Minimizing the Pervasiveness of Women’s Personal Experiences of Gender Discrimination

Given the Rejection-Identification Model (Branscombe, et al., 1999) which shows that perceiving discrimination to be pervasive is a negative experience, it was suggested that there would be conditions under which women would instead minimize the pervasiveness of discrimination. Study 1 (N = 91) showed that when women envisioned themselves in a situation of academic discrimination, they defined it as pervasive but when they experienced a similar laboratory simulation of academic discrimination, its pervasiveness was minimized. Study 2 (N = 159) showed that women who envisioned themselves experiencing discrimination minimized its pervasiveness more so than women reading about discrimination happening to someone else. Further, mediation analysis showed that minimizing the pervasiveness enhanced positive affect about personal discrimination. Implications for minimizing on both an individual and social level are discussed

Public Journalism, the Second Level of Agenda-Setting and Public Policy: The Role of the \u3ci\u3eDaily Press\u3c/i\u3e Newspaper in Creating, Framing and Fostering the Issues of Regionalism and Consolidation on the Virginia Peninsula, 1944-1996

This study uses quantitative content analysis, with qualitative elite interviewing as a supplemental tool, to investigate the role of the Daily Press newspaper in creating, framing and fostering the locally controversial issues of regionalism and consolidation on the Virginia Peninsula from 1944-1996. The investigation supports earlier findings regarding the second-level of Agenda-setting in terms of the newspaper\u27s ability to cumulatively create the pictures in our heads of events or issues. The dissertation suggests that by selecting thematically related attributes over time, the newspaper acts to transmit issue salience, but that the potential impact of the picture in our heads is ameliorated by the effectiveness of the frame chosen by the paper and how well that frame connects with the community. Another important finding is that public journalism has been practiced by the Daily Press through family and corporate ownership without being labeled, for more than half a century. The study suggests that civic activism on the part of the paper can be very effective in creating spaces for public deliberation of public policy issues. But, when the newspaper acts apart from the community, this study suggests that civically active journalism can reduce the special nature of the newspaper to act as an advocate for the community and to enhance civic capacity and actually creates a disconnect between the newspaper and its community regarding specific public policy issues

Examining Social Support in a Rural Homeless Population

The purpose of this study was to examine factors associated with social support in a rural, homeless population. Ninety-six (N= 96) individuals voluntarily agreed to participate in an evaluation examining effectiveness of enhanced substance use and mental health services provided to homeless individuals. The primary variables of interest were: demographics, substance use, mental and physical health, and social support. We used bivariate analyses to examine the sample using two different indicators of past-thirty-day social support: (1) family/friend social support [no support/support] and (2) self-help group social support [no support groups/support groups]. We used two multivariate logistic regressions to examine the relationships between explanatory variables (demographics, substance use, and health) and the dependent variable social supports (i.e., family/friend support and self-help group support). Significant predictors of receiving family/friend social support were education and nonreligious self-help group attendance. Factors significantly associated with self-help group attendance were marital status, education, anxiety, and family/friend support. Although strides have been taken to increase resources among homeless individuals, efforts should continue, including assessments to identify those efforts that are most effective

Phase-locked loop FM demodulator

A conventional phase-locked loop is improved by replacing its phase detector with one comprising a linear ramp generator and a sample-and-hold circuit, thus eliminating the need for a lowpass loop filter, although the output of the sample-and-hold circuit may be filtered in the case of a very low level modulating signal on the incoming FM signal, but then filtering is not a difficult problem as in a conventional phase-locked loop. The result is FM demodulation by zero-order estimation. For FM demodulation by first-order estimation, the arithmetic difference between adjacent samples is formed, and using a second sample-and-hold circuit an arithmetic difference signal is produced as an input to a second ramp generator that is reset after each sampling cycle to generate a ramp the slope of which is a function of the arithmetic difference signal stored in the second sample-and-hold circuit. The ramp thus generated by the second ramp generator is arithmetically summed with the zero-estimation signal from the first sample-and-hold circuit to form a first-order estimation signal. Filtering such a first-order estimation signal is less of a problem than filtering a zero-order estimation signal