Showing papers by "University of North Carolina at Wilmington published in 1987"

The Measurement of Fear of Crime

Abstract: The volume of research on fear of crime in the United States is substantial and continues to regularly appear in sociology and criminology journals. Despite the amount of research on the subject, the measurement procedures most frequently used are suspect because of theoretical and methodological shortcomings. We present a conceptual definition of fear of crime and then systematically review the way it has been measured in research over the last fifteen years. The review indicates that whik omnibus fear of crime and risk of crime measures are only moderately correlated, a substantial number of studies have used risk measures and generalized to fear. Suggestions for future research are offered.

Sensitivity to Text Structure in Reading and Writing: A Comparison Between Learning Disabled and Non-Learning Disabled Students

Abstract: Text structures are considered important organizational schemes underlying effective comprehension and production of expository discourse. The present study examined the differential text structure skills in reading and writing of learning disabled students and two groups of regular class students. The results revealed significant differences between learning disabled students and their regular class peers in the use of text structure in both reading and writing expository discourse. The data support the notion that knowledge of discourse types underlies effective comprehension and production and that learning disabled students' conceptual understanding of these structures is limited.

Longitudinal predictors of serious substance use and delinquency

Abstract: The present study tests the validity of a common-cause model in explaining both serious substance use and serious delinquent behavior among youths. Longitudinal data on 441 male and 441 female adolescents are analyzed. Youths originally tested at Time 1 when they were 12, 15, or 18 years old were retested three years later when they were 15, 18, or 21 years old. The results provide modest support for a common-cause model. While a number of predictor variables drawn from control theory and differential association theory are related to both behaviors, those drawn from the literature on psychological correlates of adolescent deviance tend to be more strongly related to subsequent serious substance use than to serious delinquency. The findings suggest that there is a degree of etiological independence in serious adolescent substance use and serious forms of delinquency. The implications of these results for theory development and policy implementation are discussed.

The Elderly's Fear of Crime A Critical Examination of the Research

Abstract: Research on fear of crime reveals that the pervasiveness and intensity of fear in the United States is substantially higher among the elderly than younger persons. The relationship between age and fear of crime is seemingly paradoxical because the elderly tend to be least often victimized. This article critically assesses much of the research on fear of crime among the elderly. Our analysis shows that (1) several of the standard fear of crime measures are poorly operationalized and (2) estimates of the extent of fear of crime are highly dependent on the type and quality of operationalization. We conclude that the amount of fear experienced in the everyday lives of most older persons has been overstated. Implications for policy and suggestions for further research are offered.

An n -dimensional Clough-Tocher interpolant

Abstract: We consider the problem of C1 interpolation to data given at the vertices and mid-edge points of a tessellation in Rn. The given data are positional and gradient information at the vertices, together with the gradient at the mid-edge points. By subdividing eachn-simplex in an appropriate way, we show how to solve the interpolation problem using piecewise cubic polynomials. The subdivision process is the key to the method and is inductive in nature. It is systematically built up from the two-dimensional case where a variant of the well-known Clough-Tocher element is used.

Variable-interval schedules of timeout from avoidance.

Abstract: Rats were trained on concurrent schedules in which pressing one lever postponed shock and pressing the other occasionally produced a 2-min timeout during which the shock-postponement schedule was suspended and its correlated stimuli were removed. Throughout, the shock-postponement schedule maintained proficient levels of avoidance. Nevertheless, in Experiment 1 responding on the timeout lever was established rapidly, was maintained at stable levels on variable-interval schedules, was extinguished by withholding timeout, was reestablished when timeout was reintroduced, and was brought under discriminative control with a multiple variable-interval extinction schedule of timeout. These results are in contrast with Verhave's (1962) conclusion that timeout is an ineffective reinforcer when presented to rats on intermittent schedules. In Experiment 2 the consequence of responding on the timeout lever was altered so that the shock-postponement schedule remained in effect even though the stimulus conditions associated with timeout were produced for 2 min. Responding extinguished, indicating that suspension of the shock-postponement schedule, not stimulus change, was the source of reinforcement. By establishing the reinforcing efficacy of timeout with standard variable-interval schedules, these experiments illustrate a procedure for studying negative reinforcement in the same way as positive reinforcement.

Apparent duration and numerosity as a function of melodic familiarity.

Abstract: Measurements of the apparent duration, numerosity, familiarity, predictability, and organization of musical sequences were obtained to resolve conflicting claims about the effects of stimulus variables on duration judgments and to assess whether subjective number is an effective mediating variable underlying duration judgments. Intervals filled with perceptually familiar, organized, and predictable sequences of musical notes were judged by verbal estimation and, in most cases, by magnitude estimation to be longer and to have more notes than their perceptually unfamiliar reverse counterparts. The relationship between perceived and physical duration or number is consistent with Stevens’s law, with exponents typical of reported values. Temporal and numerosity exponents derived from verbal estimates, but not from magnitude estimates, were higher for familiar, organized, and predictable sequences, but only when sequences were not paired with their reverse counterparts. Exponents and intercepts were not independent, but were inversely related; both may be needed to describe the duration and numerosity data.

A comparative study of the mollusc communities of two oligohaline intertidal marshes: spatial and temporal distribution of abundance and biomass

Abstract: Molluscs were collected monthly for a year from two low salinity (0–9‰) intertidal marshes dominated by the macrophytesJuncus roemerianus orSpartina cynosuroides in St. Louis Bay, Mississippi. TheJuncus marsh had lower soil organic matter, higher pH and was more frequently inundated than theSpartina marsh. Eight species of gastropods were abundant and dominated in the higherSpartina marsh, while three bivalve species were dominant in theJuncus marsh. Of the common species,Succinea ovalis, Vertigo ovata andDeroceras laeve are gastropods of terrestrial origins;Geukensia demissa granosissima (bivalve) andMelampus bidentatus (gastropod) are euryhaline estuarine species and the remaining gastropods (Detracia floridana, Littoridinops palustris, Onobops jacksoni) and bivalves (Polymesoda caroliniana, Cyrenoida floridana) are brackish species. Most species were capable of continuous recruitment (based on size class analysis), but exhibited peak activity in particular seasons. Bivalve abundance correlated to temperature, and gastropod abundance was negatively correlated to soil pH. These correlations reflect the influence of flooding regime at the two sites. Biomass was greater in theJuncus marsh because of the increased presence of the large-bodiedPolymesoda. Polymesoda represented >90% and >50% of the total biomass in theJuncus andSpartina (except summer) marshes respectively but always <-5% of the individuals collected. Gastropod biomass was the same in both marshes. Species diversity (H′) was greater inSpartina except for summer months. TheJuncus marsh always exhibited greater species richness. Evenness (J′) determined seasonal changes in diversity (H′). Similarity values (Cz) were always quite low, with highest values in spring In contrast to faunal studies from Gulf and East Coast salt marshes, we found 1) fewer species, 2) communities comprised of unique species combinations, 3) greatest mean densities in summer, and 4) potentially less productivity by the molluscs of our sites. These mollusc communities exhibit structural characteristics that emphasize the unique ecotonal nature of the oligohaline marshes within which they are found.

An Assessment of Gender Effects in Self Report Delinquency

Abstract: This paper investigates the relative effect of parent, school, and peer influences in male and female delinquency. The theoretical framework is a combined control theory and differential association theory. Self-report data on 304 male and female adolescents are examined. The data demonstrate that males have significantly weaker “bonds” to their parents, the school, and to their peers than females. Males also report engaging in significantly more delinquency. However, a control theory explanation of the gender differential in delinquency is not supported. Differences in the gender role identity of males and females (i.e., masculinity and femininity) also are unable to explain the gender differential in delinquency. The data lend greater support to a differential association explanation of gender differences. The implications of the findings and some alternative explanations of the gender differential are discussed.

Participation in Multipurpose Senior Centers

Abstract: Studies of participation in senior centers frequently compare attenders and nonattenders on a number of social psychological, demographic, and socioeco nomic indicators. The result of these studies is a growing set of generalizations that help to differentiate those who attend from those who do not. This article is based on the premise that the classification ofattenders and nonattenders is a helpful but rather crude classification and examines variation in participation among users of senior centers. The analysis is based on observational methods during a ten-month period in a senior center and interview data collected from a sample of senior center participants (N = 48). Several of the variables used to predict variations in duration and frequency ofsenior centerparticipation are based on multiple indicators (e.g., age identity, anxiety, and life satisfaction). The results suggest that frequent attendance is more likely among elderly adults who use the center primarily as a social agency, but long-time ...

Variable-interval schedules of timeout from avoidance: effects of chlordiazepoxide, CGS 8216, morphine, and naltrexone.

Abstract: Rats were trained on concurrent schedules in which pressing one lever postponed shock and pressing the other occasionally (variable-interval schedule) produced a 2-min timeout during which the shock-postponement schedule was suspended and its correlated stimuli were removed. These procedures provided a baseline for studying the effects of drugs on behavior maintained by different sources of negative reinforcement (shock avoidance and timeout from avoidance). Experiment 1 studied a benzodiazepine agonist, chlordiazepoxide, and antagonist, CGS 8216. Chlordiazepoxide (2.5-30 mg/kg) had little effect on avoidance responding except at higher doses, when it reduced responding. By comparison, responding on the timeout lever was increased in 5 of 6 rats. These effects were reversed by CGS 8216 (2.5-5 mg/kg) in the 2 rats tested, but CGS 8216 had no effect by itself. Experiment 2 studied an opiate agonist, morphine, and antagonist, naltrexone, with 3 rats. Morphine's (2.5-20 mg/kg) effects were opposite those of chlordiazepoxide: At doses that either increased or had no effect on avoidance responding, morphine depressed timeout responding. Naltrexone (5 mg/kg) reversed these actions but had no effect by itself.

Karyological studies of four Cladophora (Cladophorales, Chlorophyta) species from coastal North Carolina

Abstract: Chromosome numbers for four species of Cladophora from coastal North Carolina are presented. The basic chromosome number is six, with three median and three submedian chromosomes. Cladophora species represent a polyploid series, with numbers of 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 found in the present study. Three chromosome size classes (large, medium, and small) are represented by individual species. Correlations between each species' karyotype and its morphology and distribution are discussed. Karyotype morphology and probable evolutionary trends in the form sections Glomeratae and Rupestres are presented. Mechanisms responsible for reduction in chromosome size in both form sections are discussed in relation to similar reduction patterns in flowering plants with significant heterochromatin content.

Structural control to minimize the dynamic response of Mindlin—Timoshenko plates

Abstract: The problem of damping out the vibrations of a thick plate is solved using the optimal control theory of distributed parameter systems. The plate is modelled as a Mindlin- Timoshenko plate to include shear effects and may exhibit viscous damping. The dynamic response of the structure comprises the displacement and velocity components which are combined with the amount of force expended in controlling the motion in a multiobjective cost functional. This functional is minimized with respect to distributed controls. A maximum principle is formulated to relate the control forces to adjoint variables, the use of which leads to the explicit solution of the title problem. The control over the plate is exercised by distributed moment and transverse forces which are in practice applied by means of torque and force actuators.

Social security disability and clinical neuropsychological assessment

Abstract: This paper reviews the guidelines for Social Security disability evaluation of mental impairments in general and organic syndromes in particular. The listings of diagnostic categories for application and procedures for evaluation are outlined. The qualifications and roles of the clinical neuropsychologist are discussed. In addition, the special problem of malingering is considered.

The Class Structure of Job Rewards A Canonical Analysis

Abstract: This research used canonical correlation to analyze how 20 occupational rewards are linked to the principal class divisions in the United States. Authority, ownership, mental labor, white-collar work, and embourgeoisement divisions are tested with the continuous status socioeconomic index (SEI). A wide variety of job rewards are investigated as possible consequences of class divisions: earnings, fringe benefits, promotions, security, challenging work, autonomy, safety, comfort, and sociability. Two distinct dimensions of job rewards emerge from the analysis. The first factor focuses on earnings, autonomy, and challenging work. These rewards are determined by no single class division but by a combination of Poulantzas's three dimensions of the social relations of production—ownership, authority, and mental labor—together with the status scale. A second, independent, factor of comfortable working conditions is related to white-collar work, higher-status occupations, women's jobs, and organizational context.

The diets in four pacific tube blennies acanthemblemaria chaenopsidae lack of ecological divergence in syntopic species

Abstract: . The diets of three syntopic Gulf of California Acanthemblemaria (A. balanorum, A. crock-eri and A. macrospilus) and A. castroi from the Galapagos Island are nearly uniformly composed of harpacticoid copepods and other small benthic-vagile or planktonic crustaceans. On occasion, large prey items such as crabs or other small fishes are taken. HORN'S index of niche overlap indicates that the three syntopic Acanthemblemaria are not separated along the food resource utilization axis. Slight variations in diets among the syntopic species seem to be related to differences in degree of microhabitat specialization.

Du Pont-State Relations

Abstract: This paper examines the historical relations between the Du Pont Company and the U.S. federal government. Relations between the Du Pont Company and various segments of the state apparatus were varied and complex. I indicate how these historically contingent relations were affected by the strategies of capital accumulation adopted by the firm, the immediate organizational interests of the State, and the nature of class conflict in the society as a whole. These factors represent a combination of principles derived from neo-Marxian and neoWeberian theories of political economy. Corporations and governments are the most powerful organizations in advanced capitalist societies. Decisions regarding the most crucial issues that confront society as a whole are largely made within the context of these spheres of influence. Despite the importance of corporate and governmental organizations, relatively few theoretically-informed analyses regarding the specific content of relations between them exist in the literature. Most analyses of corporate-state relations begin at the institutional level of analysis and generalize to the level of the organization. As a result, these analyses tend to rely on rather sweeping, impressionistic, and often anecdotal evidence. What is required is a more detailed understanding of how specific relations are created, modified, and sustained over time. In this paper, I examine the historical interplay of relations between the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company and the U.S. federal government.' The purpose of this paper is to identify the most historically significant aspects of these relations. First, I give a brief overview of the position of the Du Pont Company in the U.S. economy as a whole. Next, I describe the key factors which have influenced the development of Du Pont-state relationships. I then present a narrative summary of the history of these relations. Finally, I discuss these findings in light of more general theories of political economy.

Canonicity and Black American Literature: A Feminist View

Abstract: How does a literary critic talk about canon formation if she sees the literary canon not as cast in stone or proclaimed ex cathedra, but as a variable product of certain people over a specific period of time, people who are temporarily vested with the power to decide what is important to read and teach to students, based on their own priorities, needs and values? How can she discuss canonicity if the concept of permanence and sacredness usually associated with it keeps repelling her because she endorses Terry Eagleton's notion that the list of "valued" literary works is always in flux: "'Value' is a transitive term: it means whatever is valued by certain people in specific situations, according to particular criteria and in the light of given purposes" (11)? Such a critic must talk about a canon in relativist, non-exclusive, and, perhaps most important, political terms and focus on a canon's continuous expansion to reflect contingencies of the historical, economic, and social moment. Our shifting tastes, needs, and loci of power in academe also politically influence the shaping of a canon and prevent us from seeing it as a petrified, sanctified structure. John Clifford has indicated the instability of the literary canon by describing academicians as politically motivated architects of canons: "Instead of priests protecting a sacred trust, we can more modestly see ourselves situated in a complex institutional environment with varied and hardly disinterested values" (49). No longer priests, we no longer need be dogmatic about what must be included in or excluded from an ironclad canon. And in a recent panel on the Black American Literature Canon, Claudia C. Tate has agreed, describing canon formation as one of ongoing revisionism and reconstruction because major social changes continuously influence the inscribing criteria for admission into a canon. Moreover, these relativist, non-exclusive and political terms to conceptualize canonicity become even more obligatory when the critic using them is a "non-priestess" female academician, a feminist attempting to "canonize." The term itself troubles feminists for whom its bestowal of favor smacks of patriarchal power. A feminist critic and teacher meditat-

The Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior: History, Current Status, and Future Directions

Abstract: These papers were presented at a symposium held at the 93rd annual convention of the American Psychological Association, August, 1985, Los Angeles, CA. The papers, in order, address the following topics: the history of operant research with human subjects with particular attention to the type and quantity of research conducted since the mid-1950s; interpretation versus experimentation in the experimental analysis of human behavior (EAHB) with particular emphasis on rule-governed behavior; the historical and current roles of children as subjects in operant research; the relation between basic laboratory research with humans and applied behavior analysis; and the need for future research concentrating on complex human behavior. Each of these papers is discussed in the final section of the proceedings.

Variation in adenylate energy charge and phosphoadenylate pool size in estuarine organisms after an oil spill.

Abstract: Adenylate energy charge (AEC) is the proportion of the total phosphoadenylate pool charged with high-energy bonds. AEC values vary between zero and one by definition. Since AEC can be measured in any organism, decreases might be a universal measure of sublethal environmental stress. In some organisms which maintain high AEC while withstanding natural or anthropogenic stress, the absolute concentration of ATP and the total phosphoadenylate pool (TPP) decrease proportionally. However, in certain organisms the TPP shows dramatic natural fluctuations unrelated to pollution or stress. On 28 June 1983, a tanker spilled approximately 42,000 gallons of number6 diesel oil in the Cape Fear River, North Carolina, USA. Oil covered the tidal marshes on the east side of the river and provided an opportunity to determine if either the AEC or TPP in a variety of organisms would respond to this stress. Five test species were examined as long as one year after the spill. AEC and TPP values of the organisms were compared between contaminated and uncontaminated sites at all seasons. This is the first investigation to monitor AEC in a number of taxonomically distinct estuarine species during an extended period after an oil spill.

Schizophrenic thinking and neuroleptic dosage.

Abstract: Three groups (N = 60) of schizophrenics (with varying levels of chronicity and drug dosages) were administered the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking, the Mini-Mental State, and the Self-Conscious Scale. The results indicated that no differences existed between the chronic and acute groups on the dependent measures. Furthermore, no significant differences emerged between 21 of the acute patients who were discharged and 9 patients of the acute group who were not discharged (follow-up). No significant differences on any of the dependent measures were observed when subjects were grouped according to level of schizophrenic thinking and of neuroleptic dose. Also, no relationship between neuroleptic drug dosage and thinking for any of the three groups was observed.

School district merger, busing, and the courts: Implications for school administrators

Abstract: Many city school systems are faced with a situation of declining tax base, declining enrollments, and disproportionate minority ratios. Merger of city with surrounding school systems is one alternative to improve this situation. When city and surrounding systems contain disproportionate minority ratios the question may arise whether busing to achieve racial balance will likely be required by the courts. Review of desegregation litigation indicates that in the absence of intention to discriminate, the courts are not likely to require busing as a desegregation strategy. Further, school systems having achieved unitary status under court-approved desegregation plans may be allowed to adopt neighborhood school policies despite indications such policies would lead to partial resegregation.

Use of Time and Satisfaction with the Psychotherapeutic Relationship

Abstract: The purpose of this inquiry is to determine how social position affects the quantity and quality of psychotherapeutic care received in outpatient mental health centers. It is posited that use of time in the therapeutic dyad is, in part, a manifestation of the therapist's desire to work with the patient and also a cause of the degree of satisfaction expressed by the patient with the psychotherapeutic relationship. Using data from a random sample of adult community mental health care recipients (N = 179), use of time is assessed by the client's report of waiting time and session length. The results indicate the importance of temporal factors for predicting satisfaction in the psychotherapeutic relationship. Although the sex and race of the respondent did not affect use of time or satisfaction with the psychotherapeutic relationship, socioeconomic status and age effects were observed. The broader implications of this study are that lower class clients express more positive attitudes toward medicine ...