Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Prehistory Of Fentress County, Tennessee: An Archaeological Survey, Jay Douglas Franklin

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents a synthesis of recent and ongoing archaeological investigations of the caves, rock shelters, and open air uplands of the Upper Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. The primary working hypothesis of this research is that existing culture histories applied to this region are inadequate. Existing culture histories for Middle and East Tennessee were developed in adjacent regions, primarily lowland river flood plains. These culture histories have been boiler-plated onto the Cumberland Plateau even though comparatively little systematic archaeological research has actually been conducted in the region. Furthermore, upland regions, such as the Cumberland Plateau, have often been characterized as …

Peak Alpha Frequency: An Electroencephalographic Measure Of Cognitive Preparedness, Efthymios Angelakis

Doctoral Dissertations

Background.

Electroencephalographic (EEG) peak alpha frequency (PAF) has been shown to correlate with a variety of phenomena, including age, memory performance in healthy and demented individuals, different emotional states, schizophrenia, anxiety, recovery from stroke, cerebral blood flow (CBF) velocity, brain oxygenation, as well as acute administration of stimulant and nootropic substances. These studies have shown that PAF varies between healthy and clinical individuals, with the latter consistently having lower PAF. Moreover, PAF varies between healthy individuals, reflecting cognitive performance, with better performance being associated with increased PAF. Finally, PAF varies within individuals both between developmental stages and between different cognitive …

The Link Between Capital Structure And Product Market Competition: Theory And Evidence, Lee Greer

Doctoral Dissertations

The relationship between capital structure and product market competition is examined using a theoretical model and two econometric analyses. In an extension of Glazer (1994), a theoretical model is derived that allows a quantity leader and follower to issue debt and then twice play a sequential product market game, after which each firm must either repay its debt in full or go bankrupt. It is demonstrated that the follower maximizes operating profit irrespective of capital structure but that the levered quantity leader in every period produces more than the Stackelberg profit-maximizing level of output. As such, the industry characterized by …

Biological Affinities Of Archaic Period Populations From West-Central Kentucky And Tennessee, Nicholas Paul Herrmann

Doctoral Dissertations

The Green River Archaic period skeletal collections represent one of the largest regionally specific aggregate hunter-gatherer sample available for study. These collections have been the focus of numerous studies on paleopathology and paleodemography. Indian Knoll (15OH2) is the largest collection with over 1000 individuals. These burials were recovered from two primary excavations directed by Clarence B. Moore and the Work Progress Administration (WPA) in the first half of the nineteenth century. The WPA excavated numerous sites along the Green River and it’s tributaries resulting in additional skeletal collections from sites such as Barrett (15McL4), Carlston Annis (15BT5), Chiggerville (15OH1), Read …

Eeg Patterns Of Tbi Patients With Attention Deficits During Cognitive Tasks And Second Resting Baseline, Stamatina Stathopoulou

Doctoral Dissertations

According to previous research, different regions of the brain are activated when a person is required to use different types of attention like selective, alternating, focused, sustained and divided attention. The frontal, prefrontal and parietal areas especially in the right hemisphere, seem to be the most frequently activated areas. Little research has addressed differences in the electroencephalogram (EEG) between traumatic brain injured (TBI) patients, with different types of attentional deficits because of their injury, and normal population. This study focuses on differences in magnitude in five brain regions between TBI patients and normal population, during recording of one cognitive task …

The Effect Of Personality On The Spiral Of Silence Process, Kyoungtae Nam

Doctoral Dissertations

The study examines the effect of personality on the spiral of silence process. Despite the social-psychological nature of the spiral of silence theory, there has been little investigation on the relationship between personality and the spiral of silence process. In the current study, two personality constructs, independent/interdependent self-construal and right wing authoritarian personality, are examined to see how they affect a person’s willingness to speak out. In March through April 2002, 714 college students were surveyed. Three topics that were identified as highly controversial in the preliminary study were used in the final survey: abortion (n=238), affirmative action (n=234), and …

Data Visualization: Graphical Representation In The Evaluation Of Experimental Group Therapy Education Outcomes, Randall E. Basham

Doctoral Dissertations

Introduction: An important methodological consideration in the social sciences is the evaluation of the effectiveness of groups and specific group interventions. There is an increasing demand for service accountability in practice settings both in social services and public health services. Group services are rising as a practice modality. Emerging technology shows promise of providing the means for practitioners untrained in advanced research methods to gain useful information and improved decision- making capacities related to groups and group services. Computer based graphical representation of data patterns at multiple levels of analysis can provide the bases for data exploration and lead to …

Forgotten History: An Archaeological Perspective On John Sevier At Marble Springs (40kn125), Jennifer L. Barber

Masters Theses

Marble Springs State Historic Site was the last home of John Sevier, the first governor of the late State of Franklin and the State of Tennessee. Historic documentation verifies that the Sevier family moved to the city of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1797, after John Sevier became Governor, but the date of their move to Marble Springs plantation repeatedly has been disputed. The site is located approximately six miles south of Knoxville, Tennessee, at the foot of Bays Mountain.

Archaeological investigations at Marble Springs have aimed to document the domestic habitation of the site by John Sevier and his family from …

Print Media Portrayal Of The Culture Of Nasa Before And After The Challenger Explosion, Jodi M. Lockaby

Masters Theses

In recent years, culture has become a major topic within organizational studies. The culture of an organization affects how individuals in the organization interact, what is valued in the organization, and what goals the organization strives to achieve.

However, the view of culture that outsiders hold of an organization also has significance for the organization. Mostly, the mass media influence the outsider's view of an organization's culture. Yet, organizational cultural studies have failed to look at the external perception of an organization and how the external viewpoint is affected by major actions by or events in the organization. This study …

Developing Stature Estimation Regression Formulae For The Arikara Of The Larson And Leavenworth Sites, Kathryn A. King

Masters Theses

Stature is an important descriptive characteristic of an individual. Living stature cannot be measured directly in archaeological populations and thus must be estimated by bone. Current stature estimation formulae cannot be used with archaeological populations because the relationships between stature and the length of the various bones used in estimation differ among races and populations. Similarly, secular change in stature makes the use of formulae derived from modem populations on archaeological groups problematic.

Anatomical methods of estimating stature account for the skeletal elements that contribute to an individual's height and provide an estimate of the soft tissue component of stature. …

Culture Of Intimidation: Power Relationships, Quiescence, And Rebellion In Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Barry R. Durbin

Masters Theses

Studies suggest that quiescence, or the absence of challenge from deprived groups can be explained as a function of power relationships. Power has the potential to influence the decision-making process by monopolizing decision-making arenas. Furthermore, elites that occupy positions of power have the capability to resist challenges from deprived groups by preventing certain issues or grievances from ever being raised. This study’s focus is a former nuclear weapons production facility (the former K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the quiescent nature of workers there, and the subsequent rise of rebellion. I employ a historical perspective using in-depth interviews …

Framing Of Breast Cancer In African American Magazines, Lanise Hutchins

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

International News Coverage, Borrowed News And Geopolitical Focus In The New York Times During 1991, 1996 And 2001, Heather E. Rogers

Masters Theses

International news coverage by the U.S. media (and for the purpose of this study, newspaper coverage) is a heavily debated issue within the scholarly and professional worlds. Critics, both in the United States and abroad, charge that the U.S. media prescribe to an egocentric attitude about international news coverage, and that Americans do not receive the quality of news that could be expected in a nation with a free press, where citizens are, for the most part, highly educated and where access to news is not restricted.

Previous studies have focused on how much international news coverage Americans receive, and …

Household Food Sufficiency Status And The Qualityof Children's Diets: An Analysis From The Continuing Survey Of Food Intakes By Individuals 1994-1996, 1998, Linda Lou Knol

Doctoral Dissertations

The relationship between food sufficiency and diet quality was explored among children 2-8 years of age living in households ≤185% poverty with 2-days of dietary recall data from 1994-96, 1998 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals. Diet quality was assessed using measures of both adequacy and variety. Diet adequacy was measured by degree of adherence to age-specific daily serving recommendations for the 5 Food Guide Pyramid food groups and by intake of discretionary fat (grams) and added sugars (teaspoons). Variety was measured using the Healthy Eating Index Variety Score ( overall variety), the Dietary Diversity Score (among food group …

The Integrative Model Of Personality Assessment For Achievement Motivation And Fear Of Failure: Implications For The Prediction Of Effort And Performance, Mark Nathaniel Bing

Doctoral Dissertations

While both self-report (SR) and conditional reasoning (CR) measures of achievement motivation (AM) and fear-of-failure (FF) have been shown to be predictive of academic and organizational outcomes (James, 1998; Spangler, 1992), substantial criterion variance is often left unaccounted for by either measurement system when used in isolation. The current work proposes a new, theoretical model of AM and FF created by integrating information on explicit cognitions gathered from SR with information on implicit cognitions gathered from CR. This “integrative model” of assessment provides an enhanced understanding of the approach-avoidance conflicts people experience when they are faced with challenging tasks. Predictions …

Estimating Degree Of Market Power And Price-Response Strategies In A Product-Differentiated Oligopoly: The Case Of Canned Tuna Industry In A Local Market, Apichart Daloonpate

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation estimates the degree of market power and strategic-price responses among brands in the canned tuna industry in a local market. Weekly scanner data on the purchases of canned-tuna in Knoxville, Tennessee collected by Information Resources, Incorporated (IRI) were used for the estimation of the degree of market power and strategic-price responses. Four canned tuna brands were investigated including the three leading brands, Starkist, Chicken of the Sea, and Bumble Bee, and the competitive small-market share brands aggregated into Allother.

There are two empirical parts. The first part focuses on estimation of the degrees of market power and strategic-price …

Toward A Dynamic Model Of State Choice: Gains Pursuit Debate And The World System, Soo-Lyon Yon

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of my dissertation is to challenge the mainstream tradition of discourse in the field of international relations with regard to the world system and gains pursuit which has been framed by two significant theoretical perspectives: realism and neoliberalism.

In my dissertation, I established a theoretical linkage between the gains pursuit debate and the dynamics of the world system. The problem of absolute and relative gains divides two of the most influential approaches to international relations theory: realism and neoliberalism. However, these dichotomized approaches to gains pursuit assume a fixed (or static) view of the world system based on …

Selling The Internet: An Analysis Of Advertisements For The Internet And Related Products In Time Magazine, 1995-2000, Guiohk Lee

Doctoral Dissertations

This study attempted to examine how the Internet has been presented in advertising in the United States and to explore how cultural values play a role in shaping the images of the Internet. Using a document analysis method based on principles of qualitative research, 504 advertisements for the Internet and Internet-related products appearing in Time magazine during 1995-2000 were examined. The analysis focused on identifying categories of message strategies and technological themes used in the ads and examining the changes in the use of the message strategies and technological themes.

Careful analysis revealed that the number of ads promoting the …

Fiscal Reforms And The Relationship Of Central-Local Governments In China, Myoung-Shik Kim

Masters Theses

In 1978, China started its economic reforms, and the main characteristic of Chinese economic reforms is fiscal decentralization. This means that the central government wanted local governments to develop the local economies with their fiscal autonomy. By and large, this strategy was successful. However, it also brought many structural problems such as the increase of government deficits and instability of macroeconomic policy. As a result, the central government was increasingly concerned with the potential political and economic consequences of its weakening fiscal power. The ceter finally introduced a new fiscal reform program (the tax-sharing system) in 1994. The main objective …

Frozen Human Bone: A Histological Investigation, Mariateresa Anne Tersigni

Masters Theses

A plethora of research has been produced concerning the fate of human bone when it has been exposed to various external stressors. These include taphonomic processes such as natural weathering, decomposition and burning studies. Each study attempts to aid an investigator by trying to determine, for example, what exactly a human skeleton would look like after it had been exposed to an accelerated fire for thirty minutes. The result of this type of research may afford an investigator the opportunity to analyze the evidence at the crime scene and compare it to the research in order to draw educated conclusions …

The Interrelationship Of Status And Health In The Tellico Reservoir: A Biocultural Analysis, Tracy K. Betsinger

Masters Theses

Anthropologists have been interested in the interaction of health and status in prehistoric populations for many years. Utilizing a biocultural perspective, this paper will investigate how social stratification affected health at sites from the Tellico Reservoir in eastern Tennessee. These sites, Citico (40MR7), Toqua (40MR6), and Tomotley (40MR5), were occupied in the late Mississippian period in Tennessee, during the Dallas phase (A.D. 1300-1600) (Schroedl, 1998). Skeletal indicators of stress were used to determine the health of the people interred at the three sites, and burial location was utilized to establish the status of these people.

Intra-site and inter-site analyses were …

Balancing Equality And Liberty In Rawls’S Theory Of Justice, Young-Soon Bae

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the balance of equality and liberty in Rawls’s theory of justice. By analyzing the contents of his two principles of justice, this thesis supports his claim that the principles of justice adequately represent the values of equality and liberty.

The point that this thesis focuses on is the relationship between two principles of justice. According to Rawls, the relationship between them is created by priority rules. Rawls arranges two principles of justice in lexical order – the priority of the first principle over the second. This idea of priority rules does not provide an adequate standard to …

Craniometric Variation Among Medieval Croatian Populations, Derinna Vivian Kopp

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine craniometric variation among a series of medieval Croatian skeletons to determine if the populations inhabiting the coastal (Dalmatian) and continental (Pannionian) regions are morphometrically dissimilar. Differing historical population movements in the regions provide possible evidence for genetic, ethnic, and cultural dissimilarity between the Dalmatian and Pannionian regions. Cranial measurements from three coastal and three continental medieval Croatian sites are subjected to multivariate analyses to assess craniometric variation among the groups. Canonical variates analysis and distance matrix comparisons are completed for male and female mean data separately.

Plots of the first two canonical …

An Expectancy-Value Analysis Of Web Gratifications, Meiling Shih

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study explored the mechanisms directing Web usage decisions to determine more reliable estimates of the importance of various influences involved.

A Web-based survey was administered to respondents who voluntarily participated by responding to a message posted to selected Internet discussion groups. Exploratory factor analysis and covariance structure model were employed to examine the relationships between attitude, expectancies, motivation, intention, and usage regarding the Web.

Research evidence spoke strongly against univariate or bivariate motivational schemes. In addition to surveillance and diversion functions that have been found in traditional mass media, the Web also provided two unique qualities, utility and …

Personal Identification Based On Patterns Of Missing, Filled, And Unrestored Teeth, Bradley Jacob Adams

Doctoral Dissertations

Dental comparison of antemortem and postmortem records provides one of the best avenues for establishing personal identification in the forensic sciences. The types of antemortem dental evidence are extensive (including treatment notes, odontograms, radiographs, casts, photographs, etc.) and in many instances a positive identification can be established strictly on a dental comparison. Perhaps the best form of antemortem dental evidence is the radiograph, which provides a detailed odontoskeletal record of a specific individual at a specific point in the past. Unfortunately, antemortem radiographic evidence is not always available during forensic comparisons. For example, at the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, …

Per Mile Emissions Taxes And Lump Sum Emissions Taxes: A Comparative Study Using A Mathematical Approach To Demand Estimation, Robert Paul Culp

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to compare two common emissions based taxes by implementing a mathematical approach to consumer demand estimation for new vehicles. The model developed allows the researcher to derive demand from observed firm output and market prices using assumptions about firm and consumer behavior, and market structure. The advantage of this revealed demand approach is that it does not require the specification of the consumer’s utility function or any firm’s production function. In addition, the own price and cross price elasticities of vehicle demand are determined without statistical regression.

The model developed in this paper …

Civic Engagement In The Cyberspace Era: A Study Of A Local Cybergroup, Gay Henry Lyons

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the issue of participation and civic engagement through the investigation of cyberspace as public space. The research systematically studied the development, nature, operation, and impact of k2k, a local cybergroup based in Knoxville, Tennessee. While the emergence of cyberspace as public space is no panacea for the ills of democracy in America, it is clearly a potential antidote to counter the more virulent dimensions of civic disengagement in the United States. However, for a cybergroup to serve as an antidote to civic disengagement, the participants must move beyond electronic discourse into the …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Experience Of Travel, Norris Lee Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

To describe and gain an understanding of the experience and meaning of travel, ten participants were asked to “tell me about some times you’ve traveled that stand out to you.” These interviews were non-structured, and the ensuing dialogue served as data for a research project concerning first-person accounts of the lived experience of travel. Once completed, each interview was typed and underwent hermeneutic analysis within the context of an interpretive research group. Results of thematic analysis revealed that travel was described as a movement away from “home,” a venturing out, which was characterized by participants in figure-ground terms. For this …

Coupling Ground Penetrating Radar Applications With Continually Changing Decomposing Human Remains, Michelle Lee Miller

Masters Theses

Locating the clandestine burial of human remains has long perplexed law enforcement officials involved in crime scene investigations, and continues to bewilder all the scientific disciplines that have been incorporated into their search and recovery. Locating concealed human remains can often be compared to the proverbial search for a needle in the haystack. Many notable forensic specialists and law enforcement agencies, in an effort to alleviate some of the bewilderment that commonly accompanies the search for a buried body, suggest that multidisciplinary search efforts are becoming more of a necessity, and less of an option.

Research at the University of …

Changes In Fire Regimes And The Successional Status Of Table Mountain Pine (Pinus Pungens Lamb.) In The Southern Appalachians, Usa, Michael R. Armbrister

Masters Theses

Table Mountain pine is a tree species endemic to the southern Appalachians that is heavily dependent on repeated surface fires for successful regeneration. Since the implementation of fire suppression as a forest management tool in the early 1900s, the fire frequency in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and surrounding National Forests has been dramatically altered. Without fire, Table Mountain pine will not persist in the southern Appalachian Mountains. I used dendrochronology to analyze the fire history and current age structure of Table Mountain pine populations. This approach provided baseline information on the current successional status of Table Mountain pine stands …