Dissertation Abstracts contains references and abstracts for doctoral dissertations from accredited American and Canadian, selected British and European universities, covering all academic subjects. Masters theses are also included from accredited North American Universities.
The following alphabetical list provides the two-letter label, the relevant alias, and at least one example for each Dissertation Abstracts field.
===== ============ Label Name/Example ===== ============ ab Abstract [Word Indexed] example 1: legal.ab. example 2: legal protection.ab. example 3: (stereotype$ adj9 caricatur$).ab. The Abstract (AB) field contains author-written summaries of the dissertation or thesis. Since 1980, nearly all dissertation records contain abstracts. Since 1988, nearly all Masters Thesis records contain abstracts. an or ui Accession Number [Phrase Indexed] example 1: aaic321304.an. example 2: aaic321304.ui. The Accession Number (AN) field contains a number assigned by UMI to uniquely identify a particular record. This number can be used to order a document from UMI's document delivery service. ar Advisor [Phrase Indexed] example 1: harris joe.ar. example 2: stone$.ar. The Advisor (AR) field contains the name of the person who acted as an Advisor for the dissertation or thesis project. The format for Advisors is last name first, followed by first name and middle name (if available). Advisor information was added to the database in 1989, and will appear only for some documents. au Author [Phrase Indexed] example 1: adams lynn.au. example 2: adams$.au. The Author (AU) field contains the names of the authors. The format for authors is last name, first and middle names: smith, john lawrence. Enter the last name, or if it is a common name, enter the last name and first initial. dd Document Delivery [Available as a Limit] dg Degree Awarded [Phrase Indexed] example: phd.dg. The Degree Awarded (DG) field contains the name of the degree awarded. This field will appear for most records, but may not appear for some foreign dissertations. This field displays as part of the Institution (IN) field. em Entry Month [Phrase Indexed] example: 9601.em. The Entry Month (EM) field contains the issue (year and month) in which a document was added to the Dissertation Abstracts database. The EM field is in the format YYMM. hw Heading Word [Word Indexed] example: computer.hw. Sometimes you may wish to retrieve every subject heading that includes a particular word; this is done by searching the single word in the Subject Heading Word (HW) field. ib ISBN [Phrase Indexed] example: 8-479-29442-6.ib. The ISBN (IB) field contains the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for the dissertation which is cited, when available, and appears as an 10-12 digit string. in Institution [Word Indexed] example: harvard.in. The Institution (IN) field contains information about the degree, including degree awarded (when available), name of the institution awarding the degree, and the year that the degree was awarded. The Institution field is word-searchable. Use the most unusual word or phrase in the instutution name as a search term: i.e. harvard, not university. lg Language [Phrase Indexed] example: fre.lg. The Language (LG) field contains the language of publication of a dissertation or thesis. The Language field was added to the Dissertation Abstracts database in 1988. The language name will appear in the index as a 3-letter code (such as fre for French); the codes are usually, but not always, the first three letters of the language name. sh or de Subject Headings [Phrase Indexed] example 1: computer science.sh. example 2: computer science.de. example 3: geodesy.sh. example 4: journalism.de. The Subject Headings (SH) field contains the subject terms used by UMI indexers to describe the main subjects, or fields of study, of a dissertation or thesis. Subject Headings are assigned from a controlled list of fields of study. so Source [Word Indexed] example: masters.so. The Source (SO) field contains complete publication information for the UMI dissertation publication in which the citation or abstract first appeared. Information included in the Source field includes: database identification, volume number or source code, and page numbers of the UMI publication. The Source field is word searchable, and stopwords are not applied to this field. ti Title [Word Indexed] example 1: leadership.ti. example 2: leadership ability.ti. example 3: arbeitsrechtes.ti. The Title (TI) field contains the full title of the dissertation or thesis in the original language in which it was written. If the original title is not in English, an English translation of the title will appear in the Translated Title (TT) field. All of the words in the Original and Translated Title fields are searchable in the Title field. Stopwords such as "of" or "the" will display in documents but do not appear in the Title index. However, the word "a", which is a stopword in other fields, CAN be searched in titles. tt Translated Title [searched as TI field] tw Textword [TI, AB, HW Fields] example 1: fraud.tw. example 2: electoral fraud.tw. example 3: credit institution$.tw. The Textword (TW) field is an alias for all of the fields which contain text words which are appropriate for a subject search. The Textword field in Dissertation Abstracts includes the Title (TI), Abstract (AB), and Subject Heading Word (HW) fields. yr Year Awarded example 1: 1994.yr. example 2: 94.yr. The Year (YR) field contains the year in which the dissertation was awarded. It can be searched as a 2 or 4-digit year. The YR field is displayed as part of the Institution field.
The following limits are available from the Limit menu on the Main Search Screen:
A limit to Doctoral Degree will restrict retrieval to documents which were produced to fulfill the requirements of a Doctoral Degree.
A limit to Masters Degree will restrict retrieval to documents which were produced to fulfill the requirements of a Masters Degree.
A limit to Abstracts will restrict retrieval to documents which include an author-written abstract. Abstracts have been included for nearly all dissertations since 1980, and for nearly all Masters Theses since 1988.
New documents are added to the Dissertation Abstracts database every month. A limit to latest update will restrict retrieval to documents which were most recently added to the database.
A limit to English restricts retrieval to Dissertations or Masters Theses which are written in the English language.
Popular Command and Sentence Syntax Limits:
Abstracts Command Syntax: ..l/1 ab=y Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to abstracts Available from UMI Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to umi Doctoral Degree Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to doctoral degree English Language Command Syntax: ..l/1 en=y Command Syntax: ..l/1 lg=eng Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to english Languages... Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to french Latest Update Command Syntax: ..l/1 up=y Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to update Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to latest update Masters Degree Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to masters degree Publication Year... Command Syntax: ..l/1 yr=93 Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to yr=1993 Sentence Syntax: limit 1 to yr=93
Command Syntax: ..c/diss Sentence Syntax: use diss
<1> Accession Number ADG9631522 Author Khardon, Roni. Title LEARNING TO BE COMPETENT (REASONING, COGNITION, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE). Institution Thesis (PH.D.)--HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 1996. 280p. Document Delivery Order Number: ADG9631522. Source Dissertation Abstracts International. Volume: 57-05, Section: B, page: 3288. Subject Headings Computer Science. Artificial Intelligence. Abstract The thesis presents a new approach for the study of competent cognitive behavior. The approach, learning to be competent, suggests that learning phenomena and the competencies attributed to intelligence should be studied together. Instead of requiring omniscience or otherwise optimal performance, we claim that the tasks and success criteria should be defined behaviorally; that is, a system is competent if it functions well in its environment. We further suggest that competent behavior should only be expected in light of a learning experience in the same or similar environment, and that the solutions exhibited should be computationally efficient. These ideas are presented in a formal setting, so that the various tasks and their proposed solutions can be studied and analyzed. Thus, one contribution of this approach is in formalizing the problem in a form that is amenable to analysis, while being cognitively and computationally plausible. The learning to reason framework is used to study the problem of logical reasoning in propositional domains. We consider a variety of possible interfaces for learning, and describe learning algorithms that interact with them, thus demonstrating the robustness of this approach. The results show that learning to reason is possible even in cases where the traditionally separate problems, namely concept learning and reasoning by proving assertions, do not have efficient solutions. In the course of studying reasoning tasks, we develop a model based representation, the set of characteristic models, which supports efficient solutions for several forms of logical reasoning. This representation is utilized in the learning to reason framework, and is also shown to have other applications, in the theory of relational databases, and in computational tasks that arise in the design of such databases. The task of acting in a dynamic world in order to achieve some goals is studied in the learning to act framework. We present results on supervised learning of action strategies in the form of production rule systems. The framework and the results combine features from the area of symbolic computation and that of reactive agents, which have been previously seen as opposed if not contradictory, and thus advance our understanding of the problems. Advisor Valiant, Leslie G. Entry Month 9609. Revised: 960927. <2> Accession Number AAI9129772 Author Komow, Ray. Title THE GENESIS AND TONE OF "DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NURNBERG" (WAGNER, OPERA, GERMANY). Institution Thesis (PH.D.)--BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY. 1991. 569p. Document Delivery Order Number: AAI9129772. Source Dissertation Abstracts International. Volume: 52-06, Section: A, page: 1936. Subject Headings Music. Abstract In Meistersinger the terms Ton and Weise describe the elements within a work that make it unique. Both the opera itself and Wagner's writings show that for Wagner the nature of an artwork was bound up with its creation. The dissertation examines the opera, sketch materials, and Wagner's writings to determine what constitutes the Ton and Weise, i.e. the "tone", of Meistersinger and how it came into being. In Book One, "Historical Background", essential manuscripts are described, based on archival research, to develop a sense of Wagner's approach to the composition of the opera. Work on Meistersinger between 1845 and 1851 is then examined, with emphasis on the relationship to Tannhauser and Wagner's own critique of the first prose draft. A chronological overview of the opera's composition suggests, among other things, that fragments in a green pocket notebook may represent an attempt to encapsulate the musical tone of the opera before setting the libretto. Book Two, "Compositional Issues", examines sketch materials and passages of the completed opera in detail. Wagner's melodic fabric is constructed from motivic cells out of which themes and motives are built. Motivic transformation produces a metaphor for the way that what Wagner called "inner natural necessity" motivates the dramatic action. The portrayal of artisty and pedantry on the one hand and old and new music on the other are factors around which Wagner developed the tone of the opera. Wagner felt that artists are flexible by nature, whereas pedants gravitate toward rigid guidelines and closed forms. This flexibility also effected Wagner's decisions about key settings and tonal motion. In the Green Notebook Wagner built primary themes from motivic cells which eventually permeated the opera. These themes include both closed and open musical material, often in the same keys as in the finished opera. When drafted this constituted the tone of the opera and a starting point for the development of the tone of the completed work. Advisor Chafe, ERIC. Entry Month 9402. Revised: 931008.
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Revised 25 March, 1997