Dissociation constants for alternate dirmcleotide substrates and competitive inhibitors suggest that the dinucleotide binding site of the Ascaris suum NAD-malic enzyme is hydrophobic in the vicinity of the nicotinamide ring. Changes in the divalent metal ion activator from Mg^2+ to Mn^2+ or Cd^2+ results in a decrease in the dinucleotide affinity and an increase in the affinity for malate. Primary deuterium and 13-C isotope effects obtained with the different metal ions suggest either a change in the transition state structure for the hydride transfer or decarboxylation steps or both. Deuterium isotope effects are finite whether reactants are maintained at saturating or limiting concentrations with all the metal ions and dinucleotide substrates used. With Cd^2+ as the divalent metal ion, inactivation of the enzyme occurs whether enzyme alone is present or is turning over. Upon inactivation only Cd^2+ ions are bound to the enzyme which becomes denatured. Modification of the enzyme to give an SCN-enzyme decreases the ability of Cd^2+ to cause inactivation. The modified enzyme generally exhibits increases in K_NAD and K_i_metai and decreases in V_max as the metal size increases from Mg^2+ to Mn^2+ or Cd^2+, indicative of crowding in the site. In all cases, affinity for malate greatly …

Freshmen at Sul Ross State University are required to take tests which are used for placement purposes. One of the tests given is the Nelson-Denny Reading Test which measures comprehension, vocabulary, and reading rate. The scores are used with American College Test or Standard Achievement Test scores to place students in either remedial or regular freshman English. Remedial students, who score below the tenth-grade competency level, are placed in English 1300. Regular students are placed in English 1301 or 1302. Twelve studies were found which had been done in this area since 1980. One was directly related to this study. The Anglo and Hispanic population of the freshman class of 1987 was tested. Blacks were not included as they comprised less than 9 percent of the freshman class. There were 69 students in the experimental group and 162 in the control group. A pretest-posttest design was used. A three-way analysis of variance set up data for statistical testing. The Alpha level was set at .05. The findings indicate a significant difference for Hypothesis 1, which predicted no significant difference in the posttest performance of students required to take English 1300 and the pretest performance of students who were not. Therefore …

Waste-to-energy has become an attractive alternative to landfills. One concern in this development is the release of pollutants in the combustion process. The binder enhanced d-RDF pellets satisfy the requirements of environmental acceptance, chemical/biological stability, and being storeable. The acid gas emissions of combusting d-RDF pellets with sulfur-rich coal were analyzed by ion chromatography and decreased when d-RDF pellets were utilized. The results imply the possibility of using d-RDF pellets to substitute for sulfur-rich coal as fuel, and also substantiate the effectiveness of a binder, calcium hydroxide, in decreasing emissions of SOx. In order to perform the analysis of the combustion sample, sampling and sample pretreatment methods prior to the IC analysis and the first derivative detection mode in IC are investigated as well. At least two trapping reagents are necessary for collecting acid gases: one for hydrogen halides, and the other for NOx and SOx. Factors affecting the absorption of acid gases are studied, and the strength of an oxidizing agent is the main factor affecting the collection of NOx and SOx. The absorption preference series of acid gases are determined and the absorption models of acid gases in trapping reagents are derived from the analytical results. To prevent …

The purpose of this study is to determine whether oil and gas producing companies smooth their ending reserve quantities. Smoothing is defined as a reduction in variance in the trend of ending reserve quantities over time compared to the trend of ending reserve quantities less the hypothesized smoothing variable over time. This study focuses on two variables that are most susceptible to manipulation—revisions of previous estimates and additions. This study also examines whether revisions are positively or negatively biased and the variability of the revisions. The sample consists of 70 companies chosen from oil & Gas Reserve Disclosures: 1980-1984 Survey of 400 Public Companies by Arthur Andersen and Company. For each company, ending reserve quantities for the years 1978-1984 were regressed over time, and the standard deviation of the estimate (SDE) was calculated. Then the ending reserve quantities less the hypothesized smoothing variable were regressed over time, and the SDE was calculated. A linear model and a semi-logarithmic model were used. A smoothing ratio (SR) was determined by dividing the SDE of reserves less the hypothesized smoothing variable by the SDE of ending reserve quantities. An SR greater than one indicates smoothing, and an SR less than one indicates that …

This ethnographic, descriptive case study is concerned with an analysis of the Elderhostel experience at one specific university. Questionnaires, evaluation documents, observations, phototographs, and interviews were used in this study to describe the 1988 Elderhostel experience at North Texas State University. Thirty-three persons were initially asked to participate in this study. Twenty-nine agreed and actually completed the questionnaires, and 26 completed the program evaluation. The study is organized and presented in the following manner: Chapter I introduces the study. Chapter II presents a review of related literature addressing those studies directly concerned with the Elderhostel experience, those addressing motivational reasons for participation in adult education, and those dealing with learning abilities, interests, and goals of the elderly in general. Chapter III includes the methods and procedures used to collect and analyze the data. Chapter IV presents the descriptive and statistical analysis of the data, and Chapter V includes the summary, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations that were derived from the analysis. Major findings of this study include a description of the organization and administration of the program, a description of the educational and co-curricular activities offered and how they were evaluated by the participants, and demographic and motivational data of the …

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of the physics instructors, major-physics students, and nonmajor-physics students regarding actual teaching performance and effective teaching performance. The sample consisted of a total of 56 physics instructors, 120 major-physics students, and 120 nonmajor-physics students at eight public universities in Thailand. A total of 53 physics instructors or 94.64 percent, 101 major-physics students or 84.17 percent, and 107 nonmajor-physics students or 89.17 percent responded in this study. Multivariate analysis of variance, univariate analysis, one-way analysis of variance, and multiple regression were used in the follow-up assessment, with the .05 level of significance. The physics instructors, major-physics students, and nonmajor-physics students perceived actual teaching performance in class to be significantly different from effective teaching performance. The three groups rated actual teaching performance on every factor to be less than sffective teaching. There was a significant difference between the physics instructors' perceptions and the major-physics students' perceptions regarding actual teaching performance, and also there was a significant difference between the physics instructors' perceptions and the nonmajor-physics students' perceptions regarding actual teaching performance. However, there was no significant difference between major-and nonmajor-physics students' perceptions regarding actual teaching performance. There was no significant difference among …

There are two principal definitions of response-reinforcer contingency in the current literature which Scott and Piatt (1985) have labeled the phi coefficient and Rescorla index. For both definitions, contingencies are sensitive to two conditional probabilities of reinforcement, that given the occurrence and that given the non-occurrence of the criterion response. However, phi coefficient is sensitive also to the probability of the criterion response. In order to examine the relationship between children's perceived contingencies of teacher reinforcements, as defined by the phi coefficient and Rescorla index, and the children's perceptions of competence and measures of their academic performances, 119 5th grade children (54 boys and 65 girls) were studied. Two variables derived specifically from the phi coefficient, the probability of children's responses and the probability of teacher reinforcements, were also examined in their relationship to perceived contingencies and academic performance. In general, children's perceptions of teachers as both contingently rewarding and punishing, as defined by the phi coefficient and Rescorla index, were predictive of good academic performance by the children and teachers rating them as academically competent. Childrens' perceptions of their academic competence were also predictive of their academic performances and teacher ratings. The children's perceptions of academic competence were related …

The ability of several psychometric instruments to differentiate between criminal and non-criminal subjects was investigated. The subjects in the study consisted of fifty male individuals between the ages of 18 and 55, half of which had been convicted of one crime and half of which had no history of criminal activity. The tests administered consisted of the Psychopathic Deviation Scale from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the Psychopathic Deviation Scale of the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire, and two tests designed by the author. The author's tests consisted of the Test of Criminal Cognitions which evaluated antisocial thought patterns and cognitive flexibility, and the Social Semantics Test which assessed individual role definitions. The Test of Criminal Cognitions was administered as a part of a structured interview, and all other scales were administered in a paper and pencil format. The results indicated that the Psychopathic Deviation Scale of the MMPI, and a portion of both the Test of Criminal Cognitions and the Social Semantics Scales differentiated between the groups at the .05 level or better. These findings indicated that criminals tend to be significantly less flexible in their thought and tend to view others in a much more narcissistic manner than non-criminals. …

Test items supplied with seven textbooks approved for use in Computer Science I and II curricula in Texas public schools were categorized by Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Eating was done by a panel of ten judges selected from a group of participants at a taxonomy workshop. The selection criterion was demonstration of at least 80 percent competency in item classification. Judges received a small stipend for completing the rating task. Of 2020 possible items, 998 were randomly selected for analysis. Equal percentages of items from each text were then randomly assigned to each rater. All statistical analyses were computed using SPSS/PC+ (version 2.1). In both courses, CLD frequencies decreased through the three lower levels. The percentage of questions falling in these levels was approximately 83 percent for both courses. However, the higher-level course contained almost 10 percent more Knowledge level questions than did the lower course. At the higher taxonomic levels, the decline was roughly five percent per level in CS I but erratic in CS II. Analysis by book also revealed wide differences within each course.

This study compared three methods of selecting the best discriminating test items and the resultant test reliability of mastery/nonmastery classifications. These three methods were (a) the agreement approach, (b) the phi coefficient approach, and (c) the random selection approach. Test responses from 1,836 students on a 50-item physical science test were used, from which 90 distinct data sets were generated for analysis. These 90 data sets contained 10 replications of the combination of three different sample sizes (75, 150, and 300) and three different numbers of test items (15, 25, and 35). The results of this study indicated that the agreement approach was an appropriate method to be used for selecting criterion-referenced test items at the classroom level, while the phi coefficient approach was an appropriate method to be used at the district and/or state levels. The random selection method did not have similar characteristics in selecting test items and produced the lowest reliabilities, when compared with the agreement and the phi coefficient approaches.

This study models the human process of music cognition on the digital computer. The definition of music cognition is derived from the work in music cognition done by the researchers Carol Krumhansl and Edward Kessler, and by Mari Jones, as well as from the music theories of Heinrich Schenker. The computer implementation functions in three stages. First, it translates a musical "performance" in the form of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) messages into LISP structures. Second, the various parameters of the performance are examined separately a la Jones's joint accent structure, quantified according to psychological findings, and adjusted to a common scale. The findings of Krumhansl and Kessler are used to evaluate the consonance of each note with respect to the key of the piece and with respect to the immediately sounding harmony. This process yields a multidimensional set of points, each of which is a cognitive evaluation of a single musical event within the context of the piece of music within which it occurred. This set of points forms a metric space in multi-dimensional Euclidean space. The third phase of the analysis maps the set of points into a topology-preserving data structure for a Schenkerian-like middleground structural analysis. This …

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which a non-verbal test of intelligence, the Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence (TONI), may be used for assessing intellectual abilities of children in India. This investigation is considered important since current instruments used in India were developed several years ago and do not adequately reflect present standards of performance. Further, current instruments do not demonstrate adequate validity, as procedures for development and cultural transport were frequently not in adherence to recommended guidelines for such practice. Data were collected from 91 normally achieving and 18 mentally retarded Indian children, currently enrolled in elementary schools. Data from an American comparison group were procured from the authors of the TONI. Subjects were matched on age, grade, and area of residence. Subjects were also from comparative socioeconomic backgrounds. Literature review of the theoretical framework supporting cross-cultural measurement of intellectual ability, a summary of major instruments developed for cross-cultural use, non-verbal measures of intellectual ability in India, and issues in cross-cultural research are discussed, with recommended methodology for test transport. Major findings are: (a) the factor scales derived from the Indian and American normally achieving groups indicate significant differences; (b) items 1, 3, 5, 8, …

This study discusses the evolution of the English country-house poem from its inception by Ben Jonson in "To Penshurst" to the present. It shows that in addition to stylistic and thematic borrowings primarily from Horace and Martial, traditional English values associated with the great hall and comitatus ideal helped define features of the English country-house poem, to which Jonson added the metonymical use of architecture. In the Jonsonian country-house poem, the country estate, exemplified by Penshurst, is a microcosm of the ideal English social organization characterized by interdependence, simplicity, service, hospitality, and balance between the active and contemplative life. Those poems which depart from the Jonsonian ideal are characterized by disequilibrium between the active and contemplative life, resulting in the predominance of artifice, subordination of nature, and isolation of art from the community, as exemplified by Thomas Carew's "To Saxham" and Richard Lovelace's "Amyntor's Grove." Architectural features of the English country house are examined to explain the absence of the Jonsonian country-house poem in the eighteenth century. The building tradition praised by Jonson gradually gave way to aesthetic considerations fostered by the professional architect and Palladian architecture, architectural patronage by the middle class, and change in identity of the country …

In this study a two-part mixed probability density function was derived which described the relative changes in the Standard and Poor's 100 Stock Index over various intervals of time. The density function is a mixture of two different halves of normal distributions. Optimal values for the standard deviations for the two halves and the mean are given. Also, a general form of the function is given which uses linear regression models to estimate the standard deviations and the means. The density functions allow stock market participants trading index options and futures contracts on the S & P 100 Stock Index to determine probabilities of success or failure of trades involving price movements of certain magnitudes in given lengths of time.

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.

Dr. W. A. Criswell is the well known pastor of the twenty-seven thousand member historic First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas, Texas. He has held the position for the past forty-three years. Until now no one has attempted an in-depth study of Criswell's educational contributions to the First Baptist Church (which have also been adopted into the Southern Baptist denomination, America's largest Protestant religious organization). Although Criswell has been the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas for many years, this was by no means his introduction to the pastorate. In 1928 he was ordained as a seventeen year old minister of the gospel in Amarillo, Texas. He has been a pastor for over sixty years. Criswell has made a lasting impact on the church staff, school staff (Criswell College and First Baptist Academy), students in those schools, the Southern Baptist denomination and also the city of Dallas. He has been one of the key figures in evangelical national movements. Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Senators, and Governors are no strangers to a Sunday morning service held in the large sanctuary in downtown Dallas. Much of the research for this project originated from the Oral Memoirs of W. A. Criswell. a …

This study was an investigation of the effects of physiologically-oriented mental imagery on immune functioning. College students with normal medical histories were randomly selected to one of three groups. Subjects in Group 1 participated in short educational training on the production of secretory immunoglobulin A. They were then tested on salivary IgA, skin temperature and the Profile of Mood States (POMS) before and after listening to a 17-minute tape of imagery instructions with specially-composed background "entrainment" music, designed to enhance imagery. Subjects in Group 2 (placebo controls) listened to the same music but received no formal training on the immune system. Group 3 acted as a control and subjects were tested before and after 17 minutes of no activity. Treatment groups listened to their tapes at home on a bi-daily basis for six weeks. All groups were again tested at Weeks 3 and 6. Secretory IgA was analyzed using standard radial immuno-diffusion techniques. Repeated measures analyses of variance with planned orthogonal contrasts were used to evaluate the data. Significant overall increases (p < .05) were found between pre- and posttests for all three trials. Groups 1 and 2 combined (treatment groups) yielded significantly greater increases in slgA over Group 3 …

This qualitative case study provided a narrative portrait of 12 students in the 11th grade in one north Texas district who failed the initial administration of the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) exit-level test. It also presented an account of their perceptions of the test and their efforts to overcome this educational hurdle. The following conclusions were drawn from the study. Limited English proficiency (LEP) students had difficulty mastering the language arts section of the test. A majority of the students reported that TEAMS failure had no social impact. Most of the students declined district-offered remediation. Students tended to perceive the test as a personal challenge. Those students who attended remedial tutoring sessions performed better on the following retest than those who declined remediation. Hispanic and Asian students expressed additional study as being the key to passing the test. Black students felt that the key to passing was to spend sufficient time while taking the test. Those students who were more verbal during their interviews tended to be more successul in passing the language arts section of the TEAMS. The following recommendations were made from the study: (a) students who fail the TEAMS by minimal margins should be …

The study investigated the relationship among three cognitive styles and summarization abilities. Both summarization products and processes were examined. Summarizing products were scored and a canonical correlation analysis was performed to determine their relationship with three cognitive styles. Summarizing processes were examined by videotaping students as they provided think aloud protocols. Their processes were recorded on composing style sheets and analyzed qualitatively. Subjects were sixth-grade students in self-contained classes in a suburban school district. Summarizing products were collected over a two week period in the fall. Summarizing processes were collected over an eight week period in the spring of the same school year. The results of the summarizing products analysis suggest that cognitive styles are related to summarization abilities. Two canonical correlations among the two variable sets were statistically significant at the .05 level of significance (.33 and .29). The results further suggest that students who are field independent, reflective, and flexible in their attentional style may be more adept at organizing their ideas and using written mechanics while summarizing. Students who are impulsive and constricted in attentional style may exhibit strength in expressing their ideas while summarizing. Results of the summarizing processes analysis suggest that students of one cognitive …

This research began with the Hill Inventory. Cognitive style preference variables were classified as one of following four types: Theoretical Codes, Qualitative Codes, Social-Cultural Codes or Reasoning Modalities. A consumer behavior perspective was then used to form an alternative structure for the Hill Inventory variables. The following three constructs were proposed: Evaluation Codes, Perceptual Codes, and Reasoning Modalities. The purpose of this research was to assess the structural form and measurement validity of the Hill Inventory. Specific steps taken to accomplish this objective included: developing confirmatory factor and structural equation models; using the LISREL software package to analyze the model specifications; and assessing the validity of the questions used to measure the variables. A descriptive research design was used to compare the model specifications. The research instrument consisted of eight statements for each of twenty-eight variables for a total of 224 questions. Five-point response choices were described by the words: often, sometimes, unsure, rarely, or never. The sample consisted of 285 student subjects in marketing classes at a large university. Data analysis began by comparing the distributions of the data to a normal case. Parameter estimates, root mean square residuals and squared multiple correlations then were obtained using the LISREL …

This study examined the effects of entrepreneurship level and legal regulatory environment on environmental scanning in one component of the health services industry, private practice physical therapy. Two aspects of scanning served as dependent variables: (1) extent to which firms scrutinized six environmental sectors (competitor, customer, technological, regulatory, economic, social-political) and (2) frequency of information source use (human vs. written). Availability of information was a covariate for frequency of source use. Three levels of entrepreneurship were determined by scores on the Covin and Slevin (1986) entrepreneurship scale. Firms were placed in one of three legal regulatory categories according to the state in which the firm delivered services. A structured questionnaire was sent to 450 randomly selected members of the American Physical Therapy Association's Private Practice Section. Respondents were major decision makers, e.g., owners, chief executive officers. The sample was stratified according to three types of regulatory environment. A response rate of 75% was achieved (n = 318) with equal representation from each stratum. All questionnaire subscales exhibited high internal reliability and validity. The study used a 3x3 factorial design to analyze the data. Two multivariate analyses were conducted, one for each dependent variable set. Results indicated that "high" entrepreneurial level …

The Thai State Railway Authority (RSR) is a public enterprise in Thailand. As an organization its performance is subject to the argument of contingency theorists that operating efficiency is dependent upon various factors both in the internal and external environments of the enterprise. Most of the internal factors are those that organization theorists in the developed world have identified such as goals and objectives, resources, and organization structures. Meanwhile, external factors such as political, economic and social conditions of the society are regarded as indirect factors that have less importance than do the internal factors. Scholars of the developing world have argued that political, social and economic conditions in the society are as important as internal factors. These factors may have a very significant influence on the enterprises and on the society as a whole. Consequently, public enterprises in developing countries always encounter the same problem of operating inefficiency. The RSR is selected as a case study because of its advantages over the other public enterprises in Thailand in terms of size of operation, length of service, and data availability. For the purpose of this project, data are collected from 1960 to 1984 for longitudinal analysis. The methods of analysis …

Conceptualization psychotherapy as an interpersonal influence process emphasizes how a therapist is perceived by a client. Factors affecting a client's early impressions of a therapist could influence therapeutic interactions since first impressions are relatively stable. The study investigated effects of nonverbal behavior and gender during a simulated initial meeting between a therapist and client. Undergraduates (N = 466) viewed a male or female therapist interviewing with a new female client. Therapist gaze .(100%, 80%, 40%) and smiling (high, low) were manipulated. After subjects viewed one of 12 videotapes, they completed questionnaires rating therapist expertness, trustworthiness, attractiveness, masculinity and femininity. A comparison of the therapist with subjects' expectations of a therapist in general was obtained by pre- and post-testing utilizing a measure of client expectations. MANOVAs were performed on all ratings except expectation scores, where an ANCOVA was utilized. Main effects for therapist gender indicated the female therapist was rated as significantly more expert, attractive, trustworthy and feminine than the male (ps < .81). For ratings of masculinity, subject gender interacted with therapist gender (p < .001). Wain effects showed that high smiling was rated as more attractive and more feminine (ps < .01). Smiling and level of gaze interacted on …

Autism is a lifelong handicapping disorder that occurs on a continuum of severity. Children who show mild autistic behaviors but do not meet the criteria for a diagnosis of autism are often called autistic-like, but it is not known if their development and functioning are similar to that of autistic children. A follow-up study was done on 35 autistic and autistic-like children who were an average of 3 years of age when initially seen. Initial test scores indicated that the children were similar on measures of intellectual/developmental functioning, receptive vocabulary, and adaptive functioning. Approximately 4 years later they were evaluated again. Using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, the children were divided at follow-up into three groups: nonautistic, mildly/moderately autistic, and severely autistic. Most children made gains on intelligence tests and displayed a diminishing number of autistic symptoms. Changes in nonverbal intelligence, adaptive functioning and receptive vocabulary scores depended on group membership. The results are discussed in relation to the reported stability of cognitive functioning in young autistic children and the implications for clinical practice, early intervention, and research on attachment. The nature of the syndrome of autism is also discussed, particularly in its relation to the milder, atypical children. The …