Examined obituary and in-memoriam announcements in Nigerian newspapers to determine dimension of content used to manage grief. Abstracted 10 dimensions of content that represented specific cultural behavior of people who exhibit a significant degree of similarity in management of grief. Findings suggest that openness to death is appropriate…

Discusses current debates in the field of electronic archiving. Considers the decisions archivists face concerning which content, media, and political or ideological biases will combine to constitute a historical record, and discusses the control of archival content. (LRW)

Develops a taxonomy of the connotative meanings of the term "public relations" using 100 articles chosen from the popular press that yielded 254 uses of the term. Lists eight categories; finds that less than 5% were judged to use the term correctly; 37% were negative; and only 17% were positive. (PA)

Surveys previous approaches to free verse. Proposes a new method of articulating the diversity of free verse. Discusses paired poems to show the kinds of things that this new method gives educators to say when they want to talk about the verse of free verse poetry. (RS)

Finds that women are underrepresented in all five television networks' promotional announcements (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and UPN), and that stereotypical portrayals of women in these announcements varied due to the television network's target audience: announcements on networks seeking a younger male audience contained more stereotypical female…

Considers attacks on the Newbery Award-winning "Bridge to Terabithia" and the implications of those attacks for adolescent literature. (RS)

Applies Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development to Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Newbery Award-winning novel "Shiloh" to reveal a character advanced in moral reasoning. (RS)

Systematically examined the content and components of college viewbooks/brochures. Compiled findings on: (1) physical components (e.g., photographs and slogans); (2) message content based on school characteristics such as size, type of school, enrollment, location, etc.; and (3) the type of image schools with different characteristics are seeking…

Survey of seven physics textbooks in use in the Caribbean and Britain found a gender imbalance showing frequent depiction of males, particularly as adults, which may have an adverse effect on the numbers of girls continuing their studies in physics. (Author/MKR)

Surveyed secondary biology textbooks to ascertain how the topic of evolution functioned in the overall structure of the subject matter. Results indicated that there has occurred a marked increase in the role played by evolution in the generation of textbooks published during the 1990s. (Author/MKR)

A content analysis of child rearing articles in popular literature replicated an earlier study of "Ladies' Home Journal,""Good Housekeeping," and "Redbook." Primary topics were parent-child relationship (27%), child socialization (17%), and developmental stages (17%). Practices emphasized included androgynous, nonsexist parenting; mothers'…

Selects and evaluates a sampling of great children's literature to ascertain what values and character messages were being communicated to readers. Indicates that Newbery books are indeed "a compelling vision of the goodness of goodness itself." Notes that character trait analysis and discussion can be a fruitful forum for increased…

Analyzes John Randolph's use of "ad hominem" arguments, in an excerpt from the Yazoo Claims debate in 1805, in light of Douglas Walton's research into the "ad hominem." Claims the arguments employed by Randolph confirm Walton's contention that the "ad hominem" is not inherently fallacious, but is a defensible form of…

Examines the content of the "Journal of Counseling & Development" over a nine-year period. Collected data were used to identify various changes and trends over time. A content analysis cross-classifies articles from the covered period into 11 categories of topics with seven subcategories and then groups them by the three editorship…

Proposes a fuzzy-image database model and a concept of fuzzy space; describes fuzzy-query processing in fuzzy space and fuzzy indexing on complete fuzzy vectors; and uses an example image database, the computer-aided facial-image inference and retrieval system (CAFIIR), for explanation throughout. (Author/LRW)