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Recent Submissions

Open Access
COMPARISON OF MELODIC AND VERBAL PRESENTATION MODES ON AUDITORY SERIAL LEARNING BY LEARNING DISABLED CHILDREN
(1985) Hall, Karen Abraham
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of musical mnemonic devices on the learning patterns of learning disabled children. A total of 33 fifth and sixth grade learning disabled students from seven self-contained special education classes participated in the study with the written permission of parents or gaurdians. Subjects were assigned randomly to one of three experimental conditions: verbal, melodic with a familiar melody, or melodic with an unfamiliar melody. They were tested individually on an auditory serial learning task in which they were asked to learn a list of words. Data was collected for each subject to consider the following variables: rate of learning, defined as the number of trials to the criterion of two consecutive correct trials, and accuracy of responses, defined as ratio of correct individual word responses to the total possible number of responses. The results imply that neither familiar nor unfamiliar musical presentations affect sequencing and memory skills significantly.
Open Access
EFFECT OF NONCONTINGENT SOCIAL STIMULATION ON PRESCHOOLERS WITH SEVERE AND MULTIPLE HANDICAPPING CONDITIONS
(1985) Haag, Pamela Sue
A reversal design was used to study the effect of noncontingent social stimulation on preschoolers with severe and multiple handicaps. The subjects were two children ages 2 and 5. Experimental condition A exposed each subject to 5 seconds of physical contact and conversational speech, experimental condition B provided 5 seconds of conversational speech only, and experimental condition C provided 1 to 2 foot proximity only. Vocal responses other than crying, smiles, and arm flexion were the responses measured for Subject 1. Vocal responses other than crying, arm abduction, and foot stamping were the responses measured for Subject 2. Data showed highly variable responses for both subjects across all behaviors measured during all experimental conditions. Subject 1 showed a change in her mean level of behavior of up to 20% during the study. Subject 2 showed a change in mean level of behavior of up to 48%. It was proposed that biobehavioral state, which was not a variable in the study, might account for the subjects' inconsistent responses.
Open Access
A QUEUING MODEL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PACKET-SWITCHING NETWORK
(1986) Grobe, David Michael
This study models the University of Kansas Packet Switch Network (PSN) as a network of queues traversed by several classes of messages. Most hardware components are represented by queues and message classes are determined both by PAD connection and by the particular host with which messages are exchanged. Users and hosts are represented by delay servers and most of the hardware components are represented as FCFS load-independent servers. The model is evaluated using the Bard-Schweitzer approximation to a modification of the basic Mean Value Analysis algorithm for evaluating multiclass queuing networks. The MVA algorithm is modified to account for message classes with different service times at FCFS servers. Model results are compared with actual performance data and used to examine several proposed changes to the PSN.
Open Access
COUNSELING PRACTICES OF NURSES FOR SMOKING CESSATION
(1986-05-21) Gregar, Laura L.
The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine the counseling practices of nurses for smoking cessation and to investigate the relationships between personal smoking history, age, level of education, area of clinical practice, and smoking counseling practices. Two questionnaires, a Smoking Counseling Battery and a Biographical Questionnaire were sent to all potential subjects at a midwestern metropolitan medical center. From the 357 potential subjects, 257 responded for a return rate of 72%. Two hundred and thirty-six subjects met the criteria of being a female licensed nurse providing direct care to adult, alert patients. Data were analyzed using frequency distributions, percentages, means, Pearson Correlation Coefficients, Analysis of Variance and Duncan's Multiple Range Test. Analysis of the data revealed that: 1) subjects provided more tertiary prevention counseling than primary prevention counseling; 2) the majority (70%) of nurses brought up the subject of smoking cessation at least sometimes or more often; 3) most subjects (79%) spent 5 minutes or less counseling smoking patients; 4) most subjects (52%) discussed smoking when the patient brought up the subject or when smoking was immediately harmful to the patient's health; 5) subjects used the counseling techniques of discussing the risks of smoking and exploring patients' feelings about smoking more often than they used the techniques of presenting educational materials, referring to other personnel or anti-smoking classes, talking to the family, or suggesting specific steps to take or alternative habits; 6) current smokers counseled patients less often ( < .0021), were less likely to initiate the discussion about smoking ( < .0065), provided less primary prevention counseling ( < .0033), and used the technique of discussing the risks of smoking less often ( < .0015) than former smokers or never-smokers; and 7) no significant conclusions could be drawn in examining the relationships between age, level of education, area of clinical practice and smoking counseling practices of nurses. Therefore, by identifying nurses' smoking counseling practices, the utilization of these practices can be reinforced and their effectiveness may be enhanced.
Open Access
ATTITUDES OF REGISTERED NURSES, LICENSED PRACTICAL NURSES, AND DIALYSIS TECHNICIANS TOWARD CHRONIC DIALYSIS RECIPIENTS
(1985-03-25) Green, Carolyn J.
This was a descriptive study desgined to identify attitudes of personnel employed in a chronic dialysis unit toward their patients. The study explored four demographic variables, which the literature reported as being influential variables on attitude formation, to ascertain their effect, if any, on the attitudes of personnel toward chronic dialysis patients. A sample size of 56 subjects, drawn from staff of four midwestern chronic dialysis units, completed a two-part research questionnaire. One part of the questionnaire pertained to demographic data and the second part was the Yuker, Block, and Young Attitude Toward Disabled Persons scale. The scale was modified to read 'Attitude Toward Dialysis Recipient.' Analysis of the data revealed that 31 subjects held neutral attitudes, one subject held a positive attitude, and 24 subjects held moderately negative attitudes toward chronic dialysis patients, when using the mean score plus and minus one standard deviation as the neutral range of attitude scores. The continuous variable of length of employment was analyzed using the Fisher's Exact Test and Spearman's Rho Correlation. When data were tested using the Fisher's Exact, a statistically significant relationship was found between subjects' length of employment on a chronic dialysis unit and attitude (p = .0036). Subjects employed for fewer than five years held less positive attitudes than subjects employed for greater than five years. This relationship was not confirmed by the Spearman's Rho Correlation of 0.1675 (p = .2213). Small sample size or unequal distribution may have been responsible for this discrepancy. There was no statistically significant relationship found between the variable of age and attitude when subjected to Spearman's Rho Correlation analysis. The variables of educational background and close association with a significant other receiving dialysis were tested and no statistically significant relationships were found using Fisher's Exact.