Division of Research
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Item Revisiting Contemporary Bully-Proofing and Sexual Harassment Measures: A Prospective Review and Critical Evaluation of Future Concepts for Middle School Campuses(2004-01) Supancic, MichaelThe first stage of this project - a critical analysis of the published literature and existing policy on bullying and sexual harassment in middle schools - is eighty-five percent complete. Two of the three prospective conclusions -- the necessity for grade-level specific curriculum; and a collaborative, non-disciplinary based approach emphasizing the mental health of both the victim and the bully - were, on a theoretical level, partially supported by the culled published research. The second phase -- the analytical assessment and evaluation of an on-going bully-proofing and sexual harassment policy and related grade-level specific curriculum - was temporarily suspended. Several unanticipated District and campus-level policy decisions contributed to this delay. First, District officials decided that only the Principal and one Vice Principal of ___ Middle School would receive specialized training on the implementation and classroom delivery of the bullying and sexual harassment policy. They would then act as the facilitator of a tutorial training workshop for their faculty and staff. Second, the creation of all grade-level curriculum modules and classroom deliverables aimed at preventing and reducing bullying behavior and sexual harassment were given to the campus curriculum team; District' curriculum specialists would only serve in an advisory capacity. Finally, survey results from the three previously administered School Climate Surveys initially administered by a contracted external review group were found to be corrupt at many levels, including use of improper sampling procedures. Such methodological violations rendered these potentially pretest/ benchmark measures of bullying behavior and sexual harassment at ___ Middle School unusable. In summary, no interviews or surveys have been administered nor have any focus groups been convened thus far. On a more positive note, the goals outlined in the plans for the project were unanimously approved as the centerpiece objectives for ___ Middle School's Campus Improvement Plan (CIP) in 2004/2005.Item Critical Theory, Pragmatism and Philosophy of Technology: Thinking about the Relations Between Technology and Democracy(2004-01) Hanks, CraigCraig Hanks, Associate Professor of Philosophy was awarded a REP award for summer 2004 for Critical Theory, Pragmatism and Philosophy of Technology: Thinking About the Relations Between Technology and Democracy. The goal of the project was to ask, "What is relationship between technology and democracy?" and explore three dominant traditional answers to this question: There is no relationship; technology is neutral with respect to human activities and values. There is a positive relationship; more technology will bring more democracy. There is a negative relationship; technology is a cage of our own making. The project focused on two schools of philosophy that take this question quite seriously, while rejecting all three of the traditional answers: American Pragmatism, and Critical Theory. These intellectual traditions are also interdisciplinary, and explicitly aim at not merely intellectual, but also practical outcomes. The work proceeded in two stages. First, the founding representatives of Critical Theory of Technology (Benjamin, Adorno, Marcuse) and Pragmatic Philosophy of Technology (Dewey, Peirce) were analyzed and their theories explicated and evaluated. Second, contemporary versions of Critical Theory (Habermas, Feenberg) and Pragmatism (Hickman, Light, Thompson) were analyzed and evaluated. The results include: Critical Theory and Pragmatism have much ground for dialogue, more than even their contemporary adherents admit. Together they offer grounds for lines of empirical research into the implications of technological change for individual and collective self-determination (the heart of democracy). The first avenue of empirically informed research the PI will follow is to investigate architecture, planning and democracy through the lens of Critical Theory and Pragmatism. Each offers compelling critiques of the existing answers, but the answers might be more complete and compelling in a new philosophy of technology that draws on both traditions.Item Specification of Prior Distributions in Bayes Variable Selection(2004-01) Cui, WenIn-depth investigation of the impact of various choices of hyperpriors on Fully Bayes (FB) variable selection procedures was done. For hyper parameter C, the priors studied were incomplete inverse gamma (IIG), a modified Jefferys prior (MJP), RIC point mass prior and two modified RIC point mass priors, linear RIC and exponential RIC. For hyper parameter, uniform prior was adopted. For each of the hyper prior chosen, close-form posteriors and FB selection criteria were developed, and intensive simulations were done to compare the performance among these FB criteria. The simulation results revealed that i) When the number of variables considered is relatively small, say 20 ~ 100, IIG prior and exponential RIC outperformed other FB criteria. And IIG usually does better than exponential RIC for parsimonious models while exponential RIC usually achieve better performance than IIG for saturated models. ii) When the number of variables considered is large, say 500 ~ 1000, exponential RIC provides best performance over broad range of model space. The behavior of IIG is very close to RIC, although its performance is not as good as that of exponential RIC. iii) Regardless the number of variables considered, MJP usually does well when the true model is saturated, but can be worst when the true model is parsimonious. iv) RIC and linear RIC usually favor smaller models over larger models due to much shrinkage they put on the model coefficients, β.Item Disparity in the Distribution of Economic Growth During the High-tech Boom of the 1990's(2004-01) Majumdar, Debarun; Anderson, AudwinThe context of this research is finding explanations for the unequal distribution of economic prosperity in the decade of 1990. This particular decade is of interest because the Austin area experienced an economic boom due to the successes of the hi-tech industries that encompassed various facets of information technology. Although the median family income in Austin increased by a substantial 62%, the poverty declined only by 14% during this period of economic prosperity. The dependent variable is poverty status – whether or not an individual earned below the poverty line. The explanatory variables are race and ethnicity, gender, English proficiency, citizenship, and education level. Analyses were performed using census information from the Public Use Microdata Sample, 2000. The results indicated that African Americans and Latinos had higher levels of poverty compared to whites. English proficiency and poverty levels were related for Latinos. About 62% of Latinos who were not conversant with the English language earned below the poverty level. Lower educational levels appeared to impact the chances of being poor for African Americans the strongest. Almost half of the African Americans with less than high school education earned below the poverty level compared to 28% and 23% for Latinos and whites respectively with similar educational background. This study indicates that language and educational attainment are factors that might have kept certain minority groups from achieving economic success despite a general climate of economic prosperity as observed in the Austin area during the 1990s.Item The Race/Ethnic Age Crossover Effect in Substance Abuse(2004-01) Watt, ToniIn the summer of 2004 I received a Research Enhancement Grant for the project titled, The Race/Ethnic Age Crossover Effect in Substance Abuse. Age crossover refers to the findings that African Americans (and to some extent Hispanics) have lower rates of substance use in adolescence but by age 35, use rates match or exceed those of whites. It is unclear why African Americans and Hispanics (despite their socioeconomic and cultural disadvantages) have lower rates of alcohol and drug use in their youth and more importantly, why those advantaged positions are not sustained over the life course. I proposed to study this issue using the National Household Survey of Drug Use and Health (existing survey data). The goals of this research were 1) to offer descriptive information on the age crossover effect by race/ethnicity and gender, and 2) to identify the factors contributing to racial/ethnic variations in substance abuse observed at different ages in order to offer insight into why minorities are protected at certain age groups while uniquely vulnerable at others. During the summer I made considerable progress on this study. I completed a literature review, downloaded and merged four years of NHSDA data and conducted preliminary analyses. These preliminary analyses confirmed the age crossover effect for African-Americans and revealed that it is most dramatic for African-American females. It, however, revealed that the age crossover effect cannot be used to describe the substance use patterns for Hispanic males and females relative to whites. With this preliminary work I was able to submit an R03 grant proposal to the National Institute of Health (NIAAA) to study this topic in the fall of 2004. I will receive notice of funding within the next month. I will conduct the second portion of the analysis in the summer of 2005.Item A Study of Organizational Culture in South Texas(2004-01) Wardrope, William; Minifie, JanaHispanics or Latinos are the largest minority of the United States population. The majority of these minorities are concentrated in the Southwest, in which Texas is located. With the continued immigration and the close proximity of Hispanics with Mexico and other Latin American countries, Mexican-Americans have shown retention of their ethnic culture and social forms. This research effort is to determine to what extent Hispanic culture is being incorporated into American organizations. A survey was developed and administered to small businesses in the South Texas region. Based on these results, suggestions are provided to assist American-based cultures in incorporating Hispanic cultures within their organization.Item Exploring Fifth Grade Bilingual Students’ Understanding of Character(2004-01) Czop Assaf, LoriInitially the aim of this qualitative study was to examine how one reading specialist taught character development using series books with ten bilingual students. However, some very surprising issues evolved during this project. First, I discovered that the teacher used very few series books in her reading instruction than previously self-reported. Instead, she mainly relied on testing materials to help her students pass the state mandated test. This shift was caused by a change in the schools' mid-year test scores, lowing the school's rank from a top level of achievement to the lowest level of achievement. Because of this change, this study was expanded to look at how one teacher responded to the testing pressures so deeply engrained in Texas schools. As a participant observer, I spent over 192 hours over 4 months conducting ethnographic research in the teacher's school, collecting field notes and artifacts (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995), as well as conducting informal and formal interviews with the teacher, her colleagues, and her students. The teacher was purposefully selected (Patton, 1990/2001) because she was experienced (taught for more than 30 years) considered exemplary by their peers and administrators, and described using series books and teacher-led discussion groups with her students as her main reading instruction. Using grounded theory methodology (Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, & Allen, 1993), I examined the teacher’s talk and the students’ discussions during their reading instruction. I found that the teacher in this study responded to testing pressures by surviving, struggling, and resisting the effects of high-stakes testing and that her responses had much to do with contextual factors of teaching in a low-income urban school. She survived by finding ways to help her students get through the tests without losing their enthusiasm for reading. She struggled with ways to integrate skills-based instruction while reading quality literature. She resisted by creating opportunities to give students free books, have authentic book discussions, and encourage students to become “real readers” instead of “test takers. Implications for this study are that high-stakes testing pressures forced this teacher to change her reading instruction. Instead of focusing on the individual literacy needs of her Bilingual students, she scaled down her instruction to basic skills and testing strategies in order to pass the test and raise the school's rank causing her to question her knowledge and experience as an expert reading teacher.Item Perceptions of Latino Social Workers Regarding Doctoral Education and Academia(2004-01) Tijerina, Mary S.Latinos in the U.S. remain under-represented in academia; this population group accounts for disproportionately low percentages of those enrolled in social work doctoral programs and of social work doctorates awarded nationwide. Latino social workers' perceptions of doctoral education and academia were explored using focus groups in three Texas localities. Masters level social workers self-identifying as Latino with at least two years practice experience were recruited using purposive sampling. Sessions were tape-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using content analysis and pattern coding. The sample (n=21) was predominantly female with a mean of 13.8 years practice experience. Participants reported being drawn to social work by a desire to help people, and most discovered social work after beginning baccalaureate studies. They perceived doctoral education as abandoning direct practice, viewed the research and publication demands of doctoral work as unappealing, and questioned the relevance of research topics pursued by academics. A majority of participants had served as field instructors for social work students; they perceived teaching as enjoyable and rewarding, especially the opportunity to mentor students. Although there was a lack of information as to what academic positions entail, participants were primarily interested in teaching part-time, secondary to their professional practice. Implications for increasing the Latino presence in social work education include early promotion of academia as a social work career choice, presenting social work education as a vehicle for mentoring students and effecting change, and strengthening the connection between research and practice to address issues relevant to social work practice with Latino communities.Item Spirituality and Archetypal Identification: Implications for social work practice(2004-01) Freeman, Dexter R.This research was designed to determine if there was a correlation between an individual's identification with archetypal energy and their sense of spiritual well-being.Item A Community History of Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico: Recovering the Maya Past(2004-01) Juarez, Ana M.I propose to write a community history of early twentieth century Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Tulum was a Maya village that became a key political and religious site for Mayas during the mid nineteenth century Caste War of Yucatan (1847-1901). Although the archeological ruins adjacent to the village are now one of Mexico's leading archeological sites and tourist attractions, the history of the adjacent village and its residents remains largely unwritten and unrecorded. Local residents, especially elders, have significant knowledge of the early twentieth century in Tulum, and it is crucial to recover this knowledge as soon as possible. This knowledge will contribute to understanding Maya culture and the socio-political relations that Santa Cruz Mayas had with Mexicans and other outsiders during the first half of the twentieth century. I propose to use oral histories of community elders, members of Tulum's founding families, and a broad range of other people familiar with the region to reconstruct the early twentieth century history of Tulum. I will further use historical photographs to supplement the interviews and evoke memories about socio-political relations and cultural practices. I will ask about a variety of topics, including socio-political relations and military roles, religious structures and ideology, work and economic production, kinship, marriage and family, and education. This research will make a significant contribution to understanding the socio-cultural and political-economic processes that defined and shaped Santa Cruz Maya communities during the first half of the twentieth century.Item Leadership Removed: Chronicling the Repercussions of High-Stakes Accountability(2004-01) Nelson, Sarah W.The results of this project, which was focused on chronicling the stories of successful school leaders who were removed from their posts as a result of high-stakes accountability systems, exposed oppressive treatment of school leaders within the Texas high-stakes accountability system and suggest the nationally mandated accountability system may be producing similar results in other states. A report of these findings was published in the Phi Delta Kappan, a highly respected educational journal with an acceptance rate of less than five percent. Moreover, this project led to an additional study focused on the examination of how accountability systems may be affecting students. The researcher is currently conducting a mixed-methods study of the use of instructional time for test preparation. Preliminary results of a comparative analysis of the five highest and five lowest wealth districts in the state suggest students in low-wealth districts receive significantly less instructional time than their peers in more affluent districts. Based on these results, the study has been expanded to include a study of all school districts Texas. In addition to focusing on data collection, this project afforded the researcher an opportunity to test a new generation of voice recognition software and digital recording technology to assist with transcribing qualitative research data. This technology has proven quite useful although its full potential is still being explored.Item Role of Oxidative DNA Damage in Telomere Shortening and Cellular Aging(2004-01) Lewis, L. KevinThe major aims of this research proposal were to develop assays for quantitating cellular aging and telomere shortening rates using yeast as a model system and to investigate factors that affect the kinetics of these processes. During the past year we have performed most of the experiments described in the Specific Aims and added additional experiments to clarify some of the results. For example, (a) we have created special yeast strains that have telomerase under the control of a new, regulatable GAL1 promoter and used these to develop assays for monitoring cell senescence, including measurement of changes in cell growth rate, killing and cell cycle checkpoint arrest, (b) we have tested effects of the pro-oxidant chemicals hydrogen peroxide, iron, and bleomycin, as well as the antioxidant chemicals N-acetylcysteine and resveratrol, on cell aging kinetics, and (c) we have constructed yeast strains with antioxidant genes GPX3 (glutathione peroxidase) and CTT1 (catalase) inactivated and evaluated the impact on cell aging. These early experiments have demonstrated that two of the pro-oxidants, bleomycin and iron, can act to accelerate cell senescence. The GPX3 and CTT1 mutations did not affect cell aging, but new mutant strains with multiple antioxidant genes inactivated (e.g. GPX3 + CTT1 as well as three other mutants) are currently being tested. In addition, during the past year we have worked to develop a new, simpler method for quantitating rates of telomeric DNA shortening that is based on the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique.Item Comparison of Arc Hydro and SWAT models used in watershed analysis(2004-01) Bryan, Deborah; Curran, JoannaThis project examined the applicability of two of the most common models used in hydrological modeling today: ArcHydro (ArcGIS Hydro Data Model) and SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model. The models are similar in that each advertises itself as a watershed model with an interface to GlS. The models differ in their choice of governing equations and the way each deals with actual data that may be collected in the watershed. The purpose of the proposed research was to determine which model provided the best representation of a watershed. Data was collected for the Blanco and Guadalupe watersheds and imported into each model. Once the models were run, the results were compared to actual field data to test the accuracy of the models and ease of use. Both models permitted us to simultaneously study various parameters acting on the watersheds. The SWAT model allowed the researchers to incorporate more physical data than the ArcHydro model, resulting in a more accurate depiction of the watershed, especially for smaller watersheds like the Blanco. ArcHydro excels at data management, making it a better choice when large amounts of data need to be collected and included in the model (such as with larger watersheds like the Guadalupe). We found that SWAT better replicates field information. In addition, it allows the researcher more control over the physical processes being modeled. SWAT is easier to use for researchers with little GIS experience. However, for those researchers with GIS programming capabilities, ArcHydro is more flexible.Item Visualizing change: Nantucket Island, Massachusetts 1950s – present: A multimedia historical GIS(2004-01) Giordano, AlbertoThis project had three main objectives: 1. To build a multimedia historical GIS of Nantucket, Massachusetts 1950-2000; 2. To study the historical geography of the island, with specific emphasis on the relationship between historic preservation, nature conservation, and housing; 3. To study this relationship at different spatial scales, ranging from the single house to the neighborhood to the entire island, and analyze and explain these spatial differences. All these objectives were met. A multimedia GIS has been built over the course of the past nine months. Also, we are currently creating a website for disseminating the results of the project. The website is a companion to a paper currently under preparation. The island of Nantucket was chosen for the project because it is a prime example of the planned creation (starting in the 1950s) by a restricted group of individuals of a high-end tourist resort. Also, Nantucket has a long tradition of historic preservation and nature conservation. Together, these factors are pushing life residents' unable to afford the cost of housing out of the island. A multimedia GIS is the ideal tool to study how Nantucket spatial dynamics have changed from the 1950s and how these dynamics play out at different scales. Finally, this project is an example of building a GIS database with the explicit purpose of studying and trying to explain the historical geography of a place. Traditionally, historical geographers and historians do not use GIS in their work.Item Understanding Cognitive Musicology: An Edition of, and Introduction to, Otto Laske's Writings on Musical Grammars(2004-01) Schuler, NicoThe goal of this project was the source-critical publication of the first (and only) cognitive-based writings in the area of musical grammars. These were written by Otto Laske, who, although still alive, changed his research direction and now works in the areas of composition as well as clinical psychology. The connection between musical grammar and cognitive research had not been further developed, because all other developments of musical grammars went a different direction. Laske and the international publishing house Peter Lang had invited me to edit his Laske's writings on musical grammar. The project included scanning and editing six extensive essays, adding references to later developments in this area, bibliographical research, and writing an Introduction to Laske's writings. This introduction summarizes Laske's achievements and shows how one can proceed.Item The SIS process improvement(2004-01) Asiabanpour, BahramProject results: 1- Lab development: Since the time this research was funded, many lab development activities have been done. A room with basic utilities (e.g., Water, Power, and Internet) was permanently assigned to this research. Also all needed development and test equipment, tools, and materials were purchased and placed in the lab. 2- Students involvement: A group of 4 interested students voluntarily joined the research team since January 2004. With their help first Heater was designed and prototyped. Starting Fall 2004, 4 more new students, including one graduate student with computer science background and 3 senior students in Manufacturing Engineering major joined the research team. Graduate student worked on simulation application to design heaters with optimum pattern. 3 manufacturing engineering students helped the PI in design, prototype, and test of different types of heaters and heat masking systems.Item Topochemistry of Layered Selenide Materials(2004-01) Martin, Benjamin R.This award has been invaluable as I built a new research program at Texas State University. These funds not only gave me the necessary resources to acquire supplies and encourage student involvement, but they also helped to secure external funding by ensuring that these resources would be available at the time this external grant would begin. The research project detailed in the proposal centers on the low temperature modification of selenium-containing structures. Before such work may take place, the framework compounds must be synthesized from elements at high temperatures in a furnace. Since the compounds of interest contain highly reactive alkali metals, for safety these metals are pre-reacted with selenium to generate alkali selenide salts. Each step described above requires specialized glassware and equipment. During the term of this grant we converted the laboratory into a space suitable for solid state synthesis by building a high vacuum line, an inert gas line, and a bank of furnaces. We then synthesized and analyzed more than 60 products including a number of alkali chalcogenide salts, and the low dimensional structures Cs6Re6S12, LiCrS2, and KFeS2. These compounds, and the equipment purchased from this REP grant serve as the basis for the research proposal submitted to the Petroleum Research Fund, which was awarded beginning 9/1/2004. 40% of the funds were used to pay undergraduate students (Rick Gonzales, Ross Spann, and Roy Ouma) during the summer of 2004, and the remainder was used to buy specialized glassware, furnace supplies, electrochemical apparatus, and a license for the ICSD structural database.Item Elite Collaboration in Japanese-Occupied China: The Cultural Power and Political Influence of Hu Lancheng, 1938-1945(2004-01) Yick, Joseph K. S.Results of the Project: I conducted research at the general library of the University of Hong Kong from 21-27 May and 11-18 June; at the Second Historical Archives in Nanjing, China from 28 May-10 June; and at the East Asian Collection of Stanford University and the Chinese Collection of the University of California-Berkeley from 14-24 August 2004. I perused and photocopied significant material about the project. For example, at the Second Archives I found an official document, signed by Chairman Wang Jingwei in 1941, which appointed Hu Lancheng as Deputy Propaganda Minister of Wang's puppet Chinese government headquartered in Nanjing (1940-1945). I also discovered an official message (dated November 1944), composed by a Japanese consul in Shanghai, in support of Hu's new journal titled Bitter Bamboo for publication in Occupied China. At the East Asian Collection I located the first edition (1940) of Hu's It Is Difficult to Go To War, But It Is Also Not Easy to Achieve Peace. This volume of essays was his primary work arguing for China's painful but necessary collaboration with the Japanese.Item Between the Arcades and Arcadia(2004-01) Housefield, JamesThis project, which began as an investigation of art and geography in Paris, expanded to become a broader study of the interrelationships between art, geography, and geology. As a result of the research sponsored by this grant, the P.I. has prepared a book prospectus detailing the first extended study to evaluate the historical importance that the city of Paris played in the simultaneous development of modern geographic thought and modern art. In addition, this grant supported research into the importance of geography and geology for a number of American artists ranging from the nineteenth-century painter Thomas Cole to the modern and contemporary artists Joseph Cornell, Roxy Paine, and Robert Smithson. Three conference presentations and one book prospectus resulted from this grant. Four scholarly essays were made possible by this grant three are under review, and one will appear in an edited volume.Item Preschool Children’s Peer Conflict and Related Teacher Management Strategies(2004-01) Russell, Elizabeth Morgan; Blunk, ElizabethTeachers are asking for help in managing young children's peer conflict. There is an urgent need in the early care and education community for more information about conflict management because teachers have reported that preventing and responding to peer conflict, particularly physical conflict, is one of the most difficult aspects of teaching young children. This aspect of teaching contributes to teacher burnout and subsequent staff turnover, both of which have a deleterious impact on the quality of care and education experienced by the children. Additionally, young children need to learn ways of solving their disagreements in verbal, prosocial ways rather than by hurting each other. Solving conflict in a socially responsible manner is a life skill that children can build upon throughout their childhood and beyond. However, there are gaps in the research literature which prevent teachers and those who educate teachers from building a complete and accurate understanding of the dynamics of young children's peer conflicts which, in turn, inhibits the identification of related, effective teacher management strategies.