The main purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Texas House Bill 72 on equalization of finances in the public school districts of Texas. House Bill 72 is a finance reform bill which was passed by the Texas Legislature during the Summer of 1984. This study involves basically three steps. First, current criteria for equity as defined by school finance "experts" and recent definitive court decisions were determined. Second, financial data from the Texas Education Agency were statistically analyzed for the 1984-1985 school year. Third, the statistical analysis was used to determine if the current Texas school finance plan meets the current criteria for equity. The population used in the study was 1,068 school districts. Based on the findings of this study the following conclusions were drawn. 1. The use of a per capita flat grant by the Texas Public School Finance System contributes to the unequalizing of financial resources available to school districts. 2. School districts with greater property index values are required to exercise very little effort toward the support of their public schools. 3. School districts with high property index values tend to have lower effective tax rates and high per-pupil expenditures. 4. School …

This dissertation deals with the problem of manipulating and storing an image using quadtrees. A quadtree is a tree in which each node has four ordered children or is a leaf. It can be used to represent an image via hierarchical decomposition. The image is broken into four regions. A region can be a solid color (homogeneous) or a mixture of colors (heterogeneous). If a region is heterogeneous it is broken into four subregions, and the process continues recursively until all subregions are homogeneous. The traditional quadtree suffers from dependence on the underlying grid. The grid coordinate system is implicit, and therefore fixed. The fixed coordinate system implies a rigid tree. A rigid tree cannot be translated, scaled, or rotated. Instead, a new tree must be built which is the result of one of these transformations. This dissertation introduces the independent quadtree. The independent quadtree is free of any underlying coordinate system. The tree is no longer rigid and can be easily translated, scaled, or rotated. Algorithms to perform these operations axe presented. The translation and rotation algorithms take constant time. The scaling algorithm has linear time in the number nodes in the tree. The disadvantage of independent quadtrees is …

This study examines the effect of class discussion as a pre-writing activity on actual writing performance. The experiment was conducted with all the Level 3 and Level 4 students enrolled in the Intensive English Language Institute of North Texas State University in the Spring, 1986 semester. Cochrans C test was performed to test significant differences between groups at the beginning of this test. Multivariate analysis of variance tests were used to determine the treatment effect between and within groups, and a matched t-test was also utilized to analyze the difference within tests. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was calculated to determine the relationship between the discussion activity score and the actual writing score. Analysis of covariance tests were used to determine which variance of discussion activities had greater effect on the actual writing score.

The opinions of individuals may be influenced by groups of different gender configurations. This influence was studied by asking college students to respond to a series of statements in pretest and post-test settings. Post-test settings included the use of manipulatively constructed confederate groups to influence the subjects' responses. A pretest was administered in an anonymous nonthreatening environment. Within a week, the subjects were post-tested in a setting with four "confederates" who had previously been instructed to unanimously voice opposite answers to the subjects' initial responses to pretest questions. The objective of this experiment was to determine the number of opinions that were changed when confronted with opposing views. Change of opinions between pretest and post-test were considered to be operational definitions of "conformity."

Because international students are an increasingly significant aspect in American colleges and universities and on the North Texas State University campus in particular, this study was undertaken to explore the intercultural clash which Thai students at North Texas State University experience. Twenty-two Thai students were interviewed in depth using the oral history method. Ten faculty and administrators who work with international students were interviewed concerning their observations of Thai students. The information gleaned from these thirty-two interviews and from an examination of the basic socio-cultural differences between Thailand and the United States resulted in the isolation of the following basic difficulties. 1. Thais do not have command of written and oral English. 2. Americans do not have an appreciation of foreigners and lack tolerance in everyday exchanges with them. 3. Thais avoid becoming involved in American society. 4. Thais are not efficiently prepared for the American classroom. 5. American instructors do not appear prepared to handle the problems of Thai students. The study also developed a number of suggested solutions: 1. Raise the consciousness of Americans concerning Thai students; 2. Provide more effective ways of improving oral and listening skills in the English proficiency of Thai students beginning with American-directed …

The purpose of this study was three-fold: 1. To determine the amount and direction of changes in sources of funding for the Regional Education Service Centers from 1979 to 1984. 2. To determine the percent of change in programming expenditures of the Regional Education Service Centers from 1979 to 1984. 3. To rate the changes in quality of programming as perceived by the superintendents of the local school districts receiving services from 1979 to 1984. A review of the literature and a brief history of the Regional Education Service Centers of Texas were followed by tabular and narrative descriptions of the findings. Deflated data, to account for inflation, were derived by applying Bureau of Labor statistics formulas to dollar amounts supplied by the Regional Education Service Centers. Each of the five Education Service Centers included in the study experienced a decrease in total funds, due chiefly to a cut in federal and state support. Although local contributions increased in four out of five of the Regions during the five-year period, the net result to the Centers was a decrease in funding ranging from 23.2 percent to 51.8 percent. The impact on programming was severe. Of the nine major services on …

The purpose of this study was to determine the role of high school assistant principals as perceived by principals, assistant principals, and teachers. The population in this study consisted of the principals, assistant principals, and teachers in Class 5A high schools in Texas during the 1985- 86 school year. One hundred and twenty of the Class 5A high schools were randomly selected to participate in the study. One principal, one assistant principal, and one teacher from each school were asked to respond to the survey. A questionnaire was designed to measure the perception of the three groups under study and contained seventy-seven job responsibilities which were divided into six major areas. The six areas were school management, staff personnel, community relations, student activities, curriculum and instruction, and pupil personnel. Eighteen items were eliminated through clarity, appropriateness, and reliability studies. Each respondent was asked to rate the degree of involvement of assistant principals for each job responsibility listed in two columns labeled current and ideal. Five hypotheses were developed for the study. Three hypotheses were tested by a multivariate one-way analysis of variance with repeated measures, and two were tested using a univariate one-way analysis of variance. The .05 level of …

This study examined the relationship between the resistance to temptation of three-, four-, and five-year-old children and parental attitudes toward child-rearing. Other variables explored included gender of the children, employment status of mothers, and socio-economic status of families. Fifty-two three-, four-, and five-year-old children from two centers were tested to determine their levels of resistance to temptation as measured by Grinder's Bean Bag Instrument. Parental attitudes toward child-rearing were measured by Schaefer and Bell's Parental Attitude Research Instrument (PARI). To determine the difference between the resistance to temptation scores and socio-economic status, gender, and employment status of mothers, Jt tests were employed. No significant differences were found with regard to these variables. Factor analysis of the PARI resulted in three primary factors: Hostility-Rejection, Authoritarian- Control, and Democratic-Attitude. To determine the difference between the Hostility-Rejection scores, Authoritarian-Control scores, and Democratic-Attitude scores of the mothers and socio-economic status, _t tests were employed. There were no significant differences between mothers of a lower socio-economic level and their Hostility- Rejection and Democratic-Attitude scores. However, mothers of a lower/upper socio-economic level showed significantly higher levels of Authoritarian-Control than mothers of an upper socio-economic level. To determine the difference between the Hostility-Rejection scores, Authoritarian- Control scores, …

Two phage lambda clones encompassing human tRNA genes have been isolated from a human gene library harbored in bacteriophage lambda Charon-UA. One of the clones (designated as hLeuU) containing a 20-kb human DNA fragment was isolated and found to contain a cluster of four tRNA genes. An 8.2-kb Hindlll fragment encompassing the four tRNA genes was isolated from the 20-kb fragment and subcloned into pBR322 for restriction mapping and DNA sequence analysis. The four tRNA genes are arranged as two tandem pairs with the first pair containing a proline tRNAAGQ gene and a leucine tRNAAAQ gene and the second pair containing another proline tRNAAGG gene and a threonine tRNAuQU gene. The two pairs are separated about 3 kb from each other, and the leucine tRNAAAG gene is of opposite polarity from the other three tRNA genes. The tRNA transcription units were sequenced by a unidirectional deletion dideoxyribonucleotide chain-termination method in the M13mpl8 and 19 vectors. The coding regions of the four tRNA genes contain characteristic internal split promoter sequences and do not encode intervening sequences nor the CCA trinucleotide found in mature tRNAs. The proline t R N A A G G gene is separated from the leucine t R …

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a transitional first grade program. A comparison of reading and math achievement and school attitude was the focus of the study. The study utilized a pretest/posttest design. The group of regular first grade students who qualified for the transitional program but attended regular first grade was the control group. The group of transitional first grade students was the experimental group. The regular first grade students received formal instruction in all academic areas. The experimental group received no formal instruction. All students were pretested and posttested using the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the Minnesota School Attitude Survey. Testing was administered to small groups of five or less by the researcher. Scoring was done also by the researcher. An analysis of covariance was used to determine if a significant difference existed between the groups. The analysis of covariance did not produce a significant F at the .05 level when applied to the Iowa Test of Basic Skills except for reading for boys in both groups. The numbers in each cell were low and no further comparisons were made. Due to a testing date that was approved late in the …

The purpose of the present study was to determine if psychological stress, defined as academic examination stress, would systematically produce changes in immune parameters (immunoglobulin concentration) and psychological functioning. It was hypothesized that as examination stress occurred there would be an effect on immunological function consistent with heightened psychological activity/stress. Subjects were 23 master's and doctoral students in psychology who volunteered for the research project. All subjects were administered a series of psychological tests to measure stress, personality factors, emotional states, and anxiety levels. All tests were administered and.blood samples drawn over a period of 15 months across two lowstress and two high-stress periods. Immunological tests included white blood cell (WBC) differential count and radial immunodiffusion (RID) for the determination of concentration of different immunoglobulin classes (IgA, IgG, IgM) in serum. Data were treated to a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures, t /test for correlated samples correlational matrix between variables across assessments and discriminant function analysis. Results showed (1) increased immunoglobulin levels during periods of stress; (2) immunoglobulin G most consistently related to stress and probably most indicative of the stressed condition and biological resistance to stress; (3) anxiety related to external events; (4) increase in anxiety …

A skill instruction technique based on cognitive behavioral principles was applied to thermal imagery to determine if it could enhance either subjective or physiological responsiveness. The effects of imagery instruction were compared with the effects of muscle relaxation on imagery vividness, thermal imagery involvement, and the finger temperature response. The subjects were 39 male and 29 female volunteers from a minimum security federal prison. The personality characteristic of absorption was used as a classification variable to control for individual differences. It was hypothesized that high absorption individuals would reveal higher levels of imagery vividness, involvement, and finger temperature change; that imagery skill instruction and muscle relaxation would be more effective than a control condition; and that the low absorption group would derive the greatest benefit from the imagery task instruction condition. None of the hypotheses was supported. Finger temperature increased over time during the experimental procedure but remained stable during thermal imagery. The results suggest that nonspecific relaxation effects may best account for finger temperature increases during thermal imagery. Results were discussed in relation to cognitive-behavioral theory and the characteristic of absorption.

The purposes of this study were to determine the role expectations of academic counselors in vocational education as perceived by home economics cooperative education teachers and academic counselors, to compare the extent of agreement between these two groups, and to determine if selected demographic variables caused significant differences in perceptions of role expectations. This study surveyed randomly selected counselors and teachers by means of a questionnaire designed to ascertain role perceptions and to collect demographic data. The Likert-type scale instrument consisted of 46 items that were categorized into six areas of counseling tasks. A total of 45 teachers and 158 counselors returned usable questionnaires.

Prior to the issuance of Financial Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 8 (SFAS No. 8), there was a marked inconsistency in the area of accounting for foreign currency translation. Though designed to make the diverse accounting practices of multinational corporations (MNCs) more compatible, SFAS No. 8 was the subject of a great deal of criticism, eventually leading to the issuance of Financial Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 52 (SFAS No. 52). SFAS No. 52 differs from SFAS No. 8 on objectives and method of translation, and on accounting treatments of translation adjustments. This dissertation provides an empirical examination of the security market reaction to the accounting policy change embodied in SFAS No. 52, and its impact on the volatility of reported earnings of MNCs. The effects of the issuance and early adoption of SFAS No. 52 on security return distributions were determined by both cross-sectional comparisons of cumulative average residuals (CAR) between MNCs and domestic firms and between early and late adopters, and by time-series tests on CAR of MNCs. Two volume analyses were performed to test the effects of SFAS No. 52 on security volume. The first analysis was adjusted to remove the effects of the marketwide factors on …

The objective of this study was to explore intramolecular ketene cycloadditions with the anticipated results of developing new synthetic methodology for the synthesis of polycyclic compounds difficult to obtain by other procedures. (o-Alkenylphenoxy)ketenes were initially selected for this study because these ketenes provided a favorable proximity for the intramolecular [2+2] cycloaddition reactions. The difunctional precursors, (o-alkenylphenoxy)- acetic acids, were readily prepared from o-alkenylphenols and ∝-halocarboxylic acids and were converted to the corresponding acid chlorides by reaction with oxalyl chloride. The acid chlorides were dehydrochlorinated to the corresponding (o-alkenylphenoxy)ketenes by treatment with triethylamine. The ketenes undergo a facile intramolecular [2+2] cycloaddition to give polycyclic eye 1obutanones. The (o-vinylphenoxy)ketenes are clearly more reactive than the (o-allylphenoxy)ketenes and provide much better yields of the cycloaddition products because of electronic effects in the transition state in the cycloaddition process. The intramolecular [2+2] cycloadditions of keteniminium salts were included in this study as a more electrophilic alternative to ketenes that will react with less nucleophilic carbon-carbon double bonds. However, the use of keteniminium salts instead of ketenes in Intramolecular cycloadditions does have some limitations. The synthesis of benzofurans via the intramolecular [2+2] cycloadditions of (o-acylphenoxy)ketenes was accomplished. The initially formed ß-lactone cycloaddition products spontaneously underwent …

This study had two basic objectives. The first was to determine the stock market reactions to the pension policy deliberations. The second was to further our understanding of the significance of the FASB's due process. The author selected 13 critical events that preceded passage of SFAS No. 87 and designed a quasi experiment to examine the stock market reaction around the above events. Two portfolios were constructed to test the hypotheses. The first portfolio consisted of firms in the experimental group (firms sponsoring a defined benefit pension plan) and the second portfolio consisted of firms in the control group (firms sponsoring a defined contribution pension plan). The two portfolios were matched on the basis of SIC code, debt to equity ratio and assets.

The problem of this study was to determine to what extent contemporary adult education theory has similarities to and origins in ancient Athenian ideas about education. The methodology used in the study combined hermeneutics and the critical theory of Jurgen Habermas. Primary sources incuded Aristotle, Plato, Aristophanes, and Diogenes Laertius; secondary sources included Jaeger, Marrou, Dover, and Kennedy. In the analysis of Athenian adult education, three groups of adult educators were identified—the poets the sophists, and the philosophers. The poets were the traditional educators of the Greek people; their shared interest or way of perceiving the world emphasized the importance of community cohesion and health. In Athens in the mid-fifth century B.C., a new group of educators, the sophists, arose to fill a demand of adults for higher and adult education in the skills necessary to participate in the assembly and courts. The sophists emphasized a pragmatic human interest and taught the skill of rhetoric. Socrates and Plato created a new school of educators, the philosophers, who became vigorous ideological opponents of both the poets and the sophists. The philosophers exhibited a transcendental interest or approach to knowledge; the purpose of life was to improve the soul, and the preferred …

This study attempted to explore the strength and nature of relationships between specific intellectual information processing skills included in a multi-dimensional model conceived by Guilford, and measured by Meeker's Structure of Intellect - Learning Abilities Test, and specific musical aural discrimination skills as measured by Gordon's Musical Aptitude Profile. Three research questions were posed, which involved determining the strength and the nature of the relationship between MAP melodic, rhythmic, and aesthetic discrimination abilities and the intellectual information processing skills comprising the SOI - LA. Both instruments were administered to 387 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders from schools in the Dallas area. After a pilot study established the feasibility of the study and reliability estimates of the test instruments, multiple regression analysis determined that 10% to 15% of the variance between intellectual information-processing skills and the individual musical aural discrimination abilities was in common (r = +.32 to r = +.39). It was further determined that only six specific SOI intellectual dimensions, all involving the skills of "Cognition" and "Evaluation", were significantly related to the musical aural discrimination abilities. Through the use of the Coefficient of Partial Correlation, the strength of each individual information-processing skill's unique contribution to that covariance was …

The purpose of this study was to analyze a representative seventy-eight current young adult books to determine the extent to which they contain items which are objectionable to would-be censors. Seventy-eight books were identified which fit the criteria of popularity and literary quality. Content analysis was selected as the quantitative method of research. Each of the seventy-eight young adult books was analyzed for the six categories which were established through prior research. The six categories include profanity, sex, violence, parent conflict, drugs, and condoned bad behavior. These categories were tallied each time they occurred in the books. Reliability was assured with a rating of .98 by a committee of six professionals. The data reveal that profanity occurred more times in the seventy-eight books than the other five categories with a total of 5,616. The category of drugs was noted 4,171 times. References to sex followed in number with 3,174. The categories which occurred the least were violence with 1,849 occurrences and condoned bad behavior with only 489 occurrences. By applying a frequency index formula to determine the number of objections in each book in relation to the number of pages, a comparison among the books could be made. The analysis, …

This study examined the effects and expectations of external economic dependence on foreign investment policy outputs with particular reference to the Nigerian experience between 1954 and 1980. Three basic kinds of external economic dependence were studied: foreign investment, the penetration of the Nigerian economy by foreign capital through the agency of the multinational corporations (MNCs); foreign trade, a measure of the Nigerian economy's participation in the world market; and foreign aid (loans and grants), a measure of Nigeria's reliance on financial assistance from governments and international financial inst itutions. For the most part, the level of Nigeria's economic dependence was very high. However, economic dependency is not translated into changes in foreign investment policy in favor of the foreign investors in Nigeria as is predicted by the dependency paradigm. The Nigerian case casts doubt on the dependency paradigm as a framework for fully explaining factors that may determine foreign direct investment policy changes that occur in a less developed Third World country. In other words, the dependency paradigm has a limited explanatory power; there is a factor independent of the economic factor operating out of the control of global capitalism (the center of the center in alliance with the center …

This investigation compared achievement of boys and girls in second grade who were seven years old in June, July, and August of 1983 to the boys and girls in second grade who were eight years old in September, October, and November of 1983. The students were tested using the Iowa Test of Basic Skills using the following areas: reading, total math, and composite scores. The study also looked at the correlation of sex and age of students who had been retained in first grade. A comparison of teacher grades to standardized test scores and ability grouping was also presented. One way analysis of variance was applied to the test results. A chi square test of independence was conducted on students retained in the first grade to determine if interaction between sex and age was indicated. Older children scored higher in all three areas measured, while girls scored higher in reading. This may seem contradictory, but is not. Age was significant beyond the .05 level, while sex was significant beyond the .001 level. This difference is explained by the extremes in means for younger boys and older girls. Since first grade curriculum emphasizes reading, this gave girls a definite advantage over …

A packaging model is presented in this study which attempts to show some important aspects of a consumer's cognitive process in relation to packaging. This packaging model is based on the theories of imagery, emotion, and perception (and sensation). Perception of a packaged good occurs because the motivation system of a consumer selects particular information that the packaged good provides. Unlike the situation which occurs in behaviorism, stimulus is as important as response, and motivation explains why people don't perceive all the information available in the environment. When perception occurs, two subsequent responses are possible in the mind of a consumer: the connotative response and the denotative response. A connotative response is an evaluation of the perceived, i.e. emotion. Denotative response is imagery which is produced by conditioned sensory response. Imagery may elicit emotional response. Thus, imagery may reinforce consumer behavior positively or negatively. Emotion with regard to a packaged good is, then, the combination of emotions elicited by the perceived and the imagery evoked. This packaging model tries to explain purchasing behavior through the concepts of imagery and emotion.

This study examines the history and development of vibrato among classical saxophonists as well as briefly summarizes the history of vibrato in general from its origins on string instruments, the voice and other wind instruments. An analysis of recordings of early saxophonists shows the approximate time period of incorporation of vibrato on the saxophone and the influences of performers and musical styles on its development. Pedagogical methods of performing vibrato on the saxophone are included as well as a discussion of saxophone vibrato styles. An exploration of vibrato as an expressive musical device is provided along with conclusions drawn concerning performance practice implications.

The problem of this study was to measure the impact of a read-aloud approach combined with direct teaching methodology on student achievement/attitudes and school expenditures. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, the study was to determine the relative impact of three treatments on student reading and listening skills, vocabulary development, and attitude towards reading. The first treatment was read-aloud based on specific recommended texts combined with direct teaching methodology. The second treatment was read-aloud based on specific recommended texts. The third treatment, the control, was simply a read-aloud-based program. The second purpose of the study was to compare the relative cost and effort required by the three treatments. The 226 subjects in this study were selected from the population of third—grade students from three metropolitan early childhood centers. The subjects were pretested and posttested with the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), a criterion-referenced vocabulary test and the Estes Attitudinal Scale. Analyses of covariance and after F-test multiple comparisons were used to compare the relative impact of the three treatments on a preselected set of criterion variables.