Housing, a basic necessity, is frequently described as costly and increasingly designated as unaffordable; yet, there is a continuing conventionality in American tastes, desires, and ideals of housing. In order to expand housing knowledge, and, perhaps to facilitate the use of housing alternatives, attitudes/perceptions of housing held by pre- and early-adolescent children were investigated. The awareness, satisfaction, and importance attributed to housing by this consumer age group, who are often perceived as unconcerned or unopinionated, may be indicative of future housing demand and permanence of housing norms. Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students in an Appalachian Kentucky county were surveyed regarding housing knowledge, opinions, preferences, satisfactions, and importance. Rather than a lack of opinion, the 172 participants revealed definite perceptions of housing in general, their individual housing situations, and concern for the future/cost of housing. Overall, housing attitudes were traditional and conservative; there was a general unwillingness to accept energy-conservative or manufactured dwellings. While the children were relatively satisfied with their housing, they did not attribute great importance to housing. Older children were more aware of housing, attributed greater importance to it, and reported more normative preferences. Housing satisfaction was greater if the child was male, lived in a residence that aligned with housing norms, or was from a household with a greater number of amenities. Older children, or those with greater housing experience, were more likely to prefer neighborhood homogeneity. General preferences for housing replicated the child's current housing situation. With today's cost of housing, as well as changing family needs for housing, the child gains importance as a housing consumer not only for the home's impact upon his/her development, but also for the future demand he/she will contribute to the housing market. Housing education regarding current and potential alternatives not only can help young housing users to develop more realistic perceptions and expectations of housing but also may facilitate the choice of and improve satisfaction with housing alternatives. / Ph. D.

Drought is a well-known and costly climate-related natural hazard. Unlike other climate-related natural hazards, droughts are usually long in duration and may cover a large region, the physical boundaries of areas affected by drought are sometimes arbitrary, and the impacts are sometimes difficult to identify. Climate records since 1895 show that drought has occurred periodically in Kentucky. The drought of 2007 was the most recent drought to affect Kentucky and is the primary focus of this research. The purpose of this research is to identify impacts of drought and potential vulnerabilities to various drought impact sectors in Kentucky so that policymakers can develop a drought plan that addresses these vulnerabilities and emphasizes mitigation efforts. An historical analysis of drought was provided for the following droughts that occurred in Kentucky: 1930-31, 1940-42, 1952-55, 1987-88, and 1999-2001. A more indepth analysis of the development and impacts of the drought of 2007 was conducted. Weekly drought reports from the drought of 2007 that were published by the Kentucky Division of Water were used for analysis.The reports discussed streamflows, PDSI values, precipitation deficits, lake levels reports from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other information that documented the progress of the drought. Impacts caused by the drought of 2007 were identified mostly through news reports. Agriculture and water supplies were determined to be most impacted by drought; therefore, two separate surveys (one regarding drought impacts on agriculture in 2007, the other regarding drought impacts on water supplies in 2007) were created to increase the understanding of how the drought of 2007 affected agriculture and water supplies in Kentucky. Other impacts from the drought of 2007 that were studied include impacts on recreation and tourism, the number of fires and wildland fires, plant and animal species, and small businesses. It was found that droughts that have affected Kentucky have originated in all directions and have spread northward, southward, eastward, and westward into Kentucky. The temporal scale of these droughts has also varied. Impacts caused by the drought of 2007 in Kentucky were very similar to impacts caused by historical droughts. However, the documentation of drought impacts that occur in Kentucky needs improvement. Agricultural impacts are documented better than any other impact, while impacts on water supplies, recreation and tourism, the occurrence of wildland fires, plant and animal species, and small businesses are not as well documented. It is recommended that conducting an extensive analysis of how various sectors are vulnerable to drought in Kentucky and educating the public on the importance of drought awareness should be addressed by policymakers involved in the development of Kentucky’s state drought plan.

This dissertation explores the University of Kentucky’s efforts to develop and implement an “action program” in eastern Kentucky in the 1960s. By the late 1950s, Kentucky’s political, business, and academic leaders had identified eastern Kentucky as the state’s problem area, and they sought strategies to bring the region into the economic and cultural mainstream. This generation of post-war leaders had an uncompromising faith in the power of knowledge, technology, and planning, and University leaders saw their action program as a university-wide effort to address what most would argue was Kentucky’s ugliest problem. This study begins with an examination of the rushed and disorganized Kellogg Foundation-funded Eastern Kentucky Resource Development Project (EKRDP) in 1960. With the national “rediscovery” of Appalachia in the early 1960s and the passage of the Equal Opportunity Act (EOA) and the Appalachian Regional Development Act (ARDA) in 1964 and 1965, University leaders reframed their thinking about how to engage eastern Kentucky in the midst of a War on Poverty. Institutional support for the EKRDP dwindled, and administrators tried to shift the responsibility of the eastern Kentucky program to the newly developed Center for Developmental Change (CDC). However, the leadership of the CDC lacked stability, the faculty who had been the driving force behind the Center did not want to be tied down to Appalachian projects, and the changing expectations for faculty ushered in by the “Oswald Revolution” did not reward interdisciplinary work.

The Old Frankfort Cemetery (15Frl54) is located in downtown Frankfort, Kentucky, at the foot of Fort Hill. Records indicate this cemetery may have been the first in use in Frankfort. It was initially used as a general burial ground for the city in the early 1800s; however, it appears that the cemetery quickly became dilapidated and was primarily used for the poor of the city. Subsequent development of the site through out the 19th and 20`" centuries effectively removed the cemetery from the landscape and public memory. This amnesia was compounded by the social status of those interred at the Old Frankfort Cemetery.The specific aim of this study is to better understand children's health in the Antebellum South. Through a case study of Frankfort, Kentucky, political and economic conditions during the 19th century that affected health conditions will be examined. Documentation of immature skeletal remains from this unknown population will provide insight as to delays in both bone and dental growth and maturity, and epiphyseal closure. It will also provide information on the health of the overall population. Results of this study will not only enhance the social, economic and political intra-relationships between the population of the cemetery, but also the surrounding urban area of Frankfort, KY, during the early 19'h century and Antebellum America. / Department of Anthropology

A monitoring program of forest herbs was initiated at Mammoth Cave National Park (MCNP). The objectives of this project were to produce a quantitative description of the current forest herb communities which can be used as a baseline for monitoring future change as well as a foundation for making informed management decisions. Herbaceous vegetation in previously established permanent forest monitoring plots was characterized during the summers of 1993-94. In the future, these baseline data can be used to detect changes in forest herb communities that might result from natural succession, management decisions and/or environmental changes. The landuse history for these plots was evaluated as a factor affecting the present diversity, richness and cover of the forest herbs at Mammoth Cave National Park. Prior to the establishment of MCNP, landuse consisted of a mosaic of agriculture, logging, and grazing. The park provides unique natural experiment to study the recovery of vegetation following a variety of human influenced disturbances.Thirty-two permanent plots were used to collect species presence and cover in early spring and mid-summer. Five forest herb communities were classified for spring and summer. All plots for the spring and summer community classification were the same except for two. Environmental variables, overstory vegetation, and previous landuse are identified as variables that have significant associations with herbaceous composition. Herbaceous cover, richness, and diversity were higher in areas that were forested before park establishment. The results of this study support the contention that human induced disturbances have more detrimental effect on forest herbs compared to overstory tree species. / Department of Biology

The continued expansion of principals' responsibilities is having a detrimental effect on their job satisfaction; therefore, it is increasingly challenging to retain these important leaders. Effective principals can impact student learning and other vital outcomes; thus, it is important to be able to retain effective school leaders. Examining the perceived sources of principals’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction with their work has strong implications for policies and practices that can be implemented to increase principal retention. The purpose of this study was to measure the job satisfaction of head principals in Kentucky. The research conducted was an exploratory study using survey research methods. The study sought to obtain a census sample of all head principals throughout Kentucky’s 174 public school districts (N=1,158). A total of 478 responses were collected providing a response rate of 41%. A profile of the demographic and personal characteristics of Kentucky principals was constructed, and principals’ satisfaction with specified job facets was measured using the Rasch Rating Scale Model (RRSM). Findings determined that economic job attributes were not significant sources of dissatisfaction for principals in this sample. Principals were also found to be satisfied with psychological job attributes with the exception of the effect of their job on their personal life. Data in this study indicated that head principals in Kentucky were: (a) highly dissatisfied with the amount of hours they work; (b) highly dissatisfied with the amount of time spent on tasks that have nothing to do with their primary responsibility of improving student outcomes; and (c) highly dissatisfied with the lack of time they are able to spend on tasks that are directly related to improving student outcomes. A primary implication of this research was that Kentucky policy makers and superintendents could simultaneously increase principal retention and student outcomes by eliminating managerial job tasks not directly tied to instruction from the principalship so that principals can focus solely on instructional leadership.

Spatio-temporal variability in groundwater discharge and contaminant fluxes along a channelized stream in western Kentucky Surface and groundwater discharges and contaminant fluxes can vary with time and space depending upon the hydrogeological processes and geological setting of the area of interest. This study examined a ~300-m-long, channelized reach of a first-order perennial stream, Little Bayou Creek, in the Coastal Plain of far western Kentucky during the period October 2010–February 2012. Along the study reach, springs discharge groundwater contaminated by the chlorinated organic compound trichloroethene (TCE) and radionuclide technetium-99 (99Tc) released as a result of past activities at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The study addressed variability in groundwater discharge patterns and contaminant concentrations at various timescales (seasonal, annual, and decadal) and the extent to which the discharge sites are spatially persistent. Understanding patterns of groundwater discharge along a stream can be important for assessing the fate and transport of aqueous contaminants. Groundwater discharge was estimated during baseflow conditions using different mass-balance approaches, including velocity-area and dye-dilution gauging. Discharge fluctuated seasonally but typically increased downstream, indicating the entire study reach to be gaining throughout the year. Discharge rates of individual springs also fluctuated seasonally. Tracer test data were utilized to model flow and transient storage along the reach using the USGS software OTIS-P. Cross-sectional area determined from OTIS-P was similar to that measured by velocity-area gauging. Reach area-normalized discharge fluxes were comparable to values determined by Darcy’s law calculations from a pair of monitoring wells at the downstream end of the study reach. Temperature data acquired from probing along grids in winter and summer, from fiber-optic sensing along the reach in autumn, and from data-loggers and manual measurements in springs were used to delineate focused discharge locations. Comparison of temperature-probing results with prior studies indicated that locations of some springs persisted over a decade, whereas other springs emerged and disappeared. Because the stream is located in unlithified sediments, discharge rates of springs appear to fluctuate with soil piping and collapse along joints in fractured clay. Contaminant concentrations in springs decreased downstream along the reach and were lower than observed during September 1999 – May 2001. The continued occurrence of dissolved oxygen and the absence of TCE daughter products in springs suggest that the decrease in TCE concentrations resulted from the installation of upgradient extraction wells, rather than from intrinsic reductive degradation. KEYWORDS: Contaminant fluxes, trichloroethene, technetium-99, baseflow, temperature probing.

A sample of high school graduate, first year technical school students was measured for retention improvement of underlined textual material under the treatment condition of no review versus review. The sample of 61 students was divided into two groups, more able and less able, subsequent to the first treatment condition of no review to provide a within group measure in the final analysis. The reading material consisted of 14 brief typewritten passages of which the core content was underlined. The criterion measure consisted of 7 multiple choice questions derived from the core content. The experiment consisted of presenting the same experimental materials to the same students on two occasions separated by a five day interval. Students were allowed to review the material, prior to testing, only in the second presentation. Under the experimental conditions both groups of students were able to improve retention of the core content. Results indicate that significant gains were made from no review to review conditions for both more and less able subjects when practice effect was not controlled for.

The Barren River was sampled twice monthly for one year to obtain data on aquatic yeasts. Sites upstream and downstream of the Bowling Green sewage plant, as well as the sewage effluent, were sampled to ascertain if the effluent had any effect on the yeast population of the river. Sporadic yeast counts were obtained which averaged 40 CFU/ml for the effluent, while the river averaged 15 CFU/ml. A total of 318 yeasts were isolated and identified during the study, including 16 different genera with Cryptococcus being the most common. Cryptococcus laurentii occurred most frequently of the 67 different species identified. The sewage effluent was not found to contribute significantly, either in number or in particular species, to the river yeast flora, although the effluent flora differed from the yeast flora in the river. Statistical analysis suggested relationships between yeast counts and several environmental parameters, particularly chlorine, turbidity, nitrate and phosphate levels. Some yeast pathogens of low virulence were isolated, but the probability of the river being a vector of mycotic disease was not found to be great. No seasonal variation was noted in yeast counts. The pathogenic yeast, Candida albicans, was not isolated. Two commercial yeast identification systems were tested. Neither system could be recommended for identifying aquatic yeasts.

Representative specimens of O. immunis and O. pellucidus were brought to the laboratory in order to investigate the influence of light on the occurrence of the symbionts encountered during the preliminary field study. After one week of acclimating the crayfishes they were distributed among environments control chambers that permitted exposure of the hosts and symbionts to 1) continuous light (C.L.), 2) a daily cycle of 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness (12L-12D) and 3) continuous darkness (C.D.).