ABSTRACTS


A Linear Ordering Theorem for Weighted Means of Functions Relative to Weight Functions

Frank Glaser
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

The aim of this article is to continue to develop the theory of generalized weighted means of functions relative to weight functions in Euclidean n-space (Glaser, 1990) by proving a generalization of the one-dimensional Cashwell-Everett linear ordering theorem (Cashwell-Everett (1969). These generalized means lie in an n-dimensional cone which shrinks down to a line for the special case n = 1. This theorem has many interesting consequences which could be the subject of future articles.

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Incorporating Student Working Experiences into GIS Education

Xudong Jia
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
 
Cheryl Hickam
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Many civil engineering students at Cal Poly Pomona work as interns to get practical experiences in planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of facilities. They are often challenged at their workplace to manage data associated with various location specific facilities. This paper addresses an application-oriented teaching approach to incorporate students’ working experiences into GIS education. The approach involves 1) identifying spatial issues and problems in students’ workplace, 2) introducing students to the fundamentals of GIS technology, and 3) training students to develop and implement GIS projects using data from their workplace. A number of student projects discussed in the paper show that the approach is effective in GIS education.

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Saving Private Jose: Midwestern Mexican American Men During World War II

Richard Santillan
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Over the years, several movies have been produced highlighting the contributions of American servicemen during World War II. With rare exceptions, most of these films ignore the major contributions of Mexican Americans.. Mexican Americans have clearly distinguished themselves during combat, erasing any lingering doubts about their loyalty to the United States. It is estimated that nearly 500,000 Mexican Americans served during World War II. Mexican American women also played a major role both on the homefront and in the military. Wartime has been a mixture of both unmeasureable pain and unforeseen opportunities for the Mexican American community. Many Mexican American men have either been killed or seriously wounded on foreign battlefields, and families have suffered physical separation from their loved ones too many times. Yet, wartime has provided Mexican Americans the opportunity to become U.S. citizens, purchase new homes, attend college, acquire new voting rights, and learn leadership skills. The G.I. Bill, for example, has allowed Mexican Americans to attend college and learn skilled jobs, as well as break the cycle of housing discrimination by purchasing federally-owned homes outside their segregated community. All of these opportunities triggered a new wave of political activism beginning in l946.


Mexican Americans from throughout the United States served in World War II, enlisted in all branches of the military and fought with relentless tenacity in major campaigns around the globe. For the Midwest Mexican American community, wartime has especially been a mingled time of intense family love, ranging from military moments of glory, to deepest loss of love ones. Over the years, the Midwest Mexican American community has paid tribute to the women and men who served their nation both in peacetime and wartime. This article is an attempt to portray, in part at least, the indomitable fighting spirit of the Mexican American soldier and the numerous ways in which the Mexican American community has remembered its heroes.

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Apparel Executives Industry Perceptions: Implications for Academia

Roseanna Garcia
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
 
Cynthia Regan
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

The Los Angeles apparel industry represents the largest manufacturing employer in LA County, which makes it a prosperous combination of jobs and creativity. Los Angeles has been looked upon by other fashion cities
as a place where a creative entrepreneurial spirit influences fashion trends throughout the world. However, the
apparel industry is faced with many challenges.


The study analyzes apparel manufacturer executives’ responses in relation to work force skills of apparel production managers and LA business trends. The research goal was to provide a general sense of business trends related to the apparel industry. Apparel executives discussed skills and training, education, employee promotion, employee motivation, technology use, employee turnover, strategic goals and perception of the industry’s future. These issues can be valuable to educators to refocus their curriculum to what has been expressed by apparel executives. The findings indicated that educational knowledge needed a blending of many disciplines. The education of future apparel managers need interdisciplinary courses to achieve future success. The findings can assist academicians with apparel curriculum development in understanding the interdisciplinary nature of the apparel industry.

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Multi-Disciplinary Collaboratively Taught Studios

Hersh Farberow
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Urban design education should strive to create professionals who understand and employ a full range of urban design concerns. Students who are introduced early in their education to the design perspectives and concerns of other disciplines are more sympathetic and are better able to synthesize these elements into complementary and supplementary paradigms of urban design. Individually the College’s programs address many of these concerns. However, as an isolated model, Architecture's bias towards physical form in urban design education typically underplays the elements of community and social interaction. Conversely, in planning education, the physical design elements necessary to achieve a sustainable community are usually not taught. These narrow courses expose students to only one piece of a large puzzle. A fuller approach to urban design education should begin with an exploration of urban spaces using many puzzle pieces. Beginning each program with a survey class that introduces a number of urban design perspectives forms a broad base upon which more specific courses can later build. The broad base allows students to develop more complete models into which they later integrate more complex information. This studio produces designers who are better equipped to understand and employ the specific concerns and skills of each area.

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Characteristics and Accomodations for College Students with Learning Disabilities

Melinda Pierson
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
 
Barbara Glaeser
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

More and more students with learning disabilities are enrolling in college-level programs. It is imperative that university professors are educated regarding the characteristics and accommodations for this diverse group of students.

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Performance Expectations and Burnout in Private Club Management

Edward Merritt
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Club management is difficult because of the emotional energy it consumes. There is a high degree of mental and psychological work involved in treating every person and situation as important. As demonstrated by the results of this study, club managers suffer the effects of varying degrees of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of a lack of personal accomplishment, which comprise the three elements of burnout. In research question 1, comparison of overall private club manager burnout from this study to Maslach's overall sample of burnout suggests that club managers rate average in burnout intensity by all three elements. In research question 2, club manager typologies suggest that the high touch, high profile managers, who are often younger, less experienced managers, and/or managers who work in smaller operations, are the most burned out. Finally, this study investigated three additional research questions, which suggest significant evidence (p = < .05) that 3) managers at clubs performing worse than in past suffer more burnout that managers where performance has been better, 4) managers expecting their club to perform worse in the future suffer more burnout than managers expecting performance to be the same or expecting performance to be better, and 5) managers expecting the club industry to perform worse in the future suffer more burnout than managers expecting performance to be the same or expecting performance to be better.

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Zen and the Art of Photography

Wayne Rowe
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Driven by a passion for photography and a fascination with the Zen Buddhist philosophy, the author conceptually and experientially examines the relationship between Zen Buddhism and the art of photography. Among the subjects discussed: What is the relationship between haiku and photography? What is the relationship between the mind of the photographer while creating a photograph and the Zen concept of the Empty Mind? What role does intuition and feeling play in photography? In Zen? Through examination of these concepts and relationships, the author explains the heightened awareness, joy, and enlightenment he has experienced through photography and suggests ways that others may share in the creative process.

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A Comparison of Attitudes Toward Women as Managers in China and in the U.S.

Carol Larson Jones
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
 
Lianlin Lin
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

A cross-cultural comparison of attitudes toward women in management was conducted through a survey on Chinese and American managerial employees. The survey shows that American respondents have more positive attitudes toward women as managers than Chinese due to differences in cultural heritage, traditions, and women’s conditions. Our analysis also reveals that women’s participation in management is a common issue facing women worldwide.

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Trends in America's Public Schools: What will the Future Hold?

Frederick Baker
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

It is obvious to any perceptive observer of the American education scene, that programs and practices of most public schools have not kept
pace with changes in our society. Some of us even suggest that the social problems being experienced, result from the inability of public
education to prepare citizens to cope with life in the twentieth, let alone, twenty-first century. While little profit can be gained from any lengthy discourse attempting to fix blame for this lack of progress, it should be noted that educational change is almost always accompanied with controversy. A basic fear of the unknown and an instinctive precognition of the frustrations that can be expected from the introduction of change, serve as powerful deterrents to the dramatic improvement of public education. This is mentioned because if we are committed to a program of curriculum improvement, we must be prepared to face the difficulties associated with the changing of a bureaucratic social institution. While change does not always result in progress, there can be no progress without change. The major objective,
therefore, is to support change that will result in progress while keeping controversy and frustration at a tolerable level. The accomplishment of this objective requires a comprehensive blueprint that outlines as succinctly as possible, the many phased attacks on the problem of educational improvement. This article represents such an initial step. It has been written for the purpose of giving an overview
of the immediate and long range action essential in any program for curriculum improvement.

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Encouraging Students to Value Their Education: An Unusual Assignment

Richard Johnson
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Faculty seeking ways to encourage student perception and appreciation of the highlights of a course might consider adopting some version of the take home midterm assignment offered in this essay. It asks students to identify items that are important to them and to explain why they find them important. For the last three years I have used it very successfully twice each quarter in a General Education history course taught largely to non-majors. Colleagues have urged me to publish it to make it available to a wider audience.

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Financial Accounting Issues in Commercial Lending Institutions: A Cross-Cultural Study

Nasrollah Ahadiat
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
 
Hong Pak
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
 
Anwar Salimi
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

As the number and complexity of financial reporting standards (generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)) continue to grow, non-publicly-traded companies find it increasingly expensive to use the GAAP-basis of accounting. Likewise, small and medium-sized businesses often see no benefits in seeking the services of independent certified public accountants (CPAs) to audit or review their financial statements. Previous research reveals some evidence that small businesses are turning away from the GAAP-basis and find appeals in using other bases of accounting. This study investigates the significance of using alternative accounting basis as well as the extent of CPAs involvement with small or medium-sized firms for commercial banks' lending decisions.


Since banks represent a significant source of credit in most countries, particularly for small and medium-sized companies, bankers' perceptions of reliability of financial statements has been used as the basis for this investigation. The study uses a cross-cultural design in order to detect any significant differences between the lending practices of the American and Asian-Pacific bankers. The results indicate that while both American and Asian banks require balance sheets and income statements in considering all commercial loan applications, variations abound with respect to other financial reporting issues. However, no cross-cultural differences were found concerning the choice of the accounting basis or the required extent of financial statement verification.

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A "Curriculum Thread" to Prepare Diverse Polytechnic Students For Career Success through Relationships

Ardel Nelson
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

This study supports the notion that career advancement within an organization can be facilitated by work related relationships. The study reviews the risks and benefits of the classic mentor relationship and the scarcity of spontaneous, informal mentors, especially those of diverse backgrounds. The question arises whether polytechnic students in applied learning situations, such as Practica or internships, would also benefit from a work-related relationship. A study of 163 college interns reveals that the internship experience is more satisfying with either a formal or informal supportive relationship than with no relationship. In light of the scarcity of appropriate mentors for all members of diverse groups and the importance of mentor functions to career advancement, the author proposes that academics have an opportunity to teach students to seek the benefits of these relationships. The author suggests a curriculum of learning objectives that may be woven through the curriculum of any polytechnic academic program.

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Airborne and Spaceborne Imagery for Mapping

Francelina Neto
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Airborne and spaceborne imagery is becoming widely used for many mapping purposes. The diverse information that can be acquired from airborne and spaceborne sensors solve many of the demands for the global study of the Earth. The paper concentrates on mapping from non-classical photogrammetric cameras. A survey of a few sensors and existing imagery considered by the author the most relevant is also presented. The characteristics of these sensors and the resulting imagery and resolution are also summarized. Its suitability for mapping at local, regional and global scales is examined.

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How to Enhance the Evaluation of Faculty in Geographically Dispersed Sites: Use of Performance Evaluation Systems

A. Hilgert
Northern Arizona University - Yuma
 
Rose Marie Martin
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Performance evaluation for knowledge workers is an increasingly important organizational activity, yet one for which there is no “one best way” yet developed. There is a need to measure activities which further organizational goals, but the very act of measuring can impact those activities. Further, because crafting creative solutions to organizational challenges is a key output for knowledge workers, flexibility can be an important input to performance evaluations. A good example of this occurs when measuring the performance of faculty teaching at geographically dispersed sites. For them, systems formed around a Statement of Expectations may provide suitable flexibility while also enhancing productivity.

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Off Balance Sheet Assets in Central Governments: Are They Unique or Are They Really Assets?

Salme Nasi
University of Jvaskyla, Finland
 
Kathrn Hansen
California State University, Los Angeles
 
Hassan Hefzi
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Some government standard setting bodies are adopting or have adopted full accrual accounting. As part of this process, standard setters must define the elements to be used in the accounting system. As a result public sector accounting bodies have adopted varied definitions of assets. All these definitions, in contrast to corporate accounting definitions, make allowance for some physical, intangible, or infrastructure assets to be accounted for off the balance sheet. In this article, we explore the varied definitions promulgated by the standards from the International Federation of Accountants, the United States, and Finland. Secondly, we discuss the assets that are excluded from balance sheet recognition and the basis for the conclusions to mandate off balance sheet status. Finally, we discuss if the existing treatment of off balance sheet assets is consistent with the use of the assets and produces a relevant, complete balance sheet.

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Information in the Context of Education

Mark Burgin
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Information and information processes are cornerstones of education. However, the knowledge about these processes given by conventional information theories is not adequate to the peculiarities of education. That is why these theories are not efficiently applied to the problems of education. In this paper, we consider a new approach in information sciences. It is called the general theory of information. It is demonstrated how the new knowledge obtained in the general theory of information provides a new insight for teaching and learning.

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Features of a Successful Group Experience: A Reflective Learning of the Characteristics and Process Behaviors of a Diverse Committee

Ali Mossaver-Rahmani
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
 
Dorothy D. Wills
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

“Don’t follow where the pathway goes,
Lead instead where there is no path,
And leave a trail.”
-Sun Tzu“

"We learn nothing from experience.
We learn from reflecting on that experience.”
-anonymous


The goal of this essay is to discuss characteristics and process behaviors of an intact group: the Campus Climate Survey Committee (CCSC) at Cal Poly Pomona. We will use reflective learning as a means of identifying features and characteristics of a successful group experience. Daudlin (1997) defines reflective learning as
“… the process of stepping back from an experience to ponder carefully and persistently its meaning by developing inferences … to reflect on the learning that is occurring … “ (p. 13). Reflective learning helps surface insights, uncovers themes, promotes a sense of community, and helps synthesize learning in a way that makes it easier to share learning with colleagues and co-workers (Daudlin, 1997). This project was part of the WASC Self-Study, whose mission was “to create an account of our university that will be meaningful, inspirational, informative … [and that] will generate recommendations and new directions that have the potential to make our university a better place to study and work.” (Wills and WASC Self-Study Committee, 2000).

Diversity was an important dimension of the CCSC in two ways: the surveys themselves (of students, staff, faculty, and administrators) were being designed by the committee with a strong focus on diversity issues on campus, and the composition of the committee was highly diverse, in terms of members’ ethnicity, longevity on campus, work role, sexual orientation, and gender. There was not a conscious effort to balance the representation of any particular ethnic or social groups, but the nature of the work and its anti-authoritarian process resulted in something close to proportional representation. Most of the conscious balancing was related to the recruitment of adequate numbers of students, staff, faculty, and administrators. There was a high interest level in the subject matter of the surveys, so the organizers could rely on networking to bring in participants rather than having to enlist people bureaucratically, which might not have produced as diverse a group.

The experience of designing and administering these surveys was both intense and pleasurable. By studying the processes and structures involved, we hope to be in a position eventually to foster change in the way university committees of all sorts do their business. We think some of the same learning can be applied to the continued development of multiculturalism on our campus.

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Bridging to the Other Side: The Northern Ireland Peace Process Since the "Good Friday" Agreement

Thomas H. Patten, Jr.
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

The Peace Process in Northern Ireland has not been easy and may not endure or be completed. But the Good Friday Agreement among the parties stands as a monument to behold. Never in 400 years have the people of Northern Ireland come so close to a permanent solution of their conflict and societal troubles. Indeed, the Agreement and its gradual implementation show how a society can move away from bitter and durable conflict into a mode of peace and justice. The roles of two Americans (President Bill Clinton and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell) in the Peace Process in Northern Ireland seem poorly understood and under-appreciated in the USA. This article tries to shed light upon their contributions and correct the neglected record.

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Continuous Improvement Tools and Support Mechanisms in Australian Manufacturing

Robert Mellor
University of Western Sydney, Australia
 
Paul Hyland
University of Western Sydney, Australia
 
John Karayan
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

The level of development of continuous improvement (CI) across all aspects of a firm’s operations provides a significant indicator of a company’s future competitive potential. As a result, a survey of medium and large manufacturing firms in Australia was conducted to determine the main motives for implementing CI and the focus of CI activities. This paper examines the responses of firms using CI, taking into account the stage of development that the firm had reached in their implementation of CI. While some firms were using CI across all aspects of their business and regarded CI as second nature, most firms were in the early stages of development of CI, using it primarily in the manufacturing function at the operational level. This article also reports on the practices of mature firms with the aim of providing useful guidance for developing firms seeking to learn from the experiences of the firms more mature in their usage of CI. In detailing the lessons to be learned, the problem solving tools and the CI support methods used, are of particular significance. Both a supportive culture and a set of common tools have been identified as critical requirements for the successful long term implementation of CI.

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