The investigation of employee stock ownership is undertaken using microeconomic theory and the in-depth empirical analysis of two metropolitan newspapers with long histories of extensive employee ownership. Economic theory suggests that there are four important considerations beyond current tax incentives in employee and employer decisions to institute employee stock ownership: (1) preference for ownership in the employing firm by employees, (2) expected incentive effects on productivity and information flows in the firm, (3) the potential for participation in the oversight of the firm by stock owning employees, and (4) job and portfolio mobility considerations of employees. A review of existing studies of firms with employee stock ownership suggests that the four important considerations suggested by economic theory have not been empirically documented to a great extent; particularly expected effects on information flows and actual production in organizations. An in-depth investigation of the importance of the four non-tax considerations in two metropolitan newspapers is undertaken using financial data. The results indicate the importance of the four theoretical considerations in determining the impact of employee stock ownership on the operation of a firm. In the analysis of newspapers the study suggests that important externalities to a locality may be involved in the ownership structure of the local news media. The microeconomic investigations at a theoretical and empirical level suggests several macroeconomic implications for public policy aimed at increasing employee ownership of stock through tax incentives to firms that adopt employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). Reaching macroeconomic policy. goals of increased production, employment and employee firm attachment as a result of increased employee stock ownership depends upon the inducement of changes in the internal operations of firms with stock plans as suggested and documented by this microeconomic investigation. / Ph. D.

This study is a 2 X 4 factorial design investigating the effects of (1) four levels of symbolic environmental manipulation (artwork) and (2) two conditions of therapist demand characteristic (claiming or disclaiming of the artwork as reflective of personal taste) on the self disclosing behavior of 80 female college freshmen in an intake interview-analogue. The artwork manipulation consists of (1) an erotic art condition with four prints, (2) a mixed-content condition with one thematic print in each of the areas of sexuality, aggression, family concerns, and achievement, (3) an abstract art control condition with four prints, and (4) a no-art control condition. Dependent measures include: (1) the scaled intimacy value of the questions selected by the subjects, (2) the duration of actual self-disclosure, and (3) an intimacy/breadth rating of transcripts of taped actual disclosure. A main effect of artwork on self-disclosure was predicted specifically for sexual disclosure in the erotic artwork condition and generally for disclosure on all topics in the mixed-content condition, as a result of the cueing effect of the artwork stimuli. An interaction of artwork and therapist demand characteristic was predicted also as an interactive result of cueing and reciprocity of non-verbal disclosure by the interviewer, through the claimed personal symbolic artwork. In addition, in conditions in which artwork cues are present, subjects were predicted to be more comfortable disclosing and more likely to attribute their disclosure externally, a main effect of artwork on attribution and comfort. An interaction of artwork and therapist demand was also predicted such that subjects with relevant artwork claimed by the interviewer would report ·maximum comfort and external attribution. The hypotheses were not confirmed, and no significant results were found. Subjects apparently found the interviewer herself more salient than environmental cues. Subject comfort was correlated with perceived comfort of the interviewer and external attribution of self-disclosing behavior to interviewer traits. / Ph. D.

Agoraphobia is the most pervasive and serious of all the phobic disorders. Marks (1969) reported that agoraphobics represent between 50%-60% of all phobic clients seen by practicing mental health professionals. The syndrome includes fears of leaving home, being in closed spaces, shopping, and traveling especially when alone. There is much fear generalization throughout the course of the disorder, and numerous other symptoms are commonly present, including panic attacks, tension, dizziness, frequent depression, depersonalization, and obsessions. The present study included a large-scale media outreach campaign directed towards gathering demographic and normative data regarding agoraphobia. Seventy individuals agreed to complete an extensive questionnaire survey. Data derived from this sample confirmed the findings presented in the literature that the majority of agoraphobics are middle-aged female housewives. A number of other demographic characteristics and scores on self-report inventories were also reported. Ten of the respondents to the questionnaire survey agreed to participate in a treatment outcome study that compared assertion training and in vivo exposure according to a multiple baseline across subjects experimental design. Dependent measures included (1) self-report; (2) self-monitoring of daily anxiety, stress-related physical symptoms, and psychotropic medication; and (3) an in vivo behavioral assessment that incorporated a behavioral duration measure, heart rate, and self-ratings of anxiety level. Results indicated that all subjects improved from pretreatment to post-treatment assessment periods on a number of dependent measures (self-report and self-monitoring). These treatment gains appeared to be maintained at three-month follow-up. Results of the behavioral in vivo assessment procedure were equivocal. There were no significant differences between the assertion training and in vivo exposure procedures on any measures of treatment outcome. Treatment subjects were compared to a no-treatment control group and showed significantly greater improvement on a number of self-report measures. Methodological problems precluded firm conclusions and competing hypotheses of demand characteristics and subject expectancies were discussed. Results were discussed within the context of the empirically derived literature and clinical reports and a model for the development and maintenance of agoraphobic behavior was presented. Directions for future research in the assessment and treatment of agoraphobia were suggested. / Ph. D.

Experimental studies were conducted to obtain direct measurements of skin friction, mean velocity profiles, axial and normal turbulence intensity profiles, and Reynolds stress profiles in the boundary layer on a large diameter, axisymmetric body with a smooth, solid surface; a sandpaper-roughened, solid surface; a sintered metal, porous surface; a"smooth", perforated titanium surface, a solid, rough Dynapore surface made of diffusion-bonded screening, and a porous, rough Dynapore surface. The roughness values were in the low range (k⁺ = 5-7) just above what is normally considered"hydraulically smooth. 11 Measurements were taken at several axial locations and two different freestream velocities corresponding to dynamic pressures of 12.7 and 17.8 cm. of H₂O, which gives a Re_𝓁 range of 2.93 x 10⁶ to 3.38 x 10⁶. For the Law of the Wall, Defect Law, and the turbulence quantities, very good agreement was found between the present results and those from well-established studies for a solid, smooth surface. The sandpaper-roughened, solid wall and solid, rough Dynapore wall tests showed a 20%~30% increment in local skin friction and a slight shift in the log region of the Wall Law, as well as an increase in turbulence quantities over the smooth wall results. These results were in accord with the classical results collected by Clauser for rough, solid surfaces in this range. The effect of porosity can be shown by comparing the sintered metal, porous wall results to the sand-roughened, solid wall results. Although there is a difference in roughness patterns for these two cases, the average k⁺ is in the same range of 5 ~ 7. To check the effect of porosity directly without any interference of different surface roughness patterns, one can compare the results between the 11 smooth 11 perforated titanium wall and the solid, smooth wall, or between the porous Dynapore and solid Dynapore walls. The effect of porosity showed a 30%~40% increment in local skin friction and a marked downward shift of the logarithmic portion of the Wall Law, as well as an increase in turbulence quantities over the smooth wall results. The combined effects of small roughness and porosity could be seen by comparing the results between the sintered metal, porous wall and the smooth, solid wall, or between the porous Dynapore wall and the smooth, solid wall. It was observed that the combined effects of small roughness and porosity are roughly additive. The effect of porosity due to the existence of the penetration of turbulence through the porous surfaces was detected experimentally by a hot-wire underneath the porous walls. All these results demonstrate that a rough, porous wall simply does not influence the boundary layer in the same way as a solid, rough wall. Therefore, turbulent boundary layer models with injection or suction must include both surface roughness and porosity effects. / Ph. D.

Information is a prerequisite for effective management of wildlife habitat. In response to the need for management-oriented information regarding the suitability of an area as wildlife habitat, a new methodology was developed and demonstrated. This methodology involved the conceptual development of a dynamic classification approach. The proposed methodology sought to avoid many of the problems inherent in conventional. classification due to the inflexibility of the latter technique. Using dynamic classification methodology, an entit;y is described with respect to 1 or m.ore attribute axes relevant to the objectives of the specific cl.assificat:ion effort. Attribute axes may represent naturally occurring (i.e., physical and theoretically empirical) attributes or synthetic attributes such as suitability for some purpose. To demonstrate conceptual utility, an original computerized cellular mapping system was developed to display information graphically. Maps of habitat suitability and other habitat-related information were produced for a total of 5 wildlife species on 3 study areas in Virginia. Within this demonstration, levels of habitat attributes subject to change over time were estimated from forest stand. data predicted with a modified Markov chain algorithm. Performance of the prediction program was determined from a 40 year hindcast procedure. Conceptual validity of a dynamic classification approach was examined using epistemological arguments. The computer mapping package was found to be an effective vehicle for displaying information derived from dynamic classification. The vegetation prediction system appeared to be a feasible technique for predicting certain wildlife habitat attributes which are dynamic over time. It was concluded that dynamic classification was conceptually valid and is an effective methodology for producing information specific to the objectives of a given classification effort. Although conclusions: were based on an application of dynamic classification in a wildlife management context, it was speculated that the overall concept of dynamic classification may have additional utility in other fields within the natural sciences. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a ten week career education course on the concept of career maturity and the impact of decision-making style on outcomes. A pre-post-test design was used with career maturity being assessed by Super's Career Development Inventory (CDI), and decision-making style being determined by Harren's Assessment of Career Decision-Making - Styles (ACDM-S). A treatment and control group were used, and due to disproportionate sex and age characteristics across groups these two variables were used as covariates in concert with the pre-test in the ANCOVA analysis of the experimental effects. Discriminant analysis, reliability estimates (KR-20) and factor analysis provided validation evidence for the ACDM-S as a classification instrument. Significant (p ≤ 0.05) increases in career maturity as measured by the CDI were found in only Scale B (Resources for Exploration), however Scale A increases approached the assumed significance (p ≤ 0.05) level of probability. Significant (p ≤ 0.05) interaction effects between groups and styles were found on Scale A. Rational decision-makers in the treatment group increased, while for other styles control group means remained higher or equal to the treatment group means. Both Scale A and B are attitudinal in nature, while C, D, and E are cognitive. An informal post-experimental interview of one third (n=20) of the treatment group suggest generally positive reactions to the career education class, but substantive negative reactions to the CDI instrument. / Ed. D.

The notion that public dividend announcements contain relevant information was originally offered to reconcile the dividend irrelevancy proposition with the observation that a change in the dividend rate is often followed by a change in the market price. While empirical analyses of the informational content of dividends hypothesis have resulted in conflicting conclusions, there is substantial evidence which indicates that the market generally reacts favorably when the dividend rate is increased and unfavorably when dividends are reduced. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the market's reaction to specific types of announced dividend changes. By analyzing relatively homogeneous subsets of dividend announcements, we ·provide additional insight into the dividend information controversy as well as to how the market response varies with different types of dividend changes. Dividend announcements examined in this study include (1) initial dividend declarations, (2) increases by traditionally high-yielding and high-payout firms, (3) increases of less than twenty-five percent, (4) increases of twenty-five percent and greater, (5) decreases of twenty-five percent and greater, and (6) dividend omissions. A standard daily residual analysis is conducted for each sample using four different sets of estimates for expected returns. Performance indicies are computed for the forty-one days symmetric to the announcement date and tests of significance are provided. The primary results of the study can be summarized as follows: 1) In all cases, the evidence supports the informational content of dividends hypothesis. 2) The market's reaction to initial dividend declarations and dividend increases by high-yielding firms is much more pronounced than it is for other increases. 3) Substantial price adjustments occur in the month immediately preceding dividend reductions, but no such adjustments occur for dividend increases. 4) The market, on average, reacts efficiently to both dividend increases and decreases in the short run. / Ph. D.

The microtine rodents Microtus pennsylvanicus and Synaptomys cooperi are sympatric and occur in the same general habitats. Interspecific competition that varies in intensity would be predicted because of similarities in life history characteristics and temporal variation in Microtus density. Microdistribution of Microtus and Synaptomys was monitored during peak, trough, and early increase phases of a Microtus population cycle. Food habits, activity patterns, and behavioral characteristics were also compared. Field studies at seven sites extended from June 1978 to February 1981. These sites represented a range in habitat suitability for Microtus, as indicated by relative population densities. Undisturbed populations of Microtus and Synaptomys were studied to determine the effects of natural changes in Microtus density on Synaptomys microdistribution. Removal of one species or the other from study grids was used as an experimental tool. Vegetation analysis of study sites included estimates of percentage ground cover and tree/shrub density. Discriminant function analysis was used to determine which of 22 vegetation variables contributed most to distinguishing habitats and microhabitats of the two species. The dominant plant species in habitats where Microtus and Synaptomys coexisted were Juniperus virginiana and Andropogon scoparius. Even at peak population levels, Microtus occurred in relatively low densities (17-50/ha). At the low point in a natural population cycle, the decline or disappearance of Microtus was accompanied by a microdistributional shift by Synaptomys into areas formerly occupied by Microtus. This shift occurred when differences in daily activity rhythms were maximal. Recolonization by Microtus during the early increase phase of population growth resulted in a return to the initial distributional pattern. Displacement of Synaptomys occurred when both species were primarily nocturnal. Removal of Microtus from an experimental grid was followed by colonization by Synaptomys. When Synaptomys was removed from an experimental grid, the distribution of Microtus did not change. Behavioral interaction studies revealed high levels of avoidance and aggression, suggesting that spatial separation is behaviorally maintained. Vegetation studies indicated that habitats with heavy ground cover supported permanent Microtus populations and were inaccessible to Synaptomys. Microhabitat partitioning occurred in heterogeneous habitats with sparse ground cover and denser tree canopy. In the presence of Microtus, Synaptomys occupied microhabitats with higher densities of deciduous trees and shrubs, but shifted to more open microhabitats when Microtus was absent. Food habits analysis indicated that Synaptomys diet consists of vegetation that is low in nutrient content (Andropogon in summer, moss in winter). While Microtus will eat Andropogon (especially in winter), this species also included dicots and other monocots in its diet. Synaptomys diet was more diverse when living on a grid from which Microtus had been removed. These findings suggest that in the southern Appalachians, Synaptomys is excluded from preferred habitats by Microtus and, as a result, lives where cover is sparse and food is low in nutritional value. Competition is relaxed when Microtus declines to trough population density. The combination of wider habitat tolerances by Synaptomys and temporal variation in intensity of competition allows coexistence on a regional basis. / Ph. D.

Thirty-two roadside sites throughout seven counties in Southwestern Virginia were investigated with respect to life form, dispersal type and floristics. A floristic checklist of 247 species, 182 genera and 57 families was compiled. Dispersal mechanism and life form were determined for each species. A statistical analysis was performed (ANOVA and MANOVA) to determine the relationships among life form, dispersal type, and environmental factors (roadtype, elevation, exposure, slope and surrounding vegetation). Frequencies of life form and dispersal type were determined within and among sites. These frequencies were used to establish spectra and zonal distributions of life form and dispersal type. Natural histories, geographic spread and specific modes of dispersal are discussed in the floristic checklist. Family presence among roadtypes and species presence among sites is examined. Dispersal type variation was found for the environmental factors of roadtype, surrounding vegetation, and exposure. Roadtype was the most influential factor. The dispersal types most subject to variation were the wind (pogonchores and pterochores) and animal dispersed (sarcochore and desmochore) groups. Distribution of dispersal types within the site reveals: 1. Animal dispersal becomes more important when the distance from the road margin is increased; 2. Diaspores that spread by contamination are more frequent near the road margin; 3. Wind dispersed species are less frequent near the road margin. The life form spectrum of roadsides has a greater percentage of therophyte and lesser percentage of phanerophytes than present in the surrounding vegetation. The spectrum shows infrequent variation (statistically significant) due to the environmental factors considered. Life form frequencies within sites show annuals dominating near the road margin with phanerophytes and chamaephytes becoming more frequent and hemicryptophytes becoming dominant as distance from the road margin increases. / Ph. D.

This study was conducted to: (a) determine the optimum extender system for two extenders that will maintain the highest level of cellular integrity when stored at either 5C or 15C for a minimum of 72 hr; (b) evaluate the fertilizing capacity of stored spermatozoa using the optimum extender system; (c) critically analyze enzymatic and morphological changes associated with storage and aging of boar spermatozoa; and (d) characterize properties of boar spermatozoa important to fertilization. The least-squares means for the percentage of normal apical ridge acrosomes were significantly affected by ejaculate within boar (P< .001), boar x extender (P< .05), boar x storage temperature (P< .01), extender x storage temperature (P<.01), extender x cooling rate (P< .05) and antibiotic x storage temperature (P< .01). The regression equations of storage time x treatment effect were reported. The least-squares means for acrosin activity were significantly affected by ejaculate within boar (P<.001), ejaculate within boar x antibiotic (P< .05), ejaculate within boar x extender (P<. 001), ejaculate within boar x storage temperature and extender x storage temperature (P< .05). The regression of storage time x storage temperature was reported. The least-squares means for progressive forward motility were significantly affected by extender (P< .05), antibiotic (P< .05), ejaculate within boar (P< .001), antibiotic x extender (P< .05) and extender x storage temperature (P< .01). The regressions of storage time x treatment effects were reported. The least-squares means for vibrational and/or rotational motility were affected by ejaculate within boar (P< .001), ejaculate within boar x extender (P<.001), ejaculate within boar x cooling rate (P<.05), antibiotic x extender and extender x storage temperature (P< .01). The optimum extender system consisted of Purdue extender containing penicillin/streptomycin and cooled to a 15C storage temperature in 4 hours. This extender system maintained a 70% minimum fertilization rate for 84 hours. / Ph. D.