At present, instructional designers have identified no student performances which economically and validly demonstrate an understanding of a passage of connected discourse. This study uses the Schank-Abelson model of conceptual processing (1977) to identify behaviors required for the construction of an adequate internal representation of a text message. The behaviors (construction of links relating text information) were used to identify those students who understand text from those who do not. / In an experimental study, a target sentence was embedded in full text, in beginning disrupted text, in end disrupted text and in a set of disjunct sentences. College students read the experimental materials and then responded to a test probing variations in the internal representation of the target sentence. Results show that a sentence embedded in full text is represented by links to defined types of text information, while the same sentence embedded in a set of disjunct sentences is represented only by sentence syntax links. Thus, the test does identify student performances that occur when connected discourse is understood. / Results also show that reading text with different kinds of disruptions caused systematic variations in the representation of a sentence. Such a finding suggests that reading difficulties may influence the representation of some kinds of information (text links) more than other kinds. Students were most likely to construct causal links. Causal links were found to be prerequisite to the adequate representation of all other kinds of text links. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-08, Section: A, page: 3572. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-09, Section: A, page: 5021. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-10, Section: A, page: 5253. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-10, Section: B, page: 4863. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-10, Section: B, page: 4609. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the social and private rates of return to educational investment and to examine the significant role of these rates of return in planning educational policy in Japan. / The major tool utilized in calculating rates of return in this study was the cost-benefit analysis approach, and the cross-sectional data on costs of education and wages were used as the basic data. This method allowed for private and social rates of return to be estimated for differences in types of education, sex and type of sector, such as private and public. / This study presented the following findings: (1) private rates of return were higher than social rates of return regardless of type of education and sex; (2) private rates of return for college education tended to decline with the time transition in Japan between 1966 and 1976, but private rates of return for secondary education tended to increase during that period; (3) both private and social rates of return were higher for males than for females regardless of type of education; (4) both private and social rates of return were higher for public secondary and higher education than for private secondary and higher education; (5) both private and social rates of return tended to decline with a rising level of education; (6) among marginal social rates of return, the lowest rate of return was found for women's junior colleges in the public sector; therefore it was suggested by this study that it is not cost effective for the Japanese government to invest in this level of education. / Based on these findings, this study recommended the establishment of an educational bank of government in Japan which would specialize in providing financial assistance to individuals obtaining degrees at higher learning institutions. The loans granted by such a bank would be determined by individual need. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: A, page: 0855. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

The question this study seeks to answer is whether there is a relationship between levels of education, technology, and economic development in selected countries; and also whether education and technology are causal factors or correlates of economic development. The late Professor William F. Ogburn dealt with such factors in his theory of cultural change. He emphasized the major influence of inventions (technology) in cultural change. However, in the present study, the author was interested primarily in developing nations that have found technological advancement difficult. Hence, these nations have relied on improving the level of education. The idea of holding to the Ogburn perspective was an attractive one; yet, for these nations, treating level of education as the independent variable was more realistic. Ogburn's theory, then, has been modified by assuming that education is the key variable for development in the nations selected for this study. Then, factor analysis was utilized to derive factor scores for indicators of level of education, technology, and economic development. The modern world concept proposed by Wallerstein (1974) was adopted, and sixty-one countries were randomly selected from the core, semiperipheral, and peripheral countries in the non-communist world to make comparisons utilizing partial correlations. The results suggest that education and technology are both necessary though not sufficient conditions for economic development, and that education-technology-economic development may represent a causal sequence. Furthermore, there was a significant difference in the level of education between 1960 and 1975 although no differences were noted in the levels of technology and economic development in these same years. In addition, there was a significant difference between the core, semiperipheral, and peripheral countries in 1960 and / 1975 on level of education although no differences were noted between these countries on the levels of technology and economic development in these same years. Also, by modifying Ogburn's theory in treating education as an innovation, it was found that education was indeed a major variable for economic development in the selected countries. Lastly, the studies which have assigned little or no credence to the relationship between education and economic development are refuted here. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-07, Section: A, page: 2837. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-07, Section: B, page: 2738. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

This series of experiments systematically evaluates the effect of phospholipid headgroup structures on the interaction between rhodopsin and phospholipids. Three types of experiments are reported. / First, the effect of rhodopsin incorporation on the DMPC and DMPS gel-to-liquid-crystalline phase transition is analyzed with ESR techniques. Partial, binary phase diagrams of the DMPS- and DMPC-rhodopsin systems at pH = 7.0 are constructed by studying the partitioning of Tempo between polar and hydrophobic domains as a function of temperature and system composition. A main result of this analysis is that rhodopsin broadens and reduces the amplitude of the DMPS phase transition to a much smaller extent than the DMPC phase transition. When interpreted in terms of theoretical treatments of integral protein-lipid interactions, this indicates that rhodopsin has a lower affinity for DMPS than DMPC. / Second, ESR experiments involving nitroxide-labeled phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylserine and phosphatidic acid are reported. / Third, the effect of the major headgroup classes of phospholipids on the conformational stability of rhodopsin is investigated. / This series of experiments demonstrate that the structure of the fatty acid chains is as important as the headgroup structure in determining the stabilization ability of a phospholipid. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-09, Section: B, page: 3550. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

This study clarifies the theoretical issues of the relationship between science and religious thought, and establishes models for how they relate in practice, using Darwinism as a case study. After describing four methods for analyzing the general relationship between science and religion, four models are established which can be used to organize the ways science and religion do relate in practice. The key to establishing the models is the hermeneutical approach taken, and it is argued that the approach must be based on the specific issues raised by the scientific theory under consideration. Darwin's theory of evolution culminated an epistemological and methodological revolution in modern science. Religious and scientific thinkers are analyzed in terms of how they responded to that revolution. When this approach is taken, a historical continuity between nineteenth- and twentieth-century responses is established. "Religion Against Darwinism" opposes the epistemology of Darwinian science, and the opponents describe Darwinism as bad science as well as atheism. "Religion Of Darwinism" embraces the modern scientific method, and looks to it to supply the religious meaning in life. "Religion and Darwinisticism in Concert" accepts some aspects of Darwinian evolution, but synthesizes Darwinism and religion in a broader philosophical system that "corrects" either the epistemology or content of Darwin's theory. "Religion Above Darwinism" represents the true Darwinian position, for it accepts the epistemological pluralism that is the essence of Darwin's method and theory. The conclusion argues that these four models, focusing on the religious response to the epistemological and methodological issues, can be used to analyze the relationship between religious thought and any scientific theory. There may be a fifth model which recognizes the epistemological plurality of human knowledge, but which bridges those spheres through the use of metaphors in religious thought. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-04, Section: A, page: 1004. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.