A matter of life and death: The failure of juror instructions in capital cases

Findings based on interviews with capital jurors indicate that considerable confusion exists over sentencing instructions. Jurors had difficulty understanding the content of the instructions, sometimes disregarding them altogether. Jurors placed a premium on remorseful demeanor from the defendant, and this weighed heavily in their sentencing deliberations. Many jurors who chose the death option misunderstood the true meaning of a life sentence. Finally, grave concerns were expressed about the competency of other jurors. In light of these findings, we call for the adoption of a priori training and better juror instructions based upon Gottfredson and Gottfredson's (1980) model for rational decision-making

An examination of Crassostrea virginica nuclear DNA variation along the North Carolina coast

Inhabiting coastal waters from eastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, the eastern oyster is subjected to a wide range of temperature and salinity regimes, thus providing an interesting opportunity to study population structure. Prior studies have examined phenotypic as well as DNA differences along this range. A previous mtDNA population survey of Crassostrea virginica within Pamlico Sound utilizing a single 16s polymorphism diagnostic for North Atlantic / South Atlantic haplotypes revealed an ~110 km cline along the North Carolina coast. Using 4 microsatellite loci, 3 SNPs and 1 scnDNA RFLP, I have surveyed eight oyster populations within and outside the Pamlico Sound in an effort to corroborate the population structure found in the mitochondrial genome. Three microsatellite loci were out of HWE across populations vs. only 1 population for one SNP loci, and it seems likely that those microsatellite loci were plagued with null alleles. Microsatellite exact tests show some significant differences within the Pamlico Sound, mostly in comparisons involving the Stumpy Point population. A combined SNP/RFLP analysis did reveal significant differences among populations, though most of this can be accounted for by inclusion of a population from Maryland. The clinal structure seen in the mitochondrial genome is not reflected in the nuclear genome within the Pamlico Sound

Growth of natural phytoplankton populations of Wilson Bay : a nutrient bioassay approach

Wilson Bay is a shallow estuarine embayment found within the New River Estuary. Previous work sponsored by NC WRRI examined phytoplankton bloom species composition, rainfall and nutrient levels within the New River Estuary. This study focused on the influence of nutrients in forming blooms using a bioassay format measuring phytoplankton growth over a 7 day incubation period. Growth rates were measured by fluorometric readings and visual eye counts preformed on natural populations that were incubated and treated with nutrient addition and exclusions. Additions consisted of sodium nitrate (NaNo3), ammonium chloride (NHCl), urea (CO(NH2)2) and a complete control, including phosphate, silicate, vitamins and trace metals. Exclusions minus nitrogen, minus phosphate, minus silicate, and unenriched controls were also measured. Ambient nutrient levels were measured in sample water before nutrients were added. Previous work done on Wilson Bay showed to often be nitrogen limiting. The unexpected amounts of rainfall during the study period provided data that showed that Wilson Bay was nitrogen limited with nitrogen additions giving the greatest stimulation. The study period (March-September 2003) had abundant amounts of rainfall compared to the previous (2002) which was a drought years. Wilson Bay blooms are strongly affected by local weather and the rate and types of nutrient delivery

A church apart : southern Moravianism and denominational identity, 1865-1903

Historians have long argued that the Moravian Church’s move to the mainstream of Southern Protestantism resulted from the declination of their members’ German ethnicity during the antebellum period. The redefinition of the Southern Moravian Church as a mainline Southern Protestant denomination, in fact, came later than most scholars have previously suggested. The Southern Moravian Church came of age after the Civil War when it metamorphosed from a conservative ecumenical religious group dedicated to mission work to a full-fledged mainline Southern Protestant denomination, whose members saw themselves and were perceived by others as legitimate players in the Southern evangelical field. The change occurred over the final 35 years of the nineteenth century, which was relatively quickly given how little the church changed during its initial one hundred years in the Southern United States. This study explores the reasons for and ways in which the Southern Province of the Moravian Church in America adapted to meet the needs of those to whom they ministered. This study covers a broad swath of church activity in the nineteenth century, including political schism and its consequences, the incorporation of revivals into church worship, the adoption of denominational Sunday schools, changes in worship architecture, community outreach efforts, and denominational publications. This study fills a gap in the historiography between the colonial and antebellum church and the modern Moravian Church, South. The Southern Moravian denomination today owes much of its regional character, religious practices, organization, and traditions to the years covered in this thesis

Strange Municipal

These poems often aim toward resonance rather than reference - issuing not necessarily from the representation of any event, but the event that an (often) rhetorical voice must create for itself in order for the poem to "happen," and which must somehow become anthemic to a number of selves. The voices of these poems confront the possibility of meaninglessness, and do so in various stages of commitment, embodiment, and potency - measured, too, by laws, geographical boundaries, and other demarcations external to them

Possibilities and paradoxes of religious schools : case study of Seventh-Day Adventist schools

This dissertation deals with the gap between education of practice and vision in Seventh-day Adventist education. It describes and analyzes the conflicts between its religious vision and particular cultural and social demands placed upon its education program. The first chapter provides the historical setting for the Seventh-day Adventist church and a look at the elements which gave birth and legitimacy to Adventist education. In particular, the chapter focuses on the necessity for Adventist educators to respond to the existing social cultural context

Weight stereotyping in young children: an early personality reasoning perspective in 3- to 6-year-olds

Weight stereotyping is the relative devaluation of an overweight body size (Sigelman, Miller, & Whitworth, 1986), which has been detected as early as 3 years of age (Cramer & Steinwert, 1998). Previous studies of weight stereotypes have not been informed by what we know about children‘s social reasoning processes (i.e., positivity and negativity biases), essentialist beliefs about weight (i.e., contagiousness, biological origins, stability, and changeability) or concurrently developing cognitive and social abilities (i.e., cognitive flexibility, theory of mind, and working memory). The current study examined weight stereotypes in 80 3- to 6- year-old children using a story-distracter-recall paradigm. Results indicate that with age, children are more accurate in labeling positive traits. Essentialist weight reasoning was not consistent across domains, but generally increased with age (from 6.15 to 8.7 on a 14–point scale). Cognitive abilities were related to weight essentialism; notably, increases in cognitive flexibility and working memory were associated with decreases in weight stability beliefs for older children. Implications for the role of weight stereotypes in behaviors (i.e., discrimination) and the formation of stereotype interventions are discussed

Fla^nerie in Zola's Paris

"This thesis is a study of the practice of fla^nerie ("strolling") in three novels by the nineteenth-century French author and purveyor of Naturalism, E´mile Zola: The´re`se Raquin, La Cure´e, and Au Bonheur des dames. Fla^nerie, the dual activity of walking and observing, constitutes a spatial and visual negotiation of the urban landscape. As defined by Charles Baudelaire and redefined by the twentieth-century German Marxist critic, Walter Benjamin, the fla^neur is a leisurely male stroller with an ambiguous role in the changing metropolis. The possibility of a female fla^neuse raises fundamental questions about the role of women in urban public life. In the course of this thesis, I expose the presence and nature of a Zolian fla^neuse by examining the cases of his female characters in the three novels and their relation to existing social limitations and new possibilities for emancipation in late nineteenth-century Paris. In the end, I propose that the successful and failed fla^nerie of these characters highlights the paradoxes of women in the new spaces of modernity, areas devoted to leisure, consumerism, and spectatorship."--Abstract from author supplied metadata

Nearshore mixing and nutrient delivery along the western Antarctic Peninsula

The surface waters of the Southern Ocean play a key role in the global climate and carbon cycles by promoting growth of some of the world’s largest phytoplankton blooms. Several studies have emphasized the importance of glacial and sediment inputs of Fe that fuel the primary production of the Fe-limited Southern Ocean. Although the fertile surface waters along the shelf of the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) are influenced by large inputs of freshwater, this freshwater may take multiple pathways (e.g. calving, streams, groundwater discharge) with different degrees of water-rock interactions leading to variable Fe flux to coastal waters. During the summers of 2012–13 and 2013–14, seawater samples were collected along the WAP, near Anvers Island, to observe water column dynamics in nearshore and offshore waters. Tracers (223,224Ra, 222Rn, 18O, 2H) were used to evaluate the source and transport of water and nutrients in coastal fjords and across the shelf. Coastal waters are compared across two field seasons, with increased freshwater observed during 2014. Horizontal mixing rates of water masses along the WAP ranged from 110–3600 m2 s-1. These mixing rates suggest a rapid transport mechanism for moving meltwater offshore.ECU Open Access Publishing Support Fun

Dorothy Heathcote as philosopher, educator and dramatist

This dissertation represents an interpretive inquiry of Dorothy Heathcote as philosopher, educator, and dramatist upon the occasion of her retirement from teaching. Background information for this dissertation was acquired by the author over a seventeen year period of using Heathcote's educational principles while teaching basic curriculum to public school students in grades Kindergarten through eight. Information on Heathcote's teaching model was obtained from videos and published accounts of her work, and from attendance at several workshops led by Heathcote. An in-depth study was conducted while a participant in the final graduate course taught by Heathcote in 1986 at the University of Newcastle-upon- Tyne, England and by extensive personal discussions with her while living as a guest in her home. These observations are given perspective by interviews conducted with seven American educators who represent a variety of backgrounds and who all have had experience using Heathcote's approach to teaching in a variety of educational settings