Of all the plant nutrients, nitrogen has been subjected to the most extensive study. The amount of inorganic nitrogen in the soil is small while the quantity needed annually by crops is comparatively large. Of the macronutrients usually applied in commercial fertilizers, nitrogen seems to have the quickest and most pronounced effect on plant growth. In applying the nitrogen fertilizer for crop use, one must be concerned with placement, form, and availability, and with keeping the fertilizer where it is placed throughout the critical part of the growing season. The nitrogen supply molded by non-leguminous plants is of extreme importance and its availability is complicated by the fact that nitrogen in soils is easily converted into forms which are more or less mobile and available. The time of application of nitrogen fertilizer can significantly affect its availability. It commonly is applied in either the spring or fall in row crop culture. Under our climatic conditions, nitrogen applied in the fall tends to be lost by denitrification and leaching over the winter period, and the practice is not economical. There are also disadvantages associated with spring application of nitrogen. Application is needed at a time when the farmer is extremely busy and where the soil may be too wet to support the application equipment. No-tillage farming, which is relatively new, apparently increases the rate of nitrogen movement through the soil profile. No-tillage results in a mulch of dead plant material on the surface. The mulch tends to keep more moisture in the soil. This extra moisture can be beneficial to the crop but it also permits the nitrogen to move more rapidly through the soil. The present student was initiated to study the effects of tillage practice and time of nitrogen application on the movement of nitrate through a Pembroke silt loam soil. This soil is typical of the well-drained limestone soils found in Southern Kentucky.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of six selected volleyball skill tests to actual volleyball game performance. The six skill test items were administered to 64 subjects, who were all members of a college level introductory volleyball course. Based on the ratings of a panel of experts, subjects were rated during game play as good, average, or poor performers. The stepwise discriminant analysis was used to analyze the relationship between skill tests and game performance. Four of the six skill tests were identified as significantly contributing to group membership. These tests, in order of the magnitude of their standardized discriminant function coefficients were: 1. Brumbach Serve Test, 2. AAHPER Wall Volley test, 3. AAHPERD Wall Spike Test, and 4. AAHPERD Serve Test. It was concluded that a volleyball skill test battery consisting of these four items would objectively measure volleyball playing ability and discriminate between players of various skill levels. The results of this test battery could be used for classification, diagnosis, motivational purposes, and grading.

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether rats’ preference to freeload (eat food pellets from a food cup) or to work for food (obtain food pellets by bar pressing) could be influenced by observing either a working or freeloading model in an adjacent operant chamber. Following equal amounts of bar press and freeloading training, 18 male Sprague-Dawley rats approximately 100 days cold were divided into three experimental groups. The first group was permitted to view a working model while being presented a choice between bar pressing and free-loading. A second experimental group was exposed to a freeloading model while also being presented a choice between bar pressing and freeloading. A control group was permitted to make a choice between working and freeloading with no model present. Two measures of the dependent variable were taken: the ratio of the amount of food earned by bar pressing to the total amount of food consumed and the number of food pellets obtained by bar pressing. The results of the study indicated that across testing days, there was a trend for the three groups to perform as expected. The group expose to the freeloading models earned only about one-third of its total food consumption while preferring to freeload the remainder. The group exposed to the working models preferred to earn more than half of its total food consumption via bar pressing. The total amount of food earned by the control group, predictably, fell between the amounts earned by the other two groups. The results are interpreted in terms of social facilitation.

Hidden deep in the shelves of most libraries in England and America is an obscure, dusty volume of poetry containing one of the minor classics in the English language, a poem entitled The Task. Written by the eighteenth-century poet William Cowper, this very long and loosely structured poem won widespread recognition and acclaim in its day, only to gradually fade into a premature oblivion. Today The Task is known primarily to a handful of literary scholars whose arcane and esoteric business it is to go beyond the turnpikes of literary history into the labyrinthine lanes and paths of our literary past. This is an unfortunate situation, for William Cowper and his The Task have much to offer the world in which we live. The Task is a poem which offers a fertile soil for literary scholarship, since in this poem one can see a link between the neo-classic and the romantic. In addition, Cowper’s great poem carries a soothing spiritual message similar in content to that of Thoreau’s Walden. It is a message that needs urgently to spread in an age where insensitivity and spiritual dryness seem to everywhere flourish. Since The Task was first published in 1785, it should be obvious that it would be more romantic than neo-classic. And so it is. Cowper’s abandonment of the heroic couplet, his attempts to make more natural the language of poetry, his love and close observations of the natural world, and the spontaneous, associational structure of The Task show the poem to be essentially romantic in nature. However, some of the finest portions of this poem were written in the neo-classic tradition; thus Cowper’s The Task may be viewed as a transitional poem, a poem which provides a link between Romanticism and Neo-Classicism. In short, an Augustan poet could not have written The Task; similarly, a poet of the romantic school could hardly have produced a poem so replete with stock diction and didactic advice as The Task. It is truly unfair and unfortunate that the term “transitional poem” has come to connote a work of art somehow lacking in quality, and perhaps this is the stigma which has relegated The Task into a most undeserving obscurity. This connotation is based upon absolutely no, or at best erroneous, logic. Logically, it seems as though a work of art which draws from the best of two worlds should have the potential of being of the highest literary quality. Cowper succeeded in unconsciously blending together the characteristics of two opposite literary schools in The Task, and while the poem is not ----- masterpiece, it is a minor classic worthy of attention and study. Living most of his life in the seclusion of the little village of Olney, Cowper bequeathed to posterity a poem of spiritual solace. Implicit in Cowper’s defense of a life of retirement is an appeal to man’s spiritual half, a plea to cultivate a life which engenders the nourishment of one’s soul. Like good poetry anywhere, Cowper’s purpose in writing The Task was to enrich, ennoble, encourage; and in an age which threatens to abolish man’s spiritual side, this poem is laden with wisdom and comfort. This study of Cowper and The Task is an attempt to discuss the work as a transitional poem with all the competence and accuracy of scholarship which it deserves. Hopefully the study will be rendered with the sensitivity and understanding its spiritual message requires.

Samples of cave water were analyzed for volatile organic compounds during four separate storm events. The major compounds detected were toluene, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, trans-1,2-dichloroethylene, methylene chloride, and 1,1-dicloroethane. Minor compounds detected were trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, 1,1-dichloroethylene, and ethylbenzene. These compounds were detected in varying amounts at each of the three study sites. During a storm event, the levels of each contaminant changed significantly at all three sites studied. Two effects were observed when a storm event occurred. The first effect was the dilution of the volatile organic compounds during the storm event. These effects were related to the amount of rainfall and the rate at which the rainfall occurred during a given storm event. The second effect was the drastic increase in the level of all contaminants after the storm event.

A new histozoic myxosporidian parasite (Class Mysoxporidea), Myxobolus meglitschi sp. nov., infecting young-of-the-year and yearling bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus Raf., from Shanty Hollow Lake, Warren County, Kentucky was described. Phenology was investigated from January 20 to December, 1969. The magnitude of infection varied seasonally in bluegill. Incidence was highest in July and August (43.92) in host populations, declining, but not disappearing from September to December 20, 1969. The infection exhibited a yearly mean incidence of 22.318. The pattern of distribution of cysts on hosts varied seasonally. During periods of low incidence cysts were confined primarily to a postanal area below the lateral line. During July and August cysts were widespread on hosts. Initial infection of hosts may occur accidentally through contact with spores, incidental to feeding upon protozoan intermediate transfer hosts or other benthic organisms; or, during spawning, by spore contact with eggs or larvae. Development of the parasite from initial spore contact to the production of detectable size cysts appeared to require 80-90 days. The parasite may spread on the host by means of autoinfection. Pathology was limited to scale erosion at the point contact by cysts.

Crappies spawned in Rough River Lake from April 29 to July 9. Larvae were first collected on May 3 when the lake temperature reached 17 C. A total of 7369 crappie was taken from may 3 to August 1. The maximum number of crappies occurred from May 30 to June 20. The developmental chronology was described for specimens 4.75 mm to 29 mm total length. Meristic characters averaged 10.8 for preanal myomere count, 21.1 for postanal myomere count, 31.9 for total myomere count and 0.62 for preanal length to postanal length ratio. Densities of larvae were low early in the spawn reaching a peak of 147/100 m3 on June 6 and decreased to 10/100 m3 thereafter. Larval stages less than 20 mm were taken primarily at the surface while larger specimens moved to deeper waters. Growth averaged 3.1 mm per week for the 13 week study, 1.43 mm per week for the first 7 weeks and 4.5 mm per week for the last 6 weeks. Major food items of the early postlarvae were rotifers, copepod nauplii and the cladoceran, Diaphanosoma sp. Foods of the late postlarvae included the cladocerans, Diaphanosoma sp. and Simocephalus sp. and larval dipterans of the subfamily Chaoborinae. Primary food items of juveniles were copepods, the cladocerans, Bosima sp., Diaphanosoma sp. and Simocephalus sp. and larval members of the Chaoborinae. No differences in development, meristic characters, density, distribution, growth, food habits and obne and cartilage patterns were observed between white and black crappie 20 mm total length and larger.

Some properties of esterases of the greater wax moth larvae, Galleria mellonela (L.), were examined and the enzymes partially purified. Several buffer systems were tried and it was found that tris buffer was most suitable. The tris buffer resulted in less hydrolysis of the acetylsalicylic acid. Esterase activity was determined with acetylsalicylic acid in tris buffer, pH = 7.85, 0.05 M. The enzymes were partially purified by combination of acetone powder preparations, ammonium sulfate precipitations and gel filtration. The ratio of esterase activity to protein content was increased 1.03 fold by acetone powder preparation and 1.5 fold by 70% ammonium sulfate precipitation. The ammonium sulfate precipitate in 60-70% was very reproducible. The enzyme showed the greatest instability after 70% ammonium sulfate precipitation; this made further purification difficult. The acetone powder solution was found to be stable at room temperature for about 2 hours. The pH optimum of esterases was found to be close to 8.0. The esterases were classified as ali-esterases and cholinesterases on the basis of inhibition and activation studies. The enzyme was completely inhibited by 0.05 M veratrine sulfate; 0.001 M mercuric chloride resulted in a 45% inhibition. EDTA increased the activity of the esterases 195% at 0.001 M. This may indicate that there are metal ions in the other tissues of the greater wax moth larvae that are causing inhibition of gut esterases; or, it may indicate that the other tissues contain esterase activity which is sensitive to the presence of metal ions.

Although the field of English as a Second Language – ESL – is a relatively new field for study, it grows out of a long tradition of teaching foreign or second languages. However, even without formal instruction in a second language, people throughout history have been learning second – and sometimes third and fourth – languages for purposes of trade, business, politics, social acceptance and even survival. Entering the last quarter of the twentieth century second or foreign language teachers had used three primary methods or approaches in their instruction: the Grammar-Translation method, the Audio-Lingual method, and the Cognitive Code approach. The extent to which any of these methods was successful was determined largely by the individual’s definition of success. In the world of the late 1970’s and the 1980’s, success in foreign or second language teaching has been defined in terms of the students’ ability to speak and understand – to use – the language for purposes of communication or interaction with native speakers of the target language, and to use it appropriately within a given context, at the end of a course of study. In the last fifteen years many new methods and approaches have been introduced and tried in second language classrooms, methods and approaches for which the goal has been communicative competence. Among them are the Silent Way, Total Physical Response, Counseling Learning, Suggestopedia, the Notional-Functional or Communicative Language Teaching approach, and various approaches or methods which use dramatic techniques. Although there may be considerable differences from one method or approach to another, these communicative approaches do share a common core: they involve the whole person – intellectual, emotional and social; they recognize the importance of minimizing stress within the learning environment; and they emphasize the importance of using the language in order to attain communicative competence in that language. One of these methods and one approach – Total Physical Response and Communicative Language Teaching – will be looked at in some detail in order to determine the underlying assumptions, particularly regarding learning and language theory; objectives and goals; syllabus; instructional materials; classroom activities; and the learner and teacher roles. Then a text which purports to reflect the method or approach will be briefly examined to determine the extent to which it does, in fact, reflect the method or approach.

The self-heating of coal is a serious problem that has always affected the coal industry. Self-heating has been studied around the world for more than 100 years by many investigators, yet no accurate method of predicting self-heating in coal has been developed. The objective of this research was to investigate the factors contributing to the self-heating in coal and to develop methods to predict the self-heating in coal and to develop methods to predict the self-heating susceptibility of various coals. A data bank containing analytical data, transportation histories, and results from laboratory tests was established at Western Kentucky University. A laboratory test that gave very encouraging results is an extraction test using sodium hydroxide solutions. Absorbances of the extract solutions from 15 coal samples obtained from barges of coal shipped from the Illinois Basin coal fields to the New Orleans area compared very well with the incidences of self-heating in the 15 barges. The fact that these coals were shipped in the summer when conditions are more favorable for self-heating to take place may have led to the strong correlation of the alkali extract solution absorbances and the final temperatures of the coal in the barges. Tests with coal samples obtained from barges shipped in the other seasons of the year did not yield very good correlations. The poor correlation between self-heating and the alkali extraction test absorbances was due to the lack of accurate temperature data, since the temperature of the coal at the time of loading was not available. The correlation of the absorbances of the extract solutions with parameters such as Btu/lb, oxygen, sulfate sulfur, and free-swelling index was very good.