Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Part 7: Unrealized Potential: High Technology In Hampton Roads, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

On the face of it, Hampton Roads ought to be a technological powerhouse because of the high-level federal research facilities and defense installations located in the area, plus a higher education community of considerable size. Yet, while we can claim the second-greatest technological development of any region in the Commonwealth, we are a very distant second to Northern Virginia and have never realized our potential. Future prosperity in technology is tied to developing the modeling and simulation industry that has sprouted primarily in Suffolk, stimulating Eastern Virginia Medical School’s potential in conjunction with Old Dominion University and vastly increasing support …

What Is New In The New Toefl-Ibt 2006 Test Format?, Alla Zareva

English Faculty Publications

In recent years TOEFL has become one of the most popular high-stakes tests affecting not only what and how English language teachers teach but also what and how students learn (e.g. Johnson, Jordan, & Poehner, 2005; Alderson & Wall, 1993). The new 2006 TOEFL–iBT exam is on its way; yet, until now, information about the new test format and test preparation materials is scarce. Above and beyond interest in the test alone, the burning question is what demanded the revision of the current test, given that the latest computer-based TOEFL was introduced fairly recently worldwide. The paper elaborates on some …

The Influence Of Sociocultural Factors On Body Image: Searching For Constructs, Thomas F. Cash

Psychology Faculty Publications

Body image is a multidimensional construct that has received increasing scientific study over the past few decades. Considerable research has examined the determinants of body image development and functioning and their implications for other aspects of psychosocial wellbeing, especially eating pathology among girls and young women. Cafri, Yamamiya, Brannick, and Thompson (this issue) reported the results of a meta-analysis of how selected, self-reported sociocultural influence variables correlate with the basic dimension of body image evaluation. Their work raises and reinforces important questions about the definition and measurement of sociocultural influence constructs.

Supervisor Perceptions Of The Quality Of Troops To Teachers Program Completers And Program Completer Perceptions Of Their Preparation To Teach: A National Survey, William A. Owings, Leslie S. Kaplan, John Nunnery, Robert Marzano, Steven Myran, David Blackburn

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

[First Paragraph]

During winter/spring, 2005, 2,103 Troops to Teachers (T3) program completers and their school administrators from 49 states and the District of Columbia were surveyed to determine whether T3s were more effective in the classroom than traditionally prepared teachers who had comparable years of teaching experience. Respondents also returned information about their schools’ demographics, views about their teacher certification preparation program, and information about themselves, their teaching behaviors, and future plans. Sixty-one percent of the respondents returned completed surveys.

Financing Strategies Of The R & D Firm, Lawrence Fogelberg, John M, Griffith

Finance Faculty Publications

This paper investigates the financing strategies of the R&D firm. Our hypotheses are based on Cho's (1992) game theory model where the firm develops a product but needs additional financing to bring it to market. The model generates a particularly rich set of hypotheses: 1) to fund the completion of its project and bring its product to market, the firm initiates negotiations with an established firm; 2) the majority of the acquisitions will be partial cash acquisitions through private secondary offerings. Confirming the model's hypotheses, we find that the majority of the acquisitions are partial cash acquisitions by significantly larger …

Men, Muscles, And Body Image: Comparisons Of Competitive Bodybuilders, Weight Trainers, And Athletically Active Controls, T. C. Pickett, R. J. Lewis, T. F. Cash, H. G. Pope

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objectives: To investigate body image and psychosocial adjustment among competitive bodybuilders, non-competitive weight trainers, and athletically active men.

Methods: Participants were 40 men in each of the three groups who were assessed on body composition and multiple facets of body image evaluation, investment and anxiety, eating attitudes, and social self esteem.

Results: Relative to the other two groups, competitive bodybuilders had greater body mass due to fat-free body mass. Although groups did not differ in their situational body image discomfort, competitive bodybuilders and weight trainers had a more positive global appearance evaluation and were more psychologically invested in their physical …

Dissociable Aspects Of Mental Workload: Examinations Of The P300 Erp Component And Performance Assessments, Carryl L. Baldwin, Joseph T. Coyne

Psychology Faculty Publications

Advanced technologies have enabled the choice of either visual or auditory formats for avionics and surface transportation displays. Methods of assessing the mental workload imposed by displays of different formats are critical to their successful implementation. Towards this end a series of investigations were conducted with the following aims: 1) developing analogous auditory and visual versions of a secondary task that could be used to compare display modalities; and 2) to compare the sensitivity of neurophysiological, behavioral and subjective indices of workload. Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed that analogous auditory and visual secondary oddball discrimination tasks were of equivalent difficulty …

Is Feminist Humor An Oxymoron?, Janet M. Bing

English Faculty Publications

Is the subject of feminist humor male oppression or a celebration of the female experience? This paper argues for the latter and suggests that inclusive jokes can be more effectively subversive than divisive ones. As long as women's jokes focus on men, male definitions, and male behavior, women are marginalizing females, even if their jokes target males. In addition, divisive jokes can strengthen prevailing beliefs about essential female-male differences. However, when straight feminists make jokes and laugh about the shared experiences of females rather than on oppressive male behavior, then feminist humor, like lesbian humor, becomes an agent for change.

Neighborhood Characteristics And Crime: A Test Of Sampson And Groves' Model Of Social Disorganization, Ivan Y. Sun, Ruth A. Triplett, Randy R. Gainey

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

In 1989 Sampson and Groves proposed a model of social disorganization. In this model, neighborhoods with low socioeconomic status, high residential mobility, racial heterogeneity, and family disruption were predicted to have sparse local friendship networks', low organizational participation, and unsupervised youth groups. These, in turn, were predicted to increase neighborhood crime rates. Although Sampson and Groves' work represents the most complete model of social disorganization to date, it has only been tested twice and then on the same data set. Using data from 36 neighborhoods from 7 U.S. cities, this study examines extensions of Sampson and Groves' model suggested by …

Reel Baseball: Essays And Interviews On The National Pastime, Hollywood And American Culture, Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

The editors of Reel Baseball begin by acknowledging the roots of their collection, which explores the intersection between movies and baseball. Since 1989 the National Baseball Hall of Fame has hosted the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture. Since 1997, McFarland has published all papers presented at the symposium. Reel Baseball, then, functions both as a document and as an artifact of the "integral" place of baseball movies in American culture. Indeed, the book not only includes essays presented at the symposium, it has two foreword sections: one written by Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey and the …

Lesbian Jokes: A Reply To Christie Davies, Janet Bing

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"Two Guns, A Girl And A Playstation™": Gender In The Tomb Raider Series, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

This article considers the combination of game play and narrative which combine to produce cross-gender identifications in video games, a previously underexamined potential for the production of alternate genders, one which calls into question the stability of gender, particularly masculinity, as a construct.

Contesting Identities: Sports In American Film [Book Review], Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film is an indictment of the key American myth that anyone can succeed through self-reliance. Baker finds that sports films, in general, comprise a site in which the myth is represented and reproduced. Baker's focus, though presented from multiple analytical perspectives, is singular in its purpose. That said, Baker does concentrate on what he considers the four core American sports: football, baseball, basketball and boxing. Approximately ninety movies, from the silent era to the present day, provide the content of the analysis, but several are exemplary and are cited repeatedly in the book's …

A Review Of Cyberactivism: Online Activism In Theory And Practice, Kevin Eric De Pew

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cultural Adaptability Of Dental Hygiene Students In The United States: A Pilot Study, Katrina W. Magee, Michele L. Darby, Irene M. Connolly, Evelyn Thomson

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

Dental hygiene students should prepare to competently provide services to culturally diverse patients; therefore, this study was conducted as a baseline to determine the cross-cultural adaptability of dental hygiene students. The sample consisted of 188 dental hygiene students attending four culturally diverse dental hygiene programs (N=108) and four non-culturally diverse dental hygiene programs (N=80). The culturally diverse programs randomly selected were located in the southwest, southeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S., and the non-diverse programs were located in the northwest, northcentral, central, and southern regions of the U.S. Any dental hygiene program with students representing four of the five …

Including Organizational Cultural Parameters In Work Processes, Holly A. H. Handley, Nancy J. Heacox

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Recent work in modeling decision-making work processes has focused on including the national culture of individual decision-makers in order to emphasize the differences in decision criteria between decision-makers of different nationalities. In addition to nationality, a decision-maker is also a member of an organization and brings this organizational culture to his role in the work process, where it may also affect his task performance. In order to represent the organizational impact on the work process, five organizational cultural parameters were identified and included in an algorithm for modeling and simulation of cultural difference in human decision-making. While the five modifiers …

"Sturdy Black Bridges": Discussing Race, Class, And Gender, Kaavonia Hinton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Black feminist literary theory offers tools that teachers can use to initiate discussions on the issues of race, gender and class to analyze the works of adolescent literature. This feminist theory helps in reading and teaching literature about parallel cultures, like African-Americans and their love for self and community and their recognition of multiple oppressions in a way that differs from feminism.

Front Matter: The State Of The Region: Hampton Roads 2004, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

Cover, front matter, table of contents, and other materials for the 2004 The State of the Region report authored by the Regional Studies Institute at Old Dominion University

Part 4: The Virginia Symphony Orchestra: The Valiant Struggles Of A Cultural Jewel, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

The Virginia Symphony Orchestra (VSO) ranks well when compared to orchestras in regions of similar size and wealth, and in maestro JoAnn Falletta boasts a distinguished musical director. However, the symphony has accumulated a debt of approximately $2 million. Determined fund raising may reduce this debt, but the VSO’s ultimate challenge is to attract a larger and more diverse clientele. If it does not, it could join a half dozen other regional orchestras throughout the country that recently have been forced to contract significantly or even declare bankruptcy.

Part 2: How Do We Compare? Hampton Roads Versus Other Regions, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

Per capita income in Hampton Roads has been rising and, after we factor in the cost of living, now is about 6 percent above the national average. This is a startling reversal from the late 1990s when the region was well below the national average. Housing prices here continue to be lower than the national average, as is our overall cost of living. Our air is cleaner than the national average and we rate high in terms of cultural amenities, but founder with regard to several measures of educational attainment.

Part 1: The Regional Economy Continues To Excel, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

In 2004, the Hampton Roads economy will grow about 4.7 percent, the highest rate since 1987. Almost three-quarters of this growth is due to increased expenditures within the region by the Department of Defense. This illustrates the relative importance of defense expenditures in our regional economy.

Part 6: The Role And Influence Of African American Legislators From Hampton Roads, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

African Americans comprise more than three of every 10 residents of Hampton Roads. Only recently, however, has this population translated into a large number of elected representatives in the Virginia General Assembly. This year, there are eight elected African American legislators in Richmond who claim Hampton Roads as their home. We explore their power and influence, noting that many do not yet possess the seniority to wield extensive influence. All eight legislators are Democrats and serve in a statehouse dominated by Republicans.

Part 3: What Do We Believe? How Hampton Roads Residents View Their World, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

We report the results of a stratified, random poll of 1,189 Hampton Roads residents. They believe that traffic congestion and crime are the most important problems facing the region. For the first time, we develop a Quality of Life Index for Hampton Roads and its individual cities and counties. Not surprisingly, we’re not all equally satisfied, and several interesting differences between cities are apparent.

Part 5: Electricity Deregulation: What Impact Will It Have On Hampton Roads?, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

The Virginia General Assembly has voted to deregulate electricity in Virginia, but has delayed critical parts of this process until 2010 at the earliest. Recently, the General Assembly seems to have lost some of its stomach for deregulation. Nationally, deregulation usually is associated with lower electricity prices; however, there are notable exceptions. Virginia’s electricity prices currently are not high by national standards.

Satellite Evidence Of Hurricane-Induced Phytoplankton Blooms In An Oceanic Desert, S. M. Babin, J. A. Carton, T. D. Dickey, J. D. Wiggert

CCPO Publications

The physical effects of hurricanes include deepening of the mixed layer and decreasing of the sea surface temperature in response to entrainment, curl-induced upwelling, and increased upper ocean cooling. However, the biological effects of hurricanes remain relatively unexplored. In this paper, we examine the passages of 13 hurricanes through the Sargasso Sea region of the North Atlantic during the years 1998 through 2001. Remotely sensed ocean color shows increased concentrations of surface chlorophyll within the cool wakes of the hurricanes, apparently in response to the injection of nutrients and/or biogenic pigments into the oligotrophic surface waters. This increase in post-storm …

Unhealthy Politics Of Oral Health, Michele Leonardi Darby

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

Editorial. Comments that a survey conducted by national advocacy group Oral Health America found that people from the U.S. are underachievers in access to dental hygiene. Measurement of success in oral health care; Proposal to implement dental hygiene practice laws; Shortage of dentists in rural and inner city communities.

"War If Necessary, But Not Necessarily War”: The Canadian Paradox And “Iraqi Freedom", Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

The Canadian refusal to join the U.S. led “coalition of the willing” does not mark the first time the nation has chosen not to follow its “traditional allies” into a foolish, ego-driven, imperialistic and vengeful conflict. Indeed, Canada’s record in these matters is flawless. Peter C. Newman points out that “we went along with most presidential global adventures, except the Vietnam War. The other significant time we parted company with the Yanks was over our drive to impose economic sanctions on apartheid South Africa, a policy we initiated and successfully defended despite American objections.” In fact, the objections to this …

A Comparison Of Human Energy Fields Among Children, Youth, Adults, & Dahn Masters, Geoffrey K. Leigh, Karen A. Polonko, Catherine D. Leigh

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

While concepts and investigations of human energy fields have been developed for centuries, there has been little systematic work comparing the fields of children, adolescents, and adults. In addition, general fields have had little comparison between average adults and those participating in an intense practice that may affect the field. Using the GDV machine, this research compared small groups of children, adolescents, average adults, and Dahn Hak Masters on measures of 20 basic aspects of the human energy fields, including the seven chakras. Differences were found in seven of the 13 field parameters as well as all seven measures of …

Prayer As Interpersonal Coping In The Lives Of Mothers With Hiv, E. James Baesler, Valerian J. Derlega, Barbara A. Winstead, Anita Barbee

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

The spirituality of 22 mothers diagnosed with HIV was explored through face-to-face interviews and revealed that 95% of the mothers pray. Active prayers (e.g., talking to God by adoring, thanking, confessing, and supplicating) were more frequently reported than receptive prayers (e.g., quietly listening to God, being open, surrendering). Supplicatory or petitionary prayers for help and health were the most frequent type of prayer, and adoration was the least frequent. The majority of mothers in the sample perceived prayer as a positive coping mechanism associated with outcomes such as: support, positive attitude/affect, and peace. Overall, results supported expanding the boundary conditions …

Common Data Administration, Data Management, And Data Alignment As A Necessary Requirement For Coupling C4isr Systems And M&S Systems, Andreas Tolk

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

Within the application domain of military simulation systems, training and exercises as well as support to real operations require the coupling of the simulation system delivering the needed functionality with the Command, Control, Computing, Communications, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) system providing the necessary data. The solution to this challenge is to build appropriate interfaces. Although in long term a more integrated approach will be necessary, in short and mid term, gateways and interfaces are likely to remain the standard. However, in order to succeed with the respective efforts, at least on the data level of interoperability, a common solution …