Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Hot Topic: Personnel Issues In The News, Richard Stokes

MTAS Publications: Hot Topics

The following Hot Topic summarizes pertinent information, key legislation, and Supreme Court rulings that took place during 2000.

Hot Topic: 2000 Legislative Session Paves Way For E-Commerce, Ralph Cross, Al Major

MTAS Publications: Hot Topics

Action taken by the Tennessee General Assembly during the 2000 legislative session revised methods by which state and local governments may conduct business electronically and collect money.

Investigating Variation Among Arikara Crania Using Geometric Morphometry, Ashley H. Mckeown

Doctoral Dissertations

Geometric morphometry has seen minimal application in studies of biological variability among subpopulations of humans. However, as landmark coordinates are highly effective for capturing information regarding size and shape variation, the tools of geometric morphometry are appropriate for investigating such questions. This research utilizes landmark coordinate data to quantify morphological variation among Arikara crania to evaluate the biological relationships between skeletal samples from late prehistoric, protohistoric and historic sites. These samples are derived from well documented archaeological contexts, and the presence of biological variability among them has been reported in previous studies. These factors make these samples appropriate for assessing …

An Examination Of Upland South Farmsteads Using An Evolutionary Ecology Methodology, Todd Michael Ahlman

Doctoral Dissertations

The study of historic farmsteads in the Upland South has generally taken a normative approach that compared archaeologically recorded farmsteads to an idealized Upland South farmstead. This approach tends to avoid the issue of variation that is inherent among farmsteads within the region. To address this variation, a Darwinian evolutionary theoretical perspective is proposed. Of the different evolutionary perspectives in archaeology today, including selectionism, evolutionary psychology, and evolutionary ecology, it is proposed that an evolutionary ecological theoretical perspective is the best for examining and explaining the variation among Upland South farmsteads.

In employing an evolutionary ecology theoretical perspective, a resource …

Secretory Immunoglobulin A And Heart Rate Reactions To Mental Arithmetic And Hypnotic Suggestions, Grant Benham

Doctoral Dissertations

The current study replicates and extends previous research on the effects of both specific hypnotic suggestions and a mental arithmetic task on secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA). Participants (14 males, 16 females) were shown a short video on immune functioning and then sat quietly for 8 minutes in order to obtain an initial baseline measure of sIgA. Participants were then administered an 8-min mental arithmetic (stress) task and a 16-min hypnosis task in a counterbalanced order and separated by a second 8-min baseline period. During the hypnosis condition, participants received a taped hypnotic induction followed by specific suggestions for increasing immune …

The States Of Online, Carol Tenopir

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

STATE LIBRARY organizations generally gear their meetings to all types of librarians (although in some states there is a separate school library organization) and include a variety of topics on their programs. Judging from the number of sessions about online databases at state conferences these days, it is clear that, in the past decade, online has become a mainstream topic for all types of libraries.

Technical Bulletins: Npdes Phase Ii Stormwater Permitting, Andrew J. Reese, R. Scott Taylor

MTAS Publications: Technical Bulletins

In December 1999, the new National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Phase II regulations were published. These regulations, which regulate stormwater discharges to U.S. waters, are mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and implemented in the state by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC).

Technical Bulletins: Two-In, Two-Out And The Osha Respiratory Protection Standard, Ray Crouch

MTAS Publications: Technical Bulletins

The respiratory standard adopted by OSHA is in full effect in Tennessee.

Psychometric Analysis Of The Self-Test; A Newly Developed Brief Screening Test For Detection Of Mild Cognitive Impairments In Early Alzheimer's Disease, Mateja De Leonni Stanonik

Doctoral Dissertations

Dementia is a major public health challenge, which is becoming more common as the aged population grows. Adequate care of dementia patients requires that they be recognized as having memory impairment, identified as having dementia syndrome, and evaluated for the specific cause of the dementia. Dementia is one of the first symptoms in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, the most common psychological instrument used in early evaluation of dementia and other cognitive problems in Alzheimer’s disease is the Mini Mental Status Exam (MMSE, Folstein & Folstein, 1974). The MMSE evaluates different aspects of a patient’s memory, visuospatial functions, …

Social And Biological Structures In The Mound C Cemetery, Wickliffe Mound Group (15ba4), Hugh Bryson Matternes

Doctoral Dissertations

Cemeteries are archaeological phenomena that accumulate over time. When formed in socially unstable cultural environments, the messages communicated by mortuary-based material symbols may change over the course of grave accumulation. This dissertation explores whether Mississippian Period mortuary deposits in Mound C, of the Wickliffe Mound Group (15BA4) changed over time.

Cemeteries are places where the dead's social qualities are defined. They help reemphasize important community values and provide a biologically safe repository for the dead. Symbolized mortuary features convey seven general types of social information. This relationship is sensitive to temporal change.

Several analyses placed the cemetery into socio-biological contexts. …

Bear/People Conflicts In Gatlinburg, Tennessee: An Analysis Of The Social, Political, And Ecological Elements, Kate Mitchell Newton

Masters Theses

Nuisance black bears cause property damage, threaten public safety, and heighten wildlife use conflicts among people across the United States. Wildlife managers have solutions to control nuisance black bear behavior and the accompanying conflicts that occur. The solutions are to require bear-proof garbage disposal, to prohibit intentional feeding, and to educate the public about black bear behavior. However, these solutions are either slow to be adopted or are ignored by local legislative bodies.

In 1999, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, adopted a local ordinance mandating bear-proof garbage containers. This thesis will explain why the city of Gatlinburg adopted the ordinance by documenting the …

Coming Clean: The Health Revolution Of 1890-1920 And Its Impact On Infant Mortality, April D.J. Garwin

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to document the change in attitudes and behaviors pertaining to public and personal hygiene habits at the turn of the nineteenth century. Public utilities, such as municipal water supplies, sanitary sewage systems, and refuse disposal reduced the incidence of communicable diseases. Access to potable water and sewage disposal encouraged a Health Revolution in the United States and the United Kingdom during the era 1890-1920.

Advertisers began (in 1890 and continuing into the 1920s) to employ the fear of contagious diseases, as well as the virtue of beauty, to target consumers and to promote the …

White-Tailed Deer Utility Indices: Development And Application Of An Analytical Method, Jodi A. Jacobson

Masters Theses

Full and partial carcass utility indices have been determined for many animals. The most widely utilized animal in eastern prehistoric North America is the white-tailed deer. However, whole carcass utility indices for this animal have not been investigated. In this thesis meat, marrow, and general utility indices are developed for Odocoileus virginianus. These indices are inspected for variation due to sex, age, and season. In addition, marrow fat percentages which may affect the accuracy of marrow utility indices, are investigated. Five deer have been collected from the ridge and valley region of East Tennessee. Four deer were acquired between …

Hot Topic: Liability Exposure Of Emts And Paramedics Not Subject To Governmental Tort Liability Limits, Jim Finane

MTAS Publications: Hot Topics

In a recent Tennessee Supreme Court case, the court found that local government emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics are excluded from the coverage of the Governmental Tort Liability Act (GTLA).

The Use And Value Of Scholarly Journals, Carol Tenopir, Donald W. King

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper summarized results of 13,591 readership survey responses of scientists and reviews of hundreds of other readership studies reported in a recent book: Towards Electronic Journals: Realities for Scientists, Librarians, and Publishers (Tenopir & King, 2000). In particular, survey results reveal amounts and trends of reading and information-seeking patterns, such as how readers identify articles that are read and where they obtain them. The survey results also demonstrate the usefulness and value of scientific scholarly journals. Past results suggest that electronic journals and digital full-text databases will play a major role in the future of scientific scholarly journals …

Technical Bulletins: Tranquilizer Guns And Animal Control: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Pamela Bingham, Don Darden

MTAS Publications: Technical Bulletins

The MTAS Police Manual and state statues prohibit the use of a firearm on a stray pet that is not threatening or dangerous.

Linking To Full Text In Scholarly Journals: Here A Link, There A Link, Everywhere A Link, Jill E. Grogg, Carol Tenopir

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

Ovid [http://www.ovid.com] offers another example of internal linking with links between its bibliographic databases and the full text of articles available via Journals)Ovid, Ovid's aggregated fully SGML database of hundreds of scientific, technical, and medical journals. Again, depending on license agreements with Ovid, the searcher seamlessly moves from a link on a bibliographic record to the full text, never leaving the Ovid service.

Online Journals & Developing Nations, Carol Tenopir

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

WE ALL KNOW HOW the escalating price of journal subscriptions takes a bite every year from our libraries' budgets. Still, if you are reading this in a library in the United States, the U.K., or any other developed nation, you may not realize the devastating effect the high costs of journals have on libraries in less developed nations. Barbara Kirsop, secretary of the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development and director of Bioline Publications, says when she asked a librarian in a sub-Saharan African nation what journals that library would order this year, the answer was, "None."

The Cost And Price Dilemma Of Scholarly Journals, Donald W. King, Carol Tenopir

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper examines the overall cost of the scientific scholarly journal system and find that the relative system costs have not increased since the late 1970s. Why then have journal prices skyrocketed over this same period? We first describe typical scholarly publishing costs, because to understand journal prices one must understand the factors that affect these costs. We then describe some factors that have likely contributed to spiraling price increases and changes in journal subscription demand. Finally we discuss some alternative pricing policies that might help in the future. This paper summarizes results reported in a recent book: Towards Electronic …

Hot Topic: Legislation Affecting Human Resources, Richard Stokes

MTAS Publications: Hot Topics

During the 2000 legislative session, the Tennessee General Assembly passed two public acts that affect the area of human resources. The first, Chapter No. 693, allows cities and counties to conduct background investigations and require fingerprint samples before employment with the organization. The second, Chapter No. 888, amends the waiting period for unemployment compensation.

Hot Topic: 2000 Legislative Changes Of Interest To Local Law Enforcement, Rex Barton

MTAS Publications: Hot Topics

The 2000 legislative session resulted in numerous changes that affect law enforcement in Tennessee. This publication highlights some of the more important changes.

Trends For The Next Five Years, Carol Tenopir

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

Tenopir discusses major trends in the library marketplace in the next five years, including integration and aggregation, and linking indexing and full texts.

Database Use Patterns In Public Libraries., Carol Tenopir, Eleanor Read

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

Database usage data from a random sample of ninety-eight public libraries and library systems in the United States and Canada reveal patterns of use. Library users at all sizes of public libraries tend to use research databases most frequently early in the week, at midday, and at times that correspond to the academic calendar (November in this six-month sample.) Peak usage varies with size of library, but a capacity of between one and ten simultaneous users will satisfy 99 percent of demand in every size of library. A questionnaire sent to these libraries revealed many other factors that might influence …

Technical Bulletins: Physical Fitness In Public Safety: Administering Ability And Agility Tests Properly, Don Darden

MTAS Publications: Technical Bulletins

Cities should develop a medical and physical fitness testing program to better serve the public safety needs of their citizens and protect the lives of police and fire fighters.

Trekking Through Exhibit Halls, Carol Tenopir

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

IT SEEMS AS IF THE exhibit halls at the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and the American Library Association (ALA) conferences get bigger every year, and it takes longer for me to get from one end of the hall to the other. Certainly the glitz of new systems, fancy interfaces, and new technologies is more impressive every year, and new Internet companies keep showing up.

Hot Topic: October Deadline On New Inter-Basin Water Transfers Act, Steve Wyatt

MTAS Publications: Hot Topics

The Tennessee Legislature, at the request of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), created a new state law entitled the "Inter-basin Water Transfer Act." The act was designed to regulate water volumes withdrawn from one basin and transferred to another basin for consumption and disposal. It only affected new transfers or increases in existing transfers. The rule became effective Oct. 1, 2000.

Computerized Content Analysis: A Comparison Of The Verbal Productions Of High Hypnotizable, Low Hypnotizable And Simulating Subjects, Edeltraud Elter-Nodvin

Doctoral Dissertations

This research was designed to investigate the domain of hypnosis and to explore how the “state” of hypnosis, along with the susceptibility to hypnosis relate to lexical choice in verbal productions as well as to primary/secondary process mentation. The hypothesis that hypnosis facilitates primary process mentation has held a central place in numerous psychoanalytically oriented theories of hypnosis (Gill & Brenman, 1959; Fromm, 1992; Nash, 1991).

College students were screened for level of hypnotic susceptibility employing the following two hypnotic susceptibility scales: The Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS: A; Shor & Orne, 1962) [Appendix D] and …

Joint Surface Area Proportions And Articular Curvature In Al 288-1: A Functional Interpretation, Adam David Sylvester

Masters Theses

Body size has been recognized by several authors as one of the most important parameters affecting the biology of an organism. It has been argued that body size plays roles in metabolic cost, mobility, thermoregulation, and foraging strategy. For extinct species body masses can only be estimated using fossil remains and extant reference samples. To accurately estimate body mass the reference sample must have the same relationship between body mass and skeletal elements. Establishing a reference sample with similar body proportions as the fossil species is imperative.

The purpose of this study is to investigate forelimb to hindlimb joint surface …

On The Hallowed Hill: An Analysis Of The Historic Cemeteries Within The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Jacqueline Lott

Masters Theses

Though a number of authors have stressed the importance of using cemetery data to study culture change through time, most of the available studies in this regard have been general in nature and completed without statistical analysis. Few studies have concentrated specifically on small, rural cemeteries, and fewer still have concentrated on regions outside of New England. The southern Appalachian Mountains are but one of the many regions that has yet to be studied in-depth. This thesis is an attempt to bridge some of the aforementioned gaps. Historic cemetery data collected in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be …

Marketing Gullah: Identity, Cultural Politics, And Tourism, Melissa D. Hargrove

Masters Theses

This thesis represents an ethnographic study of the current situation of the South Carolina Gullah. Research was conducted during the summer of 1998 and 1999, in the Sea Island communities of Mt. Pleasant and St. Helena Island, to determine the ways in which local grassroots organizations are combating increased tourism, resort and retirement development, and the commoditization of their cultural heritage as a boost to state revenue. The sweetgrass basket weavers of Mt. Pleasant are situated within this struggle as the living legacy to their Gullah ancestry. Their insight is particularly enlightening concerning the current predicament of native Sea Islanders …