Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Household Management Of Endoparasitic Infection In A Border Community In Tamaulipas, Mexico, Charles Thomas Faulkner

Doctoral Dissertations

Fecal samples from 438 children in 217 families were examined for helminth eggs/larve and protozoan cysts to study the occurrence of parasitic infection and household knowledge of cholera preventive measures in a border community in Tamaulipas, Mexico. The age of the children ranged from 1 month to 16 years. Parasitic infections occurred in 30% of children residing in 79 of 217 households. Giardia lamblia accounted for 12.5% of all infections. Other endoparasitic species found in the children were: Hymenolepis nana, (28/438), Ascaris lumbricoides (16/438), Trichuris trichiura (6/438), Enterobius vermicularis (6/438), Ancylostoma-Necator (1/438),Strongyloides sercoralis (1/438), Entamoeba coli (27/438), Ent. …

The Plains Paradox: Secular Trends In Stature In 19Th Century Nomadic Plains Equestrian Indians, Joseph M. Prince

Doctoral Dissertations

This study documents the occurrence of secular trends in height in an historic population of 19^th century nomadic Plains equestrian Indians. The eight tribal samples utilized are a subset of the Boas North American Indian anthropometric data set. A cross-sectional design was used to examine the span of years from 1800 to 1870 for adult individuals over 20 years of age, sexes analyzed separately, male n=1,123 and female n=362. Adult heights were adjusted for aging effects on three variables: standing height; sitting height; and sitting height/subischial length ratio. Combined with an unadjusted subischial length, these variables were used to …

Being Cherokee In A White World: Ethnic Identity In A Post-Removal American Indian Enclave, Betty J. Duggan

Doctoral Dissertations

Within a few years of 1838, when most members of the Cherokee Nation were forced to emigrate to Indian Territory on the Trail of Tears, a small group of Cherokee families reestablished settlements in and around the Ducktown Basin in the southeastern comer of Tennessee, away from the major Eastern Cherokee remnants in North Carolina. This dissertation reconstructs the history of these Cherokees from 1838 through the 1910s, focusing on the nature of their communities; their economic, social, and religious relationships with local whites; their associations with other Cherokee enclaves and individuals; and their ultimate disappearance from the Basin.

Data …

Turkistan: Kazak Religion And Collective Memory, Bruce G. Privratsky

Doctoral Dissertations

This study in the anthropology of religion examines the relationship between Kazak ethnicity and religion, exploring how the collective memory is mediating Muslim values in Kazak culture in the 1990s. Ethnographic field research was conducted in the Kazak language from 1992 to 1998 in the city of Turkistan (Turkestan) in southern Kazakstan (Kazakhstan). Turkistan is the site of the Timurid shrine of Ahmet Yasawi (Ahmed Yasavi), a key figure in the Turkic Sufism of Central Asia. Today it is also a cultural center of the new Pan-Turkism and the site of a Kazak-Turkish international university.

The findings of the study …

A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of The Determinants Of Corporate Share Repurchases, Kenneth M. Washer

Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this study is to determine which motives play a significant role in determining the extent of a firm's repurchasing activity. For firms repurchasing through the open market, the motives include taking advantage of perceived undervaluation, increasing financial leverage, distributing cash to shareholders, and reducing agency costs. For firms using a tender offer, the motives include taking advantage of perceived undervaluation and having the ability to significantly increase financial leverage. Also, the hypothesis that the perceived undervaluation motive is stronger for smaller firms is tested. Three censored regression models are employed, and each model's explanatory variables represent commonly …

The Performance Of Industry Culture: Assumptions, Sources And Evolutionary Patterns As Revealed In The Paradigmatic Interplay Of Reporting Structures And Communicative Processes, Linda Lyle

Doctoral Dissertations

This study (1) describes cultural assumptions in the student travel industry, relying upon protocols previously established within the functionalist perspective and (2) explains how these assumptions may have evolved by examining the basic communicative processes (performances) wherein industry culture has been made manifest.

The study identifies eight members of the student travel industry and uses qualitative methods that consist of in-depth interviews with the industry's "elite" members, as well as content analysis of selected historical and contemporary documents. Data were analyzed, first by thematic coding and then by interpretive analysis of codes that emerged. To frame the analysis, Phillips' (1990) …

An Examination Of The Relationships Between Value Conflict, Quality Of Worklife, Job Satisfaction And Job Retention Among Employees Working In Urban And Rural County Human Service Departments In The State Of Ohio, Laurie Gracheck White

Doctoral Dissertations

Public human service settings are highly bureaucratic organizations with tight centralization of policy decision-making. They can be inhospitable places for conducting professional work and most appropriate for performing routine tasks based on standardized procedures. Against this backdrop of control, human service workers are asked to respond to the unique and unpredictable problems of people struggling unsuccessfully in society. The inconsistency between work structure and professional responsibility can generate value conflict for public human service employees. There are conflicts of loyalty to employers, laws, clients, colleagues, funding sources, regulations, and the community at large. These conflicts can have profound implication for …

Induced Altruism In The Maintenance Of Institutionalized Celibacy, Hector N. Qirko

Doctoral Dissertations

Celibacy is an altruistic act when it involves an individual's sacrifice of lifelong reproduction for the benefit of others. Where this occurs for the primary benefit of non-kin, as in many institutions which demand celibacy of their members, it will often be difficult to maintain. This dissertation explores the institutionalized maintenance and reinforcement of celibacy vows through the concept of induced altruism. Because humans generally recognize kin only by means of indirect cues, these cues may be manipulated so that individuals behave altruistically for the benefit of non-kin. Human kinship-recognition cues include association, phenotypic similarity, and the use of kinship …

Late Paleoindian Through Middle Archaic Faunal Evidence From Dust Cave, Alabama, Renee Beauchamp Walker

Doctoral Dissertations

This research involves the faunal evidence from the site of Dust Cave in northwest Alabama. The site was occupied by prehistoric hunter-gatherers from 10,500 to 5,200 years ago. Dust Cave is significant to archaeological research because it represents one of the earliest known, stratified Late Paleoindian and Archaic deposits in the Southeast. Test excavations were conducted at the cave from 1989-1994 and the materials for this dissertation were collected during this period. Results of the faunal analysis indicate that changes occurred in resource selection, habitat exploitation, and natural environment through time. A shift from a concentration on avian species to …

A Formative Evaluation Of An Empathy Training Model, Beverly Mckee

Doctoral Dissertations

Statement of the Problem: No specific, short term model of empathy has been developed and tested with the general adult population even though researchers have established a link between empathic skills and the art of helping and caring for others. Additionally, as a major component of "emotional intelligence," it is argued that empathy enhances successful living in general (Gibbs, 1995). A large body of research suggests that more empathic people tend to engage in more altruistic behaviors, are less aggressive, are more affiliative, score higher on measures of moral judgement, and are more pleasant to be around (Mehrabian, Young, and …