Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Review Of The Wild Oat Inflorescence And Seed: Anatomy, Development And Morphology, By M. V. S. Raju, David M. Sutherland

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This slim volume describes a detailed study of the reproductive parts of Avena farua, the wild oat plant--a common weed in the northern plains and the probable ancestor of the cultivated oat. The book integrates the author's own work with information from available literature and includes lengthy technical descriptions of the structure and the growth of the inflorescence, the floret, the ovule, the pollen grain, the embryo, the seed, and the young seedling. Throughout the work, the author relates the wild oat's structure and development to other grasses, other monocotyledons, and other seed plants, offering evolutionary interpretations of many …

Review Of Harvest Of Opportunity: New Horizons For Farm Women, By Lois L. Ross, Katherine Jensen

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Journalist Lois Ross has organized interviews with twenty-four contemporary farm women of the Canadian prairie provinces into four categories of women's entrepreneurship in the face of the farm crisis of the 1980s. With only a six-page introduction to the volume and briefer chapter prefaces, it is in many ways a book ready to be written. The author defended the interviews, edited only for length and redundance, in the same ways I have often argued for "qualitative" research in saying that the words of the women themselves speak better to the "feelings or frustrations, apprehension or optimism, barriers and breakthroughs" than …

Review Of Harry Kirke Wolfe: Pioneer In Psychology, By Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr., Daniel Bernstein

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

While teaching at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Ludy Benjamin discovered that the first psychology professor at the University of Nebraska gained a place in the history of experimental psychology in the United States. Harry K. Wolfe received a doctorate from the University of Leipzig, where he studied with Wilhelm Wundt (one of the founders of experimental psychology). In 1889 Wolfe established the first undergraduate psychology laboratory in the United States. Benjamin has written this interesting and readable book about a great teacher. The story includes the saga of academic life at a fledgling public university, one man's experience of the debate …

Review Of Groundwater Levels In Nebraska, 1989, By Michael J. Ellis, Gregory V. Steele, And Perry B. Wigley, M. Stanley Dart

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Groundwater Levels in Nebraska, 1989, continues the excellent record of Nebraska Water Survey Papers produced by the Conservation and Survey Division and the US Geological Survey. The authors provide full color cartographic displays that are accurate as well as highly readable. Some of the maps treat the state of Nebraska for summary purposes. However, the greater value is found in the nine subregional large scale maps that cover the entire state in detail. Each map clearly displays the areas of significant water-level change that has occurred from the period of first reliable record through 1989. For Nebraskans, it should be …

Review Of Farming The System: How Politicians And Producers Shape Canadian Agricultural Policy, By Barry K. Wilson, George E. Lee

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Canadian agricultural policy has been undergoing major multidimensional changes over the past decade. They include how policy is developed, how different actors have become major and minor players, a redefinition of the major (and the mix of) objective function(s), and how the whole process is orchestrated. Farming the System is an exercise in describing and analyzing this decade of change. The book contains a vast amount of anecdotal information on the Canadian agricultural and political system. The content, structure, and style relies heavily on Wilson's background as a political scientist and as a journalist. The book contains thirteen chapters, however …

Review Of The Medicine Men: Oglala Sioux Ceremony And Healing, By Thomas H. Lewis, Elizabeth S. Grobsmith

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Lewis' new book on Oglala ceremony and healing brings together observations and interpretations of his encounters with Lakota healers from the Pine Ridge Reservation during his stay there in the 1960s and 1970s. Lewis was readily incorporated into the community and entrusted with details of conceptions and sources of power which reflect both the relaxed political and social climate and the attitude of openness the Lakota then held about sharing knowledge of their traditions with outsiders. This is fortunate, both for Lewis and the reader, for much of the substance of what Lewis learned is fast disappearing as are the …

Review Of The Political Economy Of Manitoba, Edited By Jim Silver And Jeremy Hull, Ralph F. Harris

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The Political Economy of Manitoba analyses the evolution of social, economic, and political marginalization concomitant with a wide range of struggle and conflict experienced by the people of the province. Its chapters provide significant empirical evidence of the nature and scope of this evolution. Underlying objectives of the contributions to this book are the support of activists in their popular struggles and the stimulation of progressive innovations in political policy. Two main perspectives are used in presentation. Historical analysis is used to show the origins and progression of growth. Analysis of more recent developments portrays the changing social and economic …

Economic Development Programs In The Great Plains: The Example Of Nebraska, Michael Broadway

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

In an effort to stem Nebraska's loss of population and create new employment opportunities, the State Legislature passed the Nebraska Employment and Investment Growth Act in 1987. The legislation provides various tax incentives to businesses that make new investments in the state or create "new jobs," the majority of which are located in metropolitan counties. However, the largest nuntber of jobs to result from this legislation is at IBP's beef-packing plant in Lexington. Previous studies of the impact of beef-packing plants upon small towns found high levels of social disruption associated with the arrival of the workers. Lexington, by contrast, …

Great Plains Research: Editorial Matter, Volume 1, Number 2

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Includes:

Cover
Publisher Information (The Center for Great Plains Studies)
Copyright page
Table of Contents
Editor’s Note
News and Notes
Annual Index
Calls for Papers (2)
Advertisements (2)
Instructions to Authors

Observed Variations In Great Plains Seasonal Temperatures During The Past Century, Nolan J. Doesken, Thomas B. Mckee

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Time series of observed seasonal temperature data from selected locations on the American Great Plains contain a great deal of information on the nature and scales of climate variations over the past century. At four long-term stations in eastern Colorado, trends of increasing mean maximum and minimum temperatures occurred in all seasons except autumn; with most warming preceding 1940. Diurnal range has been decreasing considerably in recent decades, but long-term trends are not consistent at all locations. Interannual variability has also been changed but does not show a systematic trend.

Time series similarities across the Great Plains decay rapidly over …

Review Of The Middle West: Its Meaning In American Culture, By James R. Shortridge, John Fraser Hart

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

James R. Shortridge has cheerfully pursued the will-o'-the-wisp of trying to describe the "idea" of the Middle West in a book that was given the prestigious John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize of the Association of American Geographers in 1990. He argues that a careful reading of the kinds of popular publications that are indexed in the Renders' Guide to Periodical Literantre can reveal the personality and image of the region, what it originally meant to Americans, and how this meaning has changed. over time. Attempts to find meaning in places and things currently seem to be fashionable. Such efforts can be …

The Lucanidae And Passalidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) Of Nebraska, Brett C. Ratcliffe

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

A faunal study of the five species of Lucanidae and one species of Passalidae that occur in Nebraska is presented. All of these species are near the extreme western limit of their geographic range in North America, and five of the six species are reported from Nebraska for the first time. The treatment for each species consists of synonymy, description, general distribution, Nebraska locality records, temporal distribution in the state, remarks on identification, reference to larval descriptions when available, and information about the biology and ecology of each species when known. Distribution maps, showing the Nebraska records, are given for …

Frontier Flintlocks: A Fault Tree Analysis Of Firearm Use At Contact Period Sites Of The Great Plains, Peter Bleed, Daniel Watson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Gun part assemblages from several Euroamerican and Native American contact period sites from the Plains are compared as a way of examining how firearms were incorporated into Native technology of the Plains region. These data are interpreted in terms of a “fault tree analysis," an operations research technique that identifies potential points of failure in technical systems in order to study patterns of use, maintenance, and reliability. The analysis indicates distinctively different patterns of gun repair and treatment by Indians and Euroamericans but suggests that Indians were quite capable of repairing firearms and that they systematically reused parts from failed …

Wpa News 33 (1991), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (August 1991), number 33

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Developments 1990-91, Bruce B. Johnson

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Reports

Agricultural land values rose 4 percent during 1990, although the pattern varied widely across the state. The annual increase represented the fourth straight year of increase according to the University of Nebraska annual Farm Real Estate Market Survey series; yet the 1991 average value remained at about two-thirds of the peak value recorded 10 years earlier.

Largest percentage gains in value were reported in the Central Crop Reporting District where the all-land average rose 10 percent. In contrast, the Southeast District recorded a slight decline in the all-land average.

By type of land, grazing land values usually showed the largest …

What's Involved In The Evolving?: The Process Used In Developing A Proposal For Library Needs Of Distant Learners In A Sparsely Populated State, Kate E. Adams, Rebecca A. Bernthal, Tracy Bicknell-Holmes, Debra Pearson

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Distance education. Distant learners. Extended campus library service. Nontraditional students. Satellite delivery. Access to information. Equal access to information and service. Limited resources. Over the past few years, these topics have appeared frequently in the literatures of higher education and librarianship. As the burgeoning interest in distance education continues to grow, more and more librarians are involved with meeting the needs of distance education students. Although meeting the library needs of any nontraditional student has always been a challenge for academic libraries, developing a program and process to serve distant learners is particularly challenging. In Nebraska, geographic and demographic factors …

“Just How Much Did That Wheelchair Cost?”: Management Of Privacy Boundaries By Persons With Disabilities, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Persons with physical disabilities were studied to determine how they communicate when they perceive able-bodied persons are expecting or demanding disclosure about their disability in new relationships. An interpretive analysis was performed on 350 pages of transcripted data from interviews with disabled adults. The results showed that disabled persons were able to describe the communication of able-bodied others and their attributions when disclosure was demanded or expected. This study revealed communication strategies disabled persons use to manage disclosure. These strategies were discussed as regulating privacy boundaries, whereby disabled persons seek to be acknowledged as “persons first” by controlling dissemination of …

Use Of Pollen Concentration In Paleopharmacology: Coprolite Evidence Of Medicinal Plants, Karl Reinhard, Donny L. Hamilton, Richard H. Hevly

Karl Reinhard Publications

Nearly 2,400 plant species have been documented ethnographically as having medicinal value among Native Americans. Therefore, it is not surprising that evidence of medicinal plants appears in some of the over 1,000 coprolites analyzed from the southwestern U.S. Three medicinal species identified in pollen analysis of coprolites are discussed. Willow (Salix) is the most common analgesic in the Native American pharmacopoeia. Prehistoric use of this plant is documented in coprolites from Bighorn Cave in the Black Mountains of Arizona and also in a burial from the Mimbres Valley, New Mexico. Historically, Mormon tea (Ephedra) served as …

Moral Versus Social-Conventional Reasoning: A Narrative And Cultural Critique, Carol S. Witherell, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Abstract: We suggest in this paper that attempts to segregate social-conventional reasoning from the moral domain may represent an artifactual division, one that ignores major philosophic and psychological traditions and cultural constructs regarding the moral self. We address such issues as the individual, social, and relational dimensions of morality; the cultural context of moral development and behavior; and whether morality is solely a matter of justice, harm and welfare considerations, or concerned as well with culturally variable definitions of the good and the good society, with role obligations, and with caring and affective aspects of human experience. We conclude with …

Effects Of Leader-Member Exchange On Subordinates’ Upward Influence Attempts, Kathleen J. Krone

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This research examined the extent to which subordinates’ perceptions of supervisory relationship quality affected how frequently they use different types of tactics in their self-reported upward influence attempts. Based on their responses to the Leader-Member Exchange Scale (1982), three hundred and thirty-seven respondents from five different organizations were classified into an in-group or out-group supervisory relationship. As a part of a larger study, a typology of upward influence messages was created based on the extent to which: (l) the means employed to attempt influence are open or closed, and (2) the desired outcomes are openly expressed or left undisclosed. The …

The National Register Of Historic Places: An Historic Preservation Planning Tool?, Brent Donald Nelson

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

This paper answers three questions: 1) What is the National Register of Historic Places? 2) Does the National Register act as an historic preservation planning tool? 3) Did the administrative changes made to the National Register nominating procedures in 1986 enhance or improve any planning tool functions that it may have had?

The author, based on preliminary research and personal experience hypothesized that the answers to the first two questions would be that the National Register is a list that acts primarily as an "honor roll" bestowing distinction and recognition onto properties placed on it and only secondarily as a …

Wpa News 32 (1991), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (May 1991), number 32

Published by the World Pheasant Association

National Trends In Programming, Preparation And Staffing Of County Level Cooperative Extension Service Offices As Identified By State Extension Directors, David M. Agnew, Richard Foster

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

A variety of technical, economical, and social changes are rapidly altering the lives of people served by the Cooperative Extension Service (CES). At the same time Extension has been undergoing the difficult task of evaluating its effectiveness in addressing the needs of society. Reorganizing Extension programs to address the changing clientele directly affects the jobs of field-based faculty in the CES. As Extension responds to the Futures Task Force Report (COP, 1987) and moves to issues programming, a high degree of change will be required. “As we approach the year 2000, Extension is caught in the rapids of change” (Geasier, …

Perceptions Of Agribusiness Leaders Toward Agricultural Education In Nebraska, Allen G. Blezek, Roy D. Dillon

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

The need for change today is perhaps no greater than within the ranks of public programs in agricultural education. Technological advancements coupled with the need for even greater economic efficiency not only continues to encourage and force change, but suggests that the pressures for even better educational programs in agriculture will continue until change actually occurs or most importantly is actually perceived to occur.

Miller (1983), stated that “other teachers also often perceive our students (agricultural education) as the less talented and our instructional content as less than rigorous.” He further indicated that “our image with legislators is best characterized …

Snow Cover Variability On The Northern And Central Great Plains, David A. Robinson, Marilyn G. Hughes

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Winter snow cover duration has varied across the northern and central Great Plains of the United States throughout this century. Decade-to-decade variability has been common, and the timing of these fluctuations has differed considerably across the region. A general trend towards longer snow cover duration was noted from the 1920s and 1930s to the 1970s. Nine stations with continuous records of snow cover, temperature, precipitation, and snowfall dating back 61 to 97 years were studied. Snow cover fluctuations and trends are associated with changes of these other variables. Such relationships are complex and differ across the Great Plains. Correlations between …

Review Of The Sociology Of U.S. Agriculture: An Ecological Perspective, By Don E. Albrecht And Steve H. Murdock, Keith D. Parker

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Albrecht and Murdock provide a thorough examination and discussion of the changing structure of American agriculture. The authors, adopting an integrated approach, examine the major trends and changes in farming and the causes of these changes. This book provides a theoretically informed framework that allows dimensions central to the understanding of past, present, and possible future changes in the structure of American agriculture. The text examines ecological factors that influence and are influenced by the changing structure of agriculture. It describes the relationship between technology and agriculture. The authors discuss nonfarm organizations such as government and financial and economic institutions …

Review Of Transportation Service To Small Rural Communities: Effects Of Deregulation, By John F. Due, Benjamin J. Allen, Mary R. Kihl, And Michael R. Crumm, L. Orlo Sorenson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This excellent book deals with transportation service interaction between carriers (providers of rail, truck, bus, and airplane service) and the users of those services in low traffic density markets. The book educates the reader rather than attempting to persuade the reader to a point of view. It deals largely with changes occurring in transport regulation and technology in the decade of the 1980s and their impacts on services to smaller communities.

Review Of Agricultural Bioethics: Implications Of Agricultural Biotechnology, Steven M. Gendel, A. David Kline, D. Michael Warren, And Faye Yates, Eds., Vernon W. Ruttan

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This book is largely the product of a series of faculty discussions and a symposium held at Iowa State University in 1987. It represents a comprehensive treatment of the safety and regulatory issues, economic prospects, social considerations, and ethical dilemmas emerging from advances in molecular biology and agricultural biotechnology. Major attention is focused on bovine growth hormone bGH). The book is the most useful introduction to these issues available under one cover. It is also a book of highly uneven quality. The papers range from advocacy journalism to carefully reasoned argument and rigorous sifting of evidence. I particularly recommend the …

35th Annual Midwest Groundwater Conference, Brad Rundquist

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Midwestern scientists, policy experts, and natural resource managers face many challenges regarding groundwater management. Pressing problems include limiting and properly managing areas of groundwater decline, reducing contamination from agricultural and industrial chemicals, and fruitfully studying these issues. The original Midwest Groundwater Conference, in 1956, initiated the exchange of ideas between groundwater professionals working in the region. The 35th annual conference convened in Lincoln, NE, on October 17-19, 1990. The conference was sponsored by the University of Nebraska's Water Center, Conservation and Survey Division, Agricultural Research Division, and Geology Department, and by the Nebraska District of the US Geological Survey's Water …

Review Of Damming The Colorado: The Rise Of The Lower Colorado River Authority, 1933-1939, By John R. Adams, Jr., F. Andrew Schoolmaster

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This book provides an insightful and useful case study of political compromise and regional conflict resolution stemming from the construction of multipurpose development projects on the Colorado River of Texas. The author focuses on the maneuvering of Texas politicians such as James P. Buchanan, J. J. Mansfield, and Lyndon B. Johnson in creating the Lower Colorado River Authority, and bringing a New Deal reclamation project complete with dams, reservoirs, and hydroelectric power stations to central Texas. The book is divided into six chapters, supplemented by a brief introduction, an extensive collection of footnotes, and an excellent bibliography.