An analysis of the maps found in seven fifth grade American history textbooks

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

A comparison of parental attitudes of mothers of schizophrenic, brain injured, and normal children

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityA review of the literature on childhood schizophrenia reveals a bipolar difference of opinion concerning etiology. One opinion is that the impact on the child of the mother's behavioral expression of pathological attitudes toward child rearing and the family brings about a schizophrenic reaction; the other opinion is that there is an as yet undiscovered organic reason for the child's symptoms and that pathological attitudes observed in the mother arise as a result of the stress of trying to deal with the disordered child. The present study is designed to compare maternal attitudes of mothers of schizophrenic children, mothers of similarly behaving retarded and brain injured children, and mothers of normal children. The subjects were 15 mothers of hospitalized schizophrenic children with certain speech and behavior symptoms, 15 mothers of hospitalized brain injured and retarded children with similar behavior symptoms, and 26 mothers, all of whose children are and have been free of any serious chronic disorder. The Parental Attitude Research Instrument, developed by Schaefer and Bell at the National Institute of Mental Health, a paper and pencil questionnaire consisting of 23 five-item scales, was administered to each subject. Personal data about the age of the mother, her education, religion, husband's occupation, number of children, and family medical history was obtained from each mother after she had finished the PARI. The results support the hypothesis that the mothers 128 of schizophrenic children do not display more pathological attitudes than mothers of similarly behaving organic children, but that both groups have more pathological attitudes than mothers of normal children. The results support the hypothesis that the mothers of schizophrenic children do not display more pathological attitudes than the mothers of organic children on any of the five factors into which the PARI was analyzed, but that both groups have more pathological attitudes with respect to "Over-possessiveness" than mothers of normals. There were no significant differences between the attitudes of groups S and O on the variables of age of onset of the child's symptoms, age at time of hospitalization, sex of the patient, whether patient was first-born child, and whether the mother had subsequently had a normal child. The results further show that in addition to the differences among the groups based upon the condition of the child, the mothers' attitudes also varied according to their education, religion, and socioeconomic grouping. The findings tend to support the general hypothesis that mothers who are faced with comparably disturbed behavior will manifest comparable attitudes toward child rearing and the family and will manifest more pathological attitudes than mothers of normal children who present no special problem. The findings cast doubt upon the hypothesis that maternal attitudes are the cause of childhood schizophrenia. The likelihood of observed maternal attitudes being a combination of prior and reactive attitudes was discussed. The fact that within each group were mothers with widely disparate attitudes was also discussed. Also noted was the possibility that the severity of symptoms of the organically ill children might not be solely the result of organic factors. The merits of the "spectrum" idea of causation of childhood schizophrenia were highlighted. According to this notion, organic predisposition would occupy one end of the scale and psychological traumata the other. Either extreme or any combination might precipitate the same clinical pattern in different children. It was suggested that intensive investigation might disclose that the characteristics thought to be peculiar to mothers of schizophrenic children may be shared by many or all mothers of severely disordered children

Knowledge Acquisition and Structuring by Multiple Experts in a Group Support Systems Environment

This study addresses the impact of Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) on expert system development by multiple Domain Experts. Current approaches to building expert systems rely heavily on knowledge acquisition and prototyping by a Knowledge Engineer working directly with the Domain Expert. Although the complexity of knowledge domains and new organizational approaches demand the involvement of multiple experts, standard procedures limit the ability of the Knowledge Engineer to work with more than one expert at a time. Group Decision Support Systems offer a networked computerized environment for group work activities, in which multiple experts may express their ideas concurrently and anonymously through the electronic channel. GDSS systems have been widely used in other applications to support idea generation, conflict management, and the organizing, prioritizing, and synthesizing of ideas. The effects of many group process and technical factors on GDSS have been widely studied and documented. A review of the literature on expert systems, GDSS, and GDSS in relation to expert systems was conducted. Knowledge gained from this review was applied in the construction of an exploratory research model intended to provide the necessary breadth to identify factors worthy of future, more statistically-based, investigation. Domain Experts represented by college students were charged with developing and prioritizing ideas for creating a pre-prototypical expert system. The treatment group worked in a GDSS environment with a facilitator; a control group worked with a facilitator but without the assistance of GDSS. Each group then exchanged facilitators and technology to address another real-life problem. Additional groups worked with GDSS over time, addressing both problems. Data were gathered, analyzed and discussed relating to group efficiency factors, group process factors, attitudinal factors, and product quality factors. Independent Knowledge Engineers and Domain Experts evaluated the validity and verifiability of the group products. Analysis focused on the effect of GDSS in facilitating the acquisition and structuring of ideas for expert systems by multiple Domain Experts

Prediction of the Spectrum of a Digital Delta–Sigma Modulator Followed by a Polynomial Nonlinearity

This paper presents a mathematical analysis of the power spectral density of the output of a nonlinear block driven by a digital delta-sigma modulator. The nonlinearity is a memoryless third-order polynomial with real coefficients. The analysis yields expressions that predict the noise floor caused by the nonlinearity when the input is constant

Cinema as mnemotechnics

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Global Aerospace Industries: Rapid Changes Ahead? (Abridged)

Proceedings Paper (for Acquisition Research Program)This paper is prepared for the Ninth Annual Acquisition Research Symposium, as an abridged version of a longer report. We focus on certain key aspects of the EADS''Boeing rivalry''which, among other things, is one of the major features of international firmament of defense industrial affairs. We discuss selection of the Boeing KC-46 over the EADS KC-45 in 2011, seeking to understand connections among the associated events. We also seek to find useful explanatory models for Boeing''s success, discussed in Chapter II. In Chapter III, we consider the narrow-body airliner market, currently a Boeing''EADS duopoly. It has been a centerpiece of the firms'' rivalry, as well as a major source of profits for both. As such, these narrow-body families have provided resources for a number of wide-body developments, some of which have become part of the defense marketplace. The narrow-body market has been so profitable that other firms are positioning themselves to mount challenges to the two incumbents. These outlying firms have already made the market more competitive in a real sense. And, if these potential challengers become successful entrants, then Boeing and EADS will have lower profits, with major repercussions for both firms and their defense customers.Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research ProgramApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Differences of Opinion and International Equity Markets

We develop an international financial market model in which domestic and foreign residents differ in their beliefs about the information content in public signals. We determine how informational advantages of domestic investors in the interpretation of home public signals affect equity markets. We evaluate the ability of our model to generate four international-finance anomalies: (i) the co-movement of returns and capital flows, (ii) home-equity preference, (iii) the dependence of firm returns on home and foreign factors, and (iv) abnormal returns around foreign firm cross-listing in the home market. Their relationships with empirical differences-of-opinion proxies are consistent with the model

Status of Heavy Quark Physics on the Lattice

The status of lattice calculations of some phenomenology of heavy quarks is presented. Emphasis is on progress made in calculating those quantities relevant to estimating parameters of the quark mixing matrix, namely leptonic decay constants, the bag parameter of neutral $B$ mixing, and semileptonic form factors. New results from studies of quarkonia are highlighted.Comment: LATTICE98(Plenary Review Talk), to be published in Nucl. Phys. Proc. Suppl.; LaTeX, 15 pages, 9 PostScript figures, uses espcrc2.st

Trace level detection of analytes using artificial olfactometry

The present invention provides a device for detecting the presence of an analyte, wherein said analyte is a microorganism marker gas. The device comprises a sample chamber having a fluid inlet port for the influx of the microorganism marker gas; a fluid concentrator in flow communication with the sample chamber, wherein the fluid concentrator has an absorbent material capable of absorbing the microorganism marker gas and thereafter releasing a concentrated microorganism marker gas; and an array of sensors in fluid communication with the concentrated microorganism marker gas. The sensor array detects and identifies the marker gas upon its release from fluid concentrate