Expert computer systems for use in the nursing profession are emerging as a potentially viable alternative to manual procedures. As nursing science continues to develop, the intellectual requirements of assessment and diagnosis are demanding that the professional nurse draw on an ever increasing bank of knowledge to interact effectively with clients. An expert system appears a promising tool to assist the nurse in storing and accessing some of the knowledge necessary to perform the assessment and diagnostic functions. Problems and opportunities In applying artificial intelligence techniques to nursing science are documented and the current state of expert systems for nursing are explored. A new expert system is developed utilizing artificial intelligence to aid the nurse in performing nursing diagnosis. Employing Prolog on an IBM PC computer, the expert system references client cues found during a nursing assessment and proposes appropriate nursing diagnoses based on those cues. The system is then validated against a human, "expert" nurse to determine its soundness and usefulness.

This retrospective study determined whether percent deficit ideal body weight (IBW) was a risk factor for the prevalence, severity or healing of pressure ulcers. This study hypothesized that nursing home residents below their IBW with pressure ulcers have more severe, higher prevalence, and a slower healing rate than resident who are above their IBW. Medical record data were analyzed for all subjects that met the selection criteria from April, 1997 to April, 1998. Fifty-eight subjects aged 39 to 104 years were assigned to one of two groups (Group 1(n=28) were less than 99% of IBW; Group 2 (n=30) were greater than or equal to 99% of IBW). There was no correlation between percent deficit IBW and pressure ulcer prevalence (rs =-0.017) or between percent deficit IBW and healing rate (rs =-0.010). There was no association between percent deficit IBW and severity (x2 (N=58)=3.35;p=06). Black subjects (n=20) had a higher prevalence of pressure ulcers than white subjects ((n=38), x2 (N=58) = 4.634; ,Q =.002). Bedridden subjects (n=34) had slower healing rates than non-bedridden subjects (n=24),(t(58) = 2.38, p=.02).

The purpose of this study was to explore the valuation process of community college library end-users as they decide which information resources to use when conducting research. This study was designed as an exploratory study using Q methodology and focused on five specific information resources that community college library end-users routinely use in their research process: the Internet, the reference librarian, books, newspapers, and subscription databases. Little is known about the valuation hierarchy that end-users overlay on these resources when deciding which ones to use to address a specific research need. Sixty-four community college library end-users from four main campuses of a large community college sorted 40 statements describing specific value statements pertaining to the information resources under study. The statements were sorted along a continuum ranging from least like me (-4) to most like me (+4) with 0 representing an opinion of neutrality. Following these procedures, five factors emerged that represented different perspectives on value relating to the five information resources under study. Interpretation of these factors yielded distinct patterns of opinion relating to the perceived value of each information resource. These factors were named: (a) Browsers, (b) Proficient, (c) Vacillators, (d) Bibliophiles, and (e) Traditionalists. The results of the study suggest that community college library end-users value, to varying degrees, all five of the information resources selected for this study. The results also suggest that while the Internet has become a dominant information resource in the community college library end-user's research process, other more traditional information resources such as the reference librarian, books, and, to a lesser extent, newspapers still hold value in the research process. The perspectives described and the interpretation provided in this study can greatly assist community college library end-users in the valuation of available community college library information resources.

Many distributions of multivariate data in the real world follow a non-normal model with distributions being skewed and/or heavy tailed. In studies in which multivariate non-normal distributions are needed, it is important for simulations of those variables to provide data that is close to the desired parameters while also being fast and easy to perform. Three algorithms for generating multivariate non-normal distributions are reviewed for accuracy, speed and simplicity. They are the Fleishman Power Method, the Fifth-Order Polynomial Transformation Method, and the Generalized Lambda Distribution Method. Simulations were run in order to compare the three methods by how well they generate bivariate distributions with the desired means, variances, skewness, kurtoses, and correlation, simplicity of the algorithms, and how quickly the desired distributions were calculated.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks consist of nodes which have both client and server capabilities and on which communication and data sharing is carried on directly between nodes, rather than being arbitrated by an intermediary node. The P2P architecture was popularized by file-sharing, one of the widely-used applications of the Internet. Many applications that are based on this architecture have been developed. It also provides an efficient platform to harness the computing power of a network of desktop computers. P2P computing power can help solve computationally complex problems that require powerful supercomputers. However, it has not been as widely used as the file-sharing P2P applications. Almost all of the current P2P computing applications are noncommercial endeavors. Users make their computing power available for these endeavors because they believe in the applications' objectives, for example, the SETI project analyzes radio telescope data in the quest for life in other parts of the universe. This thesis proposes P2PCompute - a viable commercial model in the P2P computing field. It harnesses existing technologies- P2P, Java, the Internet and the UDDI registry, to enable distributed processing of tasks on multiple servers. It is well-suited to the heterogeneous environment on the Internet and has the potential to provide the spark that would lead to the development of more commercial P2P computing applications.

Environmental education is becoming an increasingly important component of secondary science education as our society attempts to minimize the exploitations and damaging actions of humankind on the earth. Environmental education has evolved primarily from environmental consciousness in the 1960s to an environmentally active focus in the 1990s. This project examined the effectiveness of an environmental education curriculum that focuses on improving environmental behaviors and attitudes as well as knowledge. The review of the literature for this project indicates that responsible environmental behaviors are linked to four types of environmental education categories. These categories are hierarchical and include: 1) ecological concepts, 2) conceptual awareness, 3) issue investigation and evaluation, and 4) environmental action skills (Disinger, 1993). A review of environmental education curricula provides a wide variety of activities in all four of the above listed categories. Information documenting the relationship between the acquisition of environmental knowledge and behav~ural change as a result of participating in community based environmental activities is less evident. Therefore, this project attempted to investigate the relationships between participation in community-based environmental activities and tenth-grade students' knowledge and attitudes toward environmental issues. During the spring semester of 1995 forty-five tenth-grade biology students at a private urban high school were pretested to assess their initial environmental concept knowledge and their initial environmental attitudes. These students were subsequently exposed to a three-week introduction to environmental concepts and to techniques for investigating environmental issues. Students were simultaneously given a variety of issues to investigate. An additional four hours of time were required of each student to participate in a community service related to an environmental concern. They submitted a written report of their work which included background research, method of participation, results and conclusions on the effect of their project on the environment. Following these experiences, a posttest was administered to assess any change in students' environmental knowledge or attitudes. Effective environmental education encourages the active participation of students in environmental improvement. The results of this investigation could assist educators in the selection of appropriate environmental activities for use with high school students.

Juvenile offenders have numerous factors that contribute to their delinquency, including family dysfunction, drug and alcohol abuse, negative peer influences, and social cognitive development. One area of social cognitive development linked to deviant behavior is attributional biases. Based on the prior research of Daley and Onwuegbuzie (2004), the purpose of the present concurrent mixed methods study was to explore the differences in the frequency of violence attribution errors among juvenile delinquents; the extent that peer-victimization, self-esteem, and demographic variables predict violence attribution errors among juveniles; and the differences in the types of violence attribution errors between incarcerated (high-risk) and probation (low-risk) juvenile delinquents. The results indicated juvenile offenders made violence attribution errors more than 50% of the time when evaluating the behavior of others, suggesting that the low-risk offenders are at major risk of committing high-risk offenses in the future. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that 5 variables (i.e., attitude towards the violent acts of others, verbal victimization, attacks on property, social relationships, and morals) statistically predicted the number of violence attribution errors a youth made (F [21, 88] = 2.28,p = .004). Further, with regard to the typology of reasons for violence attributions, the same 7 emergent themes were extracted for all 3 offender samples: self-control, violation of rights, provocation, irresponsibility, poor judgment, fate, and conflict resolution. Findings are discussed relative to the literature on attributional bias and offender behavior.

A study was conducted to determine the effects on theknowledge and comprehension level learning as shown by thetest scores of thirty-one fifth grade students in onehealth unit after the utilization of the classroom managementprogram "OUNCE" had been implemented for eight weeks in contrastto their knowledge and comprehension level learning in a priorhealth unit as shown by the post-test scores before themanagement program was utilized.

Several studies have explored the application of self-generated attitude change model to the reduction of phobic affect. Three treatment analogues of constrained thought, previously demonstrated to attenuate polarized affect, were compared to determine the relative efficacy of process constraint, reality constraint, and combined constraint. The effects of treatment were assessed with-measures of behavioral approach, physiological arousal, subjective fear report, self-appraised performance, and subject predictions of ability to cope in extra laboratory situations. It was predicted that the combined condition would provide the most powerful treatment analogue but this was not demonstrated. Subjects in all conditions improved across all measures, except physiological arousal, but not differentially. Several possible explanations, alternative theories, and remaining research issues are discussed.

This qualitative study was conducted to illuminate the different perceptions of students, parents, and teachers in one urban classroom pertaining to learning to read and write. The study explored the similarities, differences, and relationships among these perceptions. One kindergarten classroom was selected in an urban school that was currently implementing literacy initiatives. Eighteen students, six parents and three teachers were interviewed to provide insight into their views of emergent literacy. Five themes were identified as reoccurring topics and are discussed in the findings: activities that count as reading and writing, motivation for learning to read, how children acquire literacy skills, the use of technology to promote literacy, and working with students at home. The findings suggested that there are few literacy related issues upon which students, parents and teachers agree. Five conclusions were drawn based upon the findings. The conclusions examined the use of metacognitive discussions, appropriateness of motivational techniques, teachers' knowledge of research, effectiveness of computers in the classroom, and benefits to parents of volunteering in the classroom. The need to improve communication and interaction between students, parents, teachers and administrators was illuminated in this study.