Daily production data were obtained from 22 independent contractors. The collected information included the contractors' estimates of their maximum production capacity and the actual production achieved. Explanations were requested to explain any difference between actual and achieved production. Most frequent causes of lost production were: 1) adverse weather, 2) quotas,3) moving. Other reasons for delays included mechanical problems, and labor problems. Median capacity utilization for the study period was 70%. The region of operation had a significant influence on capacity utilization: Contractors from the Piedmont had the highest capacity utilization (median of 81%), Coastal Plain (70%), and southern Appalachian (63%). Rain had the most impact on contractors. Above average rainfall occurred over much of the region during the study period. Stricter environmental regulations are suspected to have increased the impact of rain on harvesting operations. Production quotas affected a number of loggers during the study, especially in the southern Appalachians. Capacity losses accounted for six to nineteen percent for these contractors. Overall, weather proved much more significant than quota. A model was developed to estimate the cumulative cost of extra capacity in relation to the risk of wood outage at the consuming mill. The model could serve as a starting point for a better understanding of stump to mill wood flow. Quality control statistical methods were adapted to analyze logging operations systems. Run charts, control charts, and cusum charts were used to measure variability in systems' production. Variation in production levels appear to be increasing with increased regulation. Elasticity has become essential for contractors to maintain profitability. High production during the relatively short periods of good weather and no quotas generated the margin necessary to sustain the contractors during periods of little or no production. Findings suggested that long term production record should be maintained for a selected group of contractors. Better knowledge on the southern wood supply system sustain ability and adaptability could be developed for use in operation and inventory management planning. An increased knowledge and a broader use of quality management tools should be considered in wood procurement. / Master of Science

No description available.

This thesis describes the history of the Southern unity movement beginning in the mid nineteenth century, with a focus on the legal and political conflicts that surrounded it.

The present study was undertaken to determine the relationships between characteristics of a Negro college environment and the value systems of its student body. The study also investigated relationships between a Negro college and non-Negro colleges based upon characteristics of the college environment and value systems of the college population.

This study views the media as a powerful agent which constructs the narratives of political candidates. In order to determine whether the media constructs the narratives of male and female political candidates differently, newspaper articles were analyzed for two 1994 Congressional races, each involving a male and a female candidate (Thurman versus Garlits and Byrne versus Davis). The first research question posed the following question: Does the media devote more coverage to male or female candidates? The next question concerned media endorsements of the candidates. Third, the settings in which the media portrayed the male and female candidates were compared. Finally, differences in the media's attitude toward male and female candidates were analyzed.

This thesis tests the hypothesis that increasing urbanization in the South is positively correlated with rising Republican voting in presidential and gubernatorial races. A measure of urbanization was derived by subjecting socio-economic data from three censuses for all southern counties to factor analysis. This measure was regressed against Republican percentages of presidential vote in 1952, 1960 and 1968, and against GOP percentages in governor's races closest to the census years. The coefficients of correlation were uniformly low, reaching as high as .50 only once in each case. It was concluded that urbanization accounts for little in explaining variation in Republican voting and that contradictory findings are the result of reliance on less powerful analytic techniques, misunderstanding of more powerful ones or inadequate operationalization of key concepts.

This thesis explores the evolution plural verbal -s ("People thinks he is guilty") and zero 3rd singular ("He think he is guilty") in data from two sources on Southern English: The Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States (LAGS) and The Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States (LAMSAS). The research questions that underlie this study consider (1) the demographic association of plural verbal -s and zero 3rd singular, (2) the maintenance of each form, (3) the constraints on their use, and (4) the origins of -s variability. The atlas data suggest the following for plural verbal -s: (1) it has a British source, (2) it was present in both African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and early Southern White English (SWE), and (3) there were different grammatical constraints on its use in AAVE and SWE. Data for zero 3rd singular -s suggest this form (1) did not have a British source and (2) that it has historically been an AAVE feature.

It has been just over twenty years since the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision was handed down by the Supreme Court. During this period, educators, and in particular, school administrators have found themselves in a unique position between two masters—the public that supports public education through taxes, and the orders of the courts they are legally required to follow. Therefore, school administrators, functioning as social engineers, have devised various practices to provide a smooth transition from segregated to desegregated school systems. This study was designed to determine the practices used by selected school districts to cope with this change and to determine the effectiveness of these practices as perceived by central-staff administrators. Selected large city school districts with enrollments of 30,000 students and above, located in the six southern states under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, were selected for this study. These districts, of which there were thirty-four, also had to be under a federal court desegregation order to be included. The survey data reveal that the most effective desegregation practice for students is the provision of alternative schools and programs to assist students unable to cope with the regular school environment. Training administrators in conflict management was perceived to be the most effective practice for administrators, followed closely by training in the shared decision-making process. For teachers, the recruitment of minorities and using teacher aides were perceived to be the most effective practices.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.