproductive rights for women in developing countries; and finally, the finding that women's education reduces the attainment of reproductive rights may imply the …
PTSD in Women following a Disaster: the Effects of Social Support and Gender Differences: The purpose of this study was to examine and compare individuals that had survived a single incidence trauma, the Luby's massacre in Killeen, Texas. Participants answered questions regarding various facets of social support following the trauma, and were also screened for a diagnosis of PTSD. Participants' level of symptoms, specifically depression, anxiety, and phobic anxiety was measured over time with the SCL-90-R. The results of this study indicate that, while women initially experience a higher level of depression and phobic anxiety, there is no gender difference in rate of symptom change over time. This study also found that women were significantly higher than men on desirability, utilization and usefulness of social support. Of the target symptoms, however, only depression correlated with any facet of social support, specifically, desirability. Finally, this study questioned whether individuals would share more similarities with others based on gender or diagnosis. It is suggested by the current data that diagnosis is the better indicator of similarity.
Public Standards/Personal Standards: A Descriptive Study of Eighth Grade Students' Selection Processes for Writing Samples to Include in an Assessment Portfolio: The purpose of this study was to describe the criteria that students reported using when selecting writing samples for an assessment portfolio. Specifically, the study involved content analysis of student responses to five prompts which asked the students to give selection criteria for writing samples in language arts portfolios prepared for assessment. The population consisted of twelve eighth grade students in three urban middle schools. The students were in classes that were participating in the New Standards Portfolio Assessment Field Trial. In addition to the responses to prompts, students also submitted writing samples to be scored using New Standards rubrics. The writing samples were evaluated to determine if the students successfully selected pieces of their writing to provide evidence of standards attainment. Through the analysis of the student responses to the prompts, two categories of selection criteria were noted. Public standards were the standards that corresponded with the criteria that were presented to the students through their use of New Standards performance standards, portfolio exhibit requirements, and entry slips. Personal standards were criteria that did not correspond to the published criteria presented to the students. Ten sub-categories were identified. These ten sub-categories became the instrument for analysis and tabulation of the students' reported criteria for selecting writing samples for their portfolios. Findings indicated that students were willing to use the public standards and that they used them more frequently than personal standards in justifying selections for the assessment portfolio. However, student identification of appropriate criteria did not guarantee that the writing samples that the student submitted received scores that would indicate standards attainment.
An Investigation of Psychopathy in a Female Jail Sample: a Study of Convergent and Discriminant Validity: The present study was designed to assess both the construct of psychopathy in a female jail sample as well as the quality of the measures that have been employed to assess this personality style. Utilizing the multitrait-multimethod matrix proposed by Campbell and Fiske (1959), the construct of psychopathy was measured via three instruments: (a) the Antisocial Scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory, (b) the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised, and (c) the Antisocial Scale of the Personality Disorder Examination. In addition, the predictive validity of each of these measures of psychopathy was evaluated to determine their ability to predict institutional violence and non-compliance. The results revealed significant convergence and divergence across the three instruments supporting the construct of psychopathy in a female jail sample. In addition, the measures of psychopathy demonstrated moderate predictive validity.
A History of the Mississippi River Commission, 1879-1928: from Levees-Only to a Comprehensive Program of Flood Control for the Lower Mississippi Valley: In 1879 Congress created the Mississippi River Commission (MRC) to develop and coordinate federal flood control policy for the Lower Mississippi River. Through 1927, that Commission clung stubbornly to a "levees-only" policy that was based on the mistaken belief that levees alone could be effective in controlling the flood waters of the Mississippi River. When the levees failed--and they occasionally did--the MRC responded by raising and strengthening the system but refused to adopt a more comprehensive program, one which would include outlets and reservoirs. Finally, a disastrous flood in 1927 forced the abandonment of levees-only and the adoption of a comprehensive plan for the Lower Mississippi River. Predictably, the MRC faced heavy criticism following the failure of its highly-touted levee system in 1927. While certainly the Commission was culpable, there was plenty of fault to go around and a plethora of mitigating circumstances. Developing a plan for achieving adequate flood control along the lower Mississippi River constituted what was probably the most difficult and complex engineering problem ever undertaken by the U. S. Government. Additionally, there were innumerable political and financial constraints that worked to shape MRC policy. This study will endeavor to tell the story of the MRC from its earliest origins through the landmark 1928 Flood Control Act, and, in the process, give evidence to the reality that the Commission did not function independently. As an organization, it relied upon outside forces for its membership, for its jurisdiction, and for the appropriations necessary to carry out its policies. Significantly, these forces were politically driven and did not always, or even often, share the MRC's priorities for the Lower Mississippi River. Even so, the MRC accomplished a great deal in its efforts to protect the Valley from moderate floods, to improve the navigability of the Mississippi River, and to …
A Study of Quantum Electron Dynamics in Periodic Superlattices under Electric Fields: This thesis examines the quantum dynamics of electrons in periodic semiconductor superlattices in the presence of electric fields, especially uniform static fields. Chapter 1 is an introduction to this vast and active field of research, with an analysis and suggested solutions to the fundamental theoretical difficulties. Chapter 2 is a detailed historical review of relevant theories, and Chapter 3 is a historical review of experiments. Chapter 4 is devoted to the time-independent quantum mechanical study of the electric-field-induced changes in the transmission properties of ballistic electrons, using the transfer matrix method. In Chapter 5, a new time-dependent quantum mechanical model free from the fundamental theoretical difficulties is introduced, with its validity tested at various limiting cases. A simplified method for calculating field-free bands of various potential models is designed. In Chapter 6, the general features of "Shifting Periodicity", a distinctive feature of this new model, is discussed, and a "Bloch-Floquet Theorem" is rigorously proven. Numerical evidences for the existence of Wannier-Stark-Ladders are presented, and the conditions for its experimental observability is also discussed. In Chapter 7, an analytical solution is found for Bloch Oscillations and Wannier-Stark-Ladders at low electric fields. In Chapter 8, a new quantum mechanical interpretation for Bloch Oscillations and Wannier-Stark-Ladders is derived from the analytical result. The extension of this work to the cases of time-dependent electric fields is also discussed.
The Effects of English Immersion Mathematics Classes on the Mathematics Achievement and Aspiration of Eighth-Grade Spanish-Speaking LEP Students: This research grew from concerns relative to the mathematical performance of Spanish-speaking limited English proficient (LEP) public school students. This investigation studied the effects of the sheltered mathematics class on eighth-grade Spanish-speaking LEP students with regard to mathematical achievement, attitudes toward mathematics, the dropout rate, and the number of math credits earned in high school. The enrollment of a sheltered mathematics class was limited to LEP students. The purpose was to compare Spanish-speaking LEP students enrolled in sheltered mathematics classes with Spanish-speaking LEP students enrolled in regular mathematics classes. The research hypotheses were that achievement, mathematical attitudes, the dropout rate, and high school math credits earned would favor enrollment in sheltered mathematics classes. The data for achievement, dropout information, and mathematics course work completed were drawn from student records in the school district data bank. A mathematics attitude survey was given to a sample from the 1995-96 eighth-grade advanced level Spanish-speaking LEP students. The research hypotheses were not accepted. All of the populations did show an academic deficit. However, they did have more positive attitudes than negative attitudes toward mathematics. To improve achievement, staying in school, and a higher rate of inclusion in mathematics related careers the following recommendations were made: 1. Research should be done to write standardized mathematics tests that would be accurate and fair for Spanish-speaking LEP students. 2. Further research should be done into teaching strategies and classroom management particularly suited to Spanish-speaking LEP students. 3. Attitude measures should be used as pretest and posttest to study the effect of sheltered mathematics classes on LEP students in relation to attitudes toward mathematics and motivation to continue schooling. 4. Recruit and train qualified mathematics teachers to teach English as a second language (ESL) mathematics.
Ethnic Identity : An Examination of Hispanic International Students: I interviewed twenty-four International students from the following countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Spain. Hereafter I shall refer to the respondents as Hispanic International students. My primary interest was to learn the way in which Hispanic International students defined themselves in view of ethnic definitions imposed on them by the administrative system in the U.S. First, Hispanic International students defined themselves primarily by their nationality. The second finding dealt with the usage of language. The Hispanic International students spoke Spanish with relatives and friends. They spoke English when a non-Spanish speaker joined the conversation. The third finding was related to the problems and adaptations encountered by Hispanic International students.
Top Management Groups: the Relationships among Member Characteristics, Group Processes, Business Environments, and Organizational Performance: In the present quasi-experimental study, the relationships among individual executive characteristics, top management group processes, the business environment, and organizational performance for the gas and computer industries were investigated. Data were collected through a questionnaire using several published instruments measuring work locus of control, self-monitoring, group innovation/improvement, collaboration, and task management, environmental uncertainty, and perceptions of organizational performance. Return on assets data and sales data for several years were obtained from a business database. A total of 204 executives, 135 from the gas industry and 69 from the computer industry, returned completed questionnaires. Group processes were positively correlated with the average return on assets over three years. In addition, based on regression analyses, group processes predicted the average return on assets over three years. Work locus of control was positively correlated with group processes. However, none of the hypothesized moderator relationships were supported due to collinearity difficulties with one of the measures. Also, there were no differences between the gas and computer industries with regard to the uncertainty of the business environment.
Life-Style Themes of Women Who Emerge as Leaders in Small Group Settings: This study investigated the effects of personality characteristics on emergent leadership in small group settings. Two instruments were used to assess personality factors: The BASIS-A and the California Personality Inventory (CPI). A sociometric tool was developed to elicit leader ranking of female group members. The BASIS-A, was used to test for Taking Charge and Wanting Recognition lifestyles in women who emerged as leaders. The CPI was used to assess female emergent leaders for Dominance and Leadership Potential. The two instruments and a sociometric form were distributed to 115 female graduate counselor-in-training students the last week of their group counseling experience. This survey resulted in 55 respondents (N=55) from eleven discussion groups. It was expected that women who had the highest averaged leader rank would demonstrate higher test scores in Dominance, Leadership Potential, Taking Charge, and Wanting Recognition than women who received a lower averaged leader rank. It was also thought that these four test factors would be highly related. If so, a case would be made to use the BASIS-A as an emergent leader assessment tool because it is consistently based in one psychological theory. No significant effect was found between the highest leader rank and three of the test measures: Dominance, Leadership Potential, and Taking Charge. Using four one-way ANOVAs, a significant effect was found between highest leader rank and Wanting Recognition. This demonstrated that individuals high in interpersonal caution, empathy, and with a need to succeed emerged as leaders. Possible explanations for this finding were discussed. Significant relationships were found using the Pearson-r correlation statistic between three of the four test variables. From the CPI, the Dominance and Leadership Potential scales were highly correlated to the BASIS-A Taking Charge life-style. The BASIS-A Wanting Recognition lifestyle was not related to either Dominance or Leadership Potential. Unexpectedly, a significant relationship …
The Relationship between Just-in-Time Purchasing and Total Quality Management and Their Effects on the Performance of Firms Operating in the U.S.: an Empirical Investigation: U.S. companies have implemented just-in-time purchasing (JITP) and total quality management (TQM) techniques to improve their global competitive position. The lack of empirical research on these techniques with firm's performance is the reason to explain further their strategic values as management innovations in different types and sizes of organizations. From a theoretical foundation on the relations between innovation, strategy and performance, the following research questions were generated: (1) Are JITP and TQM positively related to the firm's performance?, (2) Do the combination/sequence of implementing JITP and TQM have a relation with the firm's performance?, and (3) Is the relationship between JITP and TQM to the firm's performance moderated by any of industry type, firm size,firm type and/or duration of JITP and TQM techniques? A model is developed and hypotheses are proposed. A survey is mailed to firms operating in the U.S. that have implemented one or both techniques. Questionnaire items measuring JITP, TQM, performance, and moderating variables - industry type, firm size,firm type, and duration of JIT purchasing and TQM techniques— are either developed or borrowed from other studies. From rosters of the American Society for Quality Control and the National Association of Purchasing Management, 1884 target respondents result in a 20.3 percent response rate. Reliability and factor analysis of the constructs are established. The research model is tested by canonical correlation analyses before a separate hierarchical regression analysis of sets is run for each of the three performance factors: financial and market, time-based quality and material productivity. The extent of JITP and TQM implementation positively and significantly relate with firm's performance. Furthermore, the relation between JITP and financial and market performance is higher in industries that face high foreign competition. Firm size, firm type and duration of JITP and TQM techniques are nonsignificant moderators. An improved research model is …
Assessing Maternal Functioning in Families of Children with Autism: Mothers and siblings of children with autism incur stressors that impact their well-being more adversely than mothers of children with ADHD or normally developing children. In Study 1, twenty-six mothers of children with autism (Group 1) were compared to 24 mothers of children with ADHD (Group 2) and 24 mothers with normally developing children (Group 3). All families included a normally developing child (ages 4 to 12). Measures to delineate levels of maternal functioning were administered. Results for Study 1 indicated that mothers of children with autism had higher levels of psychological symptomatology, higher parenting stress, poorer perceptions of their family environment and their ability to parent the siblings, and higher perceptions of internalized problems of the siblings than mothers with normally developing children. These findings support the literature stating that mothers of children with autism may experience increased levels of maternal stress. The reciprocal nature of the parent-child relationship suggests that parents should be involved in meeting the needs of siblings in these families. A subgroup of Group 1 mothers participated in a parent group that occurred simultaneously with a sibling group. Mothers were randomly assigned to participate in a parent/sibling group, a sibling only group, or a wait-list group. Intervention efficacy was assessed using Study 1 measures plus measures designed specifically for the intervention. Overall results of study 2 indicated that mothers in the deluxe intervention perceived their parenting of the siblings to have improved after the intervention when compared to the standard and wait-list groups. This suggested that concurrent mother/sibling intervention provided the mothers with beneficial information and contributed to their enhanced sense of competence about parenting the siblings. In addition, mothers in the deluxe intervention perceived their family environment and the behaviors of the sibling to get worse at post-intervention, but return to baseline over time. …
Short Term Effects of External Electric Fields on Electrical Activity of the Pineal Gland in Rats: The effects of short term exposure (5 minutes) to EEFs at relatively high dosages (10, 25, 39, kV/m) on the electrical activity in rat pineal glands was studied. Daytime and nighttime recordings were taken from an implanted microelectrode in the gland. The data show that (1) both the activity and frequency were enhanced when the animals were exposed to EEFs at 39 kV/m continuously and discontinuously; (2) the later condition yielded a sustained increase (36%) whereas the former a brief (10 sec) increase. This enhancement was statistically significant under both conditions (day and night). The effects observed were thought to be due to membrane alterations either in the pineal gland itself or in the neural inputs to the gland.
Selected Structural Elements and Aspects of Performance in Bagatelles (1971) and Konstellationen (1972) by Krystyna Moszumanska-Nazar, with Three Recitals of Works by Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Messiaen, Prokofieff, and Schumann: This dissertation primarily concerns selected structural elements in Bagatelles and Konstellationen. These are pitch/interval, rhythm/meter in Bagatelles, the formal design and its relations with dynamics and texture in Konstellationen, as well as the usage of indeterminacy. There are also selected aspects of performance in regard to extended technique, pedaling, and certain dynamic control problems related to two works in question. Chapter one introduces the historical background of Polish music and the emergence of Poland as one of the leading forces in contemporary music. It also provides the musical background of Moszumanska-Nazar, as well as the stylistic features and representative works in her three compositional periods. Personal interviews and correspondence with the composer provide additional biographical and stylistic insight for this chapter. Chapter two focuses on the aspects of structural procedure. In Bagatelles, the structural elements are: organized pitch sets, the dominance of linear interval, scale pattern, dissonant intervals, as well as the rhythmic pattern and the various metric designs. Konstellationen present most interesting and unusual formal design in that the elements that delineate the form are dynamics, texture and certain pianistic devices, such as the ostinato, trills, abrupt high notes, irregular fast notes, and clusters. Chapter three addresses particularly the aleatoric elements. The study covers areas of pitch, rhythm, and form with a brief introduction of music in indeterminacy. Chapter four turns to several issues pertaining to the performance aspects. These include pedaling, extended techniques, and dynamic control. The last part of this chapter draws conclusions from the observation and analysis of the two works in question.

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