Spring 1984 by Endeavors

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Researchers in Exercise

Physiologr Laboratory study the body's response to exercise

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ff\, For facully and students associated with the University's Exercise Physiology Laboratory exercise is more than a casual pastime. They are making it their business to scrutinize both exercise performance and the body's physiological response to activity. lndeed a strong demand exists for the kinds of information their work produces. Athletes want to know the training methods that will best improve their skills. Medical professionals are interested in exercise programs to add to the list of useful treatments they can offer their patients. Also, in ways that go beyond simple enjoyment of sports, members of the general public have begun to regard physical conditioning as a means for improving their lives and so have become more eager for results of the scientifrc study of human exercise. The Exercise Physiology Laboratory of the Department of Physical Education, originally called the Applied Physiologr Laboratory was founded in 1947 by Dr. A. T Miller for researching competitive athletic capabilities. Miller's student, Dr. Carl Blyth, cunently a professor of physical education, took over the laboratory in 1950 and headed it until 1977. Over the past 30 years the laboratory

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Robert G. McMunoy, Ph.D., assistont professor Dixie Thompson ond treodmill exerciser. of physicol education, with graduate student

has grown in size and sophistication with the increasing interest in exercise. Also called the Human Performance Laboratory the facility offers researchers the adranced equipment necessary to study human performance. Included are adjustable, automated treadmills and bicycle ergometers which measure work output, electrocardiographs for charting cardiac response to exercise, and analyzers for monitoring respiratory gases. Also amilable is a portable telemetry device which uses radio waves for remote monitoring of an exerciser's heart rate. These and other equipment, such as computers, aid the laboratory in achieving its two primary goals-teaching and research.

Greduete Specidlzation One purpose of the lab, says Dr. Robert G. McMurray, assistant professor of physical education and director ofthe Exercise Physiology laboratory, is to prepare graduate students for careers in exercise physiology. About l2 master's degree students complete the program each year. The laboratory gives these students the experience of working with the modern tools and techniques of exercise physiology while developing individual research proiects. Because the department does not offer a doctoral degree in exercise physiology, the master's program is designed to be as vigorous and productive

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With UNC CH football ployer Rich McCloskey, Dr. Pqmela Robinson demonstrates the

skinfold meosurement technique of delermin' ing body density. This measurement tohen o! the shoulder blode, along with similar meo' surements at other points of the body, will re' 0eol omounts of subcutaneous fat deposits. The skinfold test is one of three methods com' monly used for computing percentoge of body fat. Behind Robtnson ts the underwoter weigh' ing tonk used in the hydrostotic technique, considered the most occurote test. The per-

as possible. Dr. Pamela S. Robinson, as-

sociate professor of physical education and a leader in setting up the program, reports that a typical master's thesis in this area goes far beyond a literature review and involves experimental research which attempts to answer questions related to human performance. This intensive study and training allow graduates to compete successfully in the lob market. Robinson points to a number of career paths open to students coming out of the program. The graduates are trained to work with hospital physicians in supervising patients who require exercise rehabilitation. Cardiac patients, for instance, can hasten the return to their normal lifestyles by undertaking appropriate exercise programs. Also, doctors have found that renal dialysis patients experience enhanced self-concept and function better after adhering to a specific exercise regi-

centoge of body fot con be calculated by totolly submerging the subiect, houing him exhole completely, ond recording his weight underwoter. Lighter ueights ore indicotiue of a greoter percentoge of body fot since fat ueighs less thon either bone or lean muscle moss. The third method-perhops the easiest ond leost expensiue to odminister, but olso the least accurote of the three-incorporotes circumference meosurements lahen ot specific

anotomicol sites.

men. Some of the graduates move into the industrial fitness field, where they design programs for employees with the goal of promoting health and increasing

productivity levels. Athletic staff and teaching positions are also career options. Others elect to continue their education by pursuing doctoral programs in exercise physiology at other universities, or they enroll in Ph.D. work in physiology or education at UNC-CH.

not the activity has long{erm benefits. The many exercises include walking, running, weight training, swimming, rowing, and cycling. These studies focus on specialized populations such as cardiac patients, overweight people, business executives, and even Olympic-caliber athletes. Today exercise physiology research is demanding more work by specialized investigators. Beyond studying the impact of exercise on fitness, rehabilitation, and competition, the researchers are exploring what is happening at the enrymatic and hormonal levels. Dr. Vic Ben-Ezra, research assistant in the Exercise Physiology Laboratory for example, has iust completed a study on the influence of high intensity training on the hormonal responses of distance runners. A trend is toward specialization in the fleld of exercise physiologr. Such inquiry into the medical areas puts a premium on collaboration; in the Exercise Physiology Laboratory, therefore, researchers frequently consult with scientists in other disciplines such as nutrition, pediatrics, endocrinology, orthopedics, and cardiology. On the other hand, investigators in other fields whose work involves exercise come to the Exercise Physiology Laboratory. A recent collaborative effort has explored the relative benefits of dieting versus exercising in attempts to lose weight. Dr. Ann Smith and Dr. Louis Undenvood of pediatrics and Dr. David Clemmons of endocrinologlz joined McMunay and his associate BenEzra in studying subjects who either reduced their normal daily diets by 1,000 calories or exercised the equiralent of a 1,000 calorie burn. The preliminary findings suggest that both the exerciser and the dieter lose water and fat but the dieter loses more muscle tissue. Improved muscle tone and better mental attitudes of the exercisers he observed during the study have led McMunay to conclude that exercise greatly benefits a weight loss program.

Arercing15s Impect of Exercicc Another function of the Exercise Physiology Laboratory is the production of extensive data on how the body responds to acute and chronic exercise. This research involves quantifying the physiological functions that occur during a given exercise as well as determining whether or

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Unique Environnent of Weter

Dr. McMurray's specialinterest is aquatic exercise. "Water," says McMunay, "has been a big part of my life." As an undergraduate at the State University of New York at Cortland, McMunay was an All-

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America swimmer. He went on to do his master's thesis on the human physiological response to exercise in water. McMurray is fascinated by what he calls "the unique environment of water." He notes a number of changes in the cardiorascular, respiratory and thermoregulatory systems of the body when an individual is subjected to hydrostatic forces-the pressures exerted by water. Much of the work of the laboratoryaddresses how these changes can be monitored and then utilized in exercise programs. Water pressure restricts superfrcial circulation and forces blood back to the heart, causing the heart's volume to increase by about onelhird. This displaced volume of blood makes the body react as if it has an excess of fluid, signaling the pituitary not to release the anti-diuretic hormone which triggers urination. The engorgement of the heart also causes more blood to go to the lungs thereby re-

ducing their functional capacity. These changes decrease the amount of air an individual can inhale and exhale. The heart rate also slows down. Given equal levels of exertion, an individual's heart rate in water may be only about 80 percent of that on land. Research by McMurrayand David Sheps, associate professor of cardiology, has indicated that water may be a suitable sunounding for a severely debilitated cardiac patient wanting to work at low intensity levels but potentially dangerous if the individual patient is intent on working to match his maximal on-land heart rate. The water environment also has a critical effect on the body's thermoregulation. Heat is lost 400 to 500 times more quickly in water than on land, and the body can adiust to a much more narror// temperature range in water. "ln the testing of athletes' heat response," says McMunay, "we can get responses to occur in a few minutes in water, where it may take a hall hour on land." The mechanics of exercise are also intrinsically different in water. A runner pushing off from the ground needs to exert a force greater than the bodys weight; a swimmer usually applies less than 30 pounds. This is why much of an astronaut's training takes place in water as this environment can offset some of the influences of gravity.

Another water-related study of the Exercise Physiology Laboratory developed out

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of an interesting phenomenon involving weight loss. If a person runs for 45 minutes a day for three weeks at a speciflc intensity level, he loses, say, two pounds. But if the same person were to swim for 45 minutes a day for three weeks at the same level of exertion, he may not lose any weight. McMunay and graduate student Tom Roberts conducted research to discover what it was about water exercise that inhibits weight loss. The investigators asked trained triathlon athletes to complete maximum and 70 percent of maximum work exercises in water and on land. Venous blood was obtained from each participant prior to each exercise, five minutes after, six hours after, and twenty-four hours after. The blood samples were analyzed for presence of creatine kinase (CK), an en4/me that catalyzes the production of high-energy supplies within the muscle. For enzyme CK to be detectable in the blood, either a breakdown of the cell membrane must have occurred or there must have been a lack of membrane adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a high-energy compound, which is necessary to maintain cell membrane integrity. As expected, the traumas of both swimming and running exercise caused a release of CK in the blood: the cells had broken down and needed to be

mooe freely and naturolly uhile participoting in a sport ond ollows the exercise physiologist to collect respirotory goses exholed during the actiuity for loter analysis.

rebuilt. However, soon after the exercise periods, CK levels had diminished or were gone in the swimmers'blood while the runners' blood maintained significant CK levels after 24 hours.

What happens is that the anabolic processes necessary to return the muscle cells to normal have to work much harder and longer during the recovery period following the running exercise. Thus, after running, the body's metabolic processes are using energy reserues long after the event. "The swimmer is not getting that long, sustained caloric burn after exercise that the runner experiences," says McMurray. Therefore, the swimmer burns fewer total calories and loses less weight.

Energy Production Energy is produced in the body by the chemical breakdown of the high energy

phosphate substances ATP and creatine phosphate (CP). ATP is synthesized by any one of three metabolic pathways: (1) during intense, short{erm activity, a large amount of energy is liberated by the,4IPCP system, also known as the phosphagen system, which does not require the presence of oxygen. The breakdown of these phosphagens provides energy for about the first ten seconds of maximal

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exertion; (2) onaerobic glycolysis re' leases energy through a series of chemical reactions by which glycogen, or stored carbohydrate, is converted to lactic acid in the absence of oxygen. This energy system can provide fuel for intense exercise for up to five minutes but the resulting accumulation of lactic acid has been demonstrated to cause muscle fatigue; (3) frnally, for long{erm, sustained exercise, the body depends on the cerobic processes for energy. Through a complex series of chemical reactions, glycogen and fats are broken down in the presence of oxygen to provide energy. This system yields by far the greatest amount of ATP and inhibits the accumulation of fatiguing by-products such as lactic acid. These energy supply systems do not begin at the same time nor do they last for equal durations in all individuals. It is clear that different competitive events may utilize different energy sources. A sprinter in a flfty-yard dash will depend largely on ATP-CP stores while an endurance runner will perform best with a welldeveloped aerobic system. Swimmers who compete in the shorter events-up to 200 yards-will also rely heavily on their anaerobic systems to provide energy for their performances; however, the aerobic pathways provide most of the energy needed for the performance of the longer events. An understanding of how the aerobic versus the anaerobic pathways are used

in energy production can improve performance during competition. McMurray and graduate student Lynn Siebers have attempted to determine the most efficient method for the swimmer to recover between races. After completing a twominute workout at maximum effort, some of the swimmers walked on land for 15 minutes to recover; the others swam leisurely in the water for that time. Then each group swam 200 yards for time. The participants'blood was analyzed for lactate levels after the initial two-minute work, then again before and after the 200yard effort. Lactate in the blood is an indicator of the level of the contributions of the anaerobic glycotlic pathway used for the production of energy. The study showed that the swimmers who recovered from intense exercise by continuing to swim at a slower pace were able to make more efficient use of their aerobic energy system than were their counterparts who recovered on land, as evidenced by their lower lactate levels. As a result of the data from this experiment, the University's competitive swimmers are likely to linger in the pool between events in order to reduce levels of fatigue-inducing lactate before their next events. The individual energy systems can be trained to perform better simply by exercising them-by forcing them into use. Because some sustained activities are fueled by more than one energy-releasing process, it is helpful for athletes, especially those in competitive settings, to un-

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derstand how they can coordinate their aerobic and anaerobic systems. For example, they can benefit from knowing how to prolong action of the aerobic system before reaching the "anaerobic threshold," which is the level of maximum effort at which the anaerobic system activates and begins to power the body. Endurance runners have learned, for example, that an enhanced anaerobic threshold allows them to save glycogen stores until the home-stretch of the race, thereby avoiding the early onset of excessive lactate levels which would persist throuqh the contest. McMurray and former graduate students Bryan Smith, currently attending the UNC School of Medicine, and John Symanski, now in medical school at Duke University, conducted a study to test the anaerobic thresholds of both sprint and distance swimmers. Similar research has been done with runners but never before with swimmers. Six swimmers who specialized in the sprint events and six for endurance swimming were tested. The results, comparable to those found with runners, are instructive. The average anaerobic threshold for the sprint specialist was about 66 percent of maximum capacity; for the distance competitors it was about 90 percent. This finding indicates that training of the appropriate energy-releasing system, coupled with a genetic predisposition, makes each athlete particularly suited for his or her event. The hypothesis that metabolic re-

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The cardiorascular system is the network of structures, including the heart and the blood vessels, that pump and convey the blood throughout the body. Proper habitual exercise is a signiflcant factor in reducing the incidence and severity of cardiovascular disease, which annually accounts for over half the deaths in the United States. Exercises contributing to cardiorascular health include rhythmic, aerobic aclivities such as swimming, running, or cycling which recruit the large muscle groups. For a training effect to occur, an individual should exercise at a level of intensity requiring more than 60 percent of his maximum

Muscular strength and endurance can be signiflcantly improved by adhering to a properly-planned progressive weight resistance program. The physiological principle upon which these improvements are made

Flexibility, or the range of motion about a joint, can be enhanced with stretching exercises. Proper stretching can improve the elasticity of the soft tissues-muscles, liga-

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range of motion. In addition, stretching can prevent or relieve muscular soreness and distress. The most desirable method of shetchinq is slalrt extension. This mode of stretching is safer than the Dcllrstrc method,

tance against which the muscle works

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cause: (l) tissue damage is less likely; and (2) the energy requirement is less. Using the static method, the participant slo,vly achieves the flnal stretched position and holds it for a given length of time, perhaps 20 or 30 seconds.

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Groduote student Dione Victorson meosures blood loctote leuels. Loctote, or loctic ocid, is a by-product of anoerobic glycolysis; when it accumulotes to high leuels in the muscle and

blood, it causes musculor fotigue. The leuel of the contribution of the anoerobic glycolytic pothuoy utilized in the production of energy can be determined through lactote onolysis.

; The odjustable treadmill is one of the most uselul tools to the exercise physiologist be couse the test administrotor hos obsolute con trol ouer the unrklood at which the subject

performs. The metobolic actiuities of groduate student Jim Mclaughlin are monitored by (left to right) Dr. Vic Ben-Ezra, graduote student Lindsoy Hicks, ond Dr. Robert McMunoy.

sponses and body composition can be trained or changed to enhance performance results was the basis for a study conducted at UNC with Olympic swimmers. From 1978 to 1980 the laboratory was used by the Olympic Committee as one of seven regional sites for conducting assessment and performance tests on selected elite and internationally competitive swimmers. Dr. Robinson, who was then director of the laboratory and her colleagues made careful physiological determinations of the swimmers' strength, body densig, and pulmonary capacities. Then the scientific data was interpreted

in the form of specially designed exercise programs aimed at removing weaknesses. Robinson points out that a coach may be training the aerobic capacities of his team by asking everyone to swim 20,000 yards daily; however, the team's sprinters may do better by developing their anaerobic pathways. Similarly, a female swimmer may be carrying l2 percent body fat, perfect for a sprinter; but if her event is for distance, she would be better equipped to compete at 16 percent body fat. This recommendation takes into consideration the inverse relationship between drag and buoyancy.

McMunay and his colleagues in the Exercise Physiology Laboratory have also applied their research data in designing physical fitness programs for non-athletes. Two groups that annually participate in the laboratory are the nationally recognized Executive Program and Young Executives Institute of the Universig's School of Business Administration. Eight years ago the executives who participated in these programs were not offered any fitness training. However, after one of the participants suffered a heart attack soon after involvement in the Executive Program, the faculty of the School of Business Administration made the decision which many corporate organizations have reached: a comprehensive management training program should include a serious attempt to counsel employees on the benefits and opportunities of exercise. Laboratory staff begin individual eraluations of the program participants with determinations of blood pressure, percent body fat, heart rate, exercise capabilities, and habits. From these data they develop personalized exercise programs that will provide sustained activity for 30 minutes within a target heart rate. McMurray emphasizes that a short, vigorous workout schedule, if adhered to three days a week, is sufficient for fitness. "We aim for behavior modification," he says. "Whatever the program, it has to become a part of the individual's lifestyle. Therefore, it is important that the exercise program frt into an individual's work schedule and environment." The benefits of physical activity are appreciated on many different levels. Health concerns and the desire to compete in sports as well as the less tangible personal enjoyment and spirit of well-being are reasons for undertaking physical conditioning. Work in the Exercise Physiology Laboratory touches each of these dimensions. Through research activities, the Laboratory develops an understanding of the most productive methods of exercising;and through its training programs, it extends the knowledge to an everexpanding number of people.

-Merle

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ID.E.A

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Researchers in Child

Development Center

conduct longterm interdisciplinary experiment

In hindergarten Seanb teacher thought he uns cute but a little behind academi' colly. He had difficulty concentroting and uas lery octiDe. At third grade he u.tos sullen. He failed the fifth grade, uros suspended in the seuenth, and dropped out in the tenth. A block child, Seon come hom a poor, brohen home. He wos of' flicted with a seuere eor infection at oge tun. At his birth, his mother was 15 years old. Why did Seon drop out of school? What is his future? Could his lifeb course

houe been chonged significontly through be tter educationol programs? These basic social questions are being investigated scientifically at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center by a large team of researchers led by Research Professor Craig T. Ramey, a developmental psychologist. He and his colleagues are 13 pars into a twen$-year research program in which they are trying to accomplish two basic goals. First, they are conducting an educational experiment to determine if they can prevent children from failing in school. Second, they are trying to understand how health

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, ssessing the progress of the Abecedarian Project at a periodic group meeting ore, from left, Dr. Dale fanon, Dr. James Gallagher, di-

and family factors, as well as educational practices, relate to children's growth and development. The research program began in 1971 when I 12 high-risk, low-income families were identified and asked to enroll in a proiect which has come to be known world-wide as the "Carolina Abecedarian Proiect." The word obecedorion is derived from a Latin word refening to the learning of basic educational concepts such as the alphabet. To begin the experiment, researchers randomly assigned the families to one of

rector of the Frank Porter Grahom Child Deuelopment Centet Dr. Albert Collier and Dr. Craig Romey.

two experimental conditions. These conditions remained in force until the children entered public kindergarten. In one condition the children were provided with iron-fortified formula and periodic medical check-ups, and their families were provided with social work services. This less intensely treated group served as the control. The other, refened to as the Early Education group, received the same services but, in addition, its members received systematic early education beginning at six weeks of age in the form of a special curriculum developed at the

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Frank Porter Graham Center. Implemented every weekday at the Center, the cuniculum stresses language development, mas-

teryof basic educational concepts, and the development of academic motiration and discipline. The overall program resembles a high-quality educational day' care program with an academic and cognitive core. Parents are encouraged to visit the Center frequently and to be knowledgeable about their childrens developmental program. Three maior areas of functioning are being measured to determine if the Abecedarian program is accomplishing its goal of preventing academic difficulties. These three areas are: (l) children's intellectual development and academic readiness; (2) children's relationships to their families; and (3) children's health and physical development. The chief analytic strategy to determine the efficacy of the program is to compare statistically the performance of the Early Educational and Control groups.

Intelligence and Acedemic Rcedinerr

the two groups is due primarily to the declining intellectual performance of the Control group children relative to the Early Education group. "We interpret these results," Ramey says, "to indicate that declines in intellectual functioning can be prevented in groups of high-risk children during the first five years through systematic and intense early education which stresses the mastery of basic concepts and academic skills."

itother-Child Beletionrhip When the Abecedarian Proiect began, researchers were concerned whether intellectual gains might be made at the expense of the childs relationship to his family, particularly to his mother. This concern was heightened by the fact that the educational program was designed so that the child is away from his home for full days early in his life. Therefore, the quality of the mother-child relationship has been assessed frequently both in the children's homes and in laboratory settings.

One technique has involved studying the behaviors of mothers and children in

play situations and in teaching tasks. At 6, 20, 36, and 60 months, children were observed and videotaped with their mothers while they were in a room containing comfortable furniture, developmentally appropriate toys for the children, and magazines for the mother. Mothers were informed that the researchers were interested in the children's play with toys and with their mothers during the preschool years. Under the direction of Dr. Dale C. Farran, the videotapes have been coded to yield data concerning the quality of the mother-child interactions. A dimension has been identified and labeled "dyadic play," which is an expression of these interactions. This dimension has been linked to children's level of intellectual functioning. A higher degree of play between mother and child is positively associated with higher intellectual performance by the child. Figure 2 depicts the percent of active dyadic play during twenty-minute obsenational sessions conducted at 6, 20, 36, and 60 months of age. The performance of three groups is shown in this figure: first, the children who participated in the Early Education programs; second, those who were in the Control group; and third,

Figure I shows the results from tests of intelligence which have been conducted during the flrst five years of life for the Early Education and Control groups. These IQ tests revealed that the two groups did not differ signifrcantly from one another in the first year of life but did so at every intellectual assessment occasion thereafter. The difference between

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their low-risk children drawn randomly from the community of Chapel Hill. In assessing the cunent results of the research, Dr. Farran says, "High- and lowrisk families differ most in their active

dpdic play during the middle portion of the preschool years rather than at either end." At six months the Early Education and Control groups do not differ from one another and their patterns are similar to those observed in the more adrantaged families. At 20 months, however, the Control group shors a slight decline in level

hood illness may limit deuelopment of languoge skills.

of involvement, while involvement increased for the group with more educated

in the high-risk groups. Mothers terminated most of those sessions.

mothers. The high-risk educational group scored between the other two groups. Thus, Early Education does not appear to affect negatively the quali$ of motherchild interactions as measured by active dyadic play. ln fact, at 36 months there was a precipitous decline in the dyadic play dimension of the Control group. These mothers and their children were actively involved during less than ten percent of the sessions. From careful analyses of the videotapes taken at the children's age of 36 months, these researchers have concluded that the three groups are not very different in who initiates mutual play-mothers initiate the majorig of these episodes in all three groups, but high-risk mothers, in general, initiate more of these than more educated mothers. However, there are tremendous differences in how these episodes are terminated. For more educated families, more episodes are terminated by both mother and child. This means that once the book or fantasy play was completed, each turned to something else almost simultaneously. Half as many episodes were terminated in this fashion

Researchers have observed that mothers in the high-risk group display a differ-

ent approach to playing with their children. "They would set things up for the child and then sit back," says Dr. Fanan, "leaving the child to play alone until he needed help or was having trouble. Then they would lean down, make things right, and then pull out again. Their mutual play episodes tended to be very short, therefore." Clearly these high-risk mothers do not love their children any less nor do they wish less for them in the future-so why did they appear to be so withdrawn from their children? The Frank Porter Graham researchers have two possible explana-

tions: the first is that playing with children actively is a culturally determined norm. Someone needs to model that behavior for it to look appropriate-especially as children reach 20 and 36 months. Secondly, more culturally adtantaged mothers may have a different perception of those ages, viewing them as crucial for the child's later functioning, and may, therefore, consciously promote mutual interactions during their children's

early years which they feel positively influence later cognitive and language

skills. On the other hand, high-risk mothers may be waiting for their children to develop the skills which will then make them suitable partners for interaction. Ramey reports that some of the parents of the Early Education groups used the opportunity to pursue further education. Their children were performing the best at age 60 months compared to similar children of young mothers assigned to the Controlgroup. Moreover, the pattern of mother-child interaction of the Early Education group was quite different over the preschoolyears. As compared to the other groups they declined at 20 months but then increased at 36 months. "lt is possible that their improved economic and educational situation gave them more hope for the future and a greater belief in their ability to alter the futures of their children," says Dr. Farran.

Hcdth Rcceerc.h Middle ear infection and middle ear effusion are the two most common complications of upper respiratory infection experienced by young children. These middle ear illnesses are associated with considerable acute morbidity and after the common cold are the most important cause for pediatrician visits for illness. Some studies have suggested that long-lasting adverse developmental outcomes may be related to prolonged or repeated bouts of middle ear infection or effusion in early childhood, because impairment of hearing sensitivity commonly accompanies middle ear fluid collections. It is also known that children from impoverished backgrounds suffer more illnesses and more acute episodes of illness than children from more affluent families. "Like almost all children, the Abecedarian Proiect children get their share of otitis medio (inflammation of the middle ear)," reports Dr. Albert Collier, director of health research and chief pediatrician at the Frank Porter Graham Center. "Because we can see the Abecedarian children every day, we have had a unique opportunity to study the causes and consequences of middle ear infections while at the same time providing the best of pediatric care for them," he explains. Working with Collier in studying the pathogenesis

and developmental consequences of middle ear effusion in the children in the Abecedarian Project are University investigators with expertise in pediatric infectious diseases, child development, and audiology-speech-language pathology. Studies at the Frank Porter Graham Center have permitted the assessment of the relative contribution of different respiratory viruses and bacteria to middle ear infection. This work has demonstrated that children do develop resistance to middle ear disease, a resistance probably related in large part to the development of specific immunologic responses. Current efforts are directed at better defining the development of systemic and mucosal immunity to respiratory viruses and bacteria in infants and young children, especially those who live in poor and crowded conditions. Such frndings would be relerant to understanding acquired resistance to middle ear infection and effusion. The long{erm consequences of middle ear effusion and its impact on child development are unclear. It is reasonable for investigators to ask ifchanges in hearing sensitivity which occur as a result of

collections of middle ear fluid are associated with diffrculties in learning speech and language. Since studying the development of communicative skills by young children has been an integral aspect of the Abecedarian Proiect, examination of the relationship between middle ear effusion and language development has become a natural objective for the research at the Frank Porter Graham Center. The scope of this work has demanded collaboration among investigators from different disciplines. These studies should help answer the question as to whether there may be longterm sequelae from early middle ear effusions in the area of intellectual and language development. That researchers at the Frank Porter Graham Center are pursuing this important health problem is an example of how collaborative, interdisciplinary research can be conducted in the real world of children with the aim of improving their overall development.

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Poliey Implicetion

social and health scientists to understand the developing child more thoroughly, this evidence also relates to a number of issues of public policy. The Bush Institute for Child and Family Policy, headed by FPG Director James Gallagher, is housed in the Center and provides a vehicle for systematic study of such policy issues. One of the most marked trends in American society in the past decade has been the rapidly growing number of mothers in the work force with children under frve years of age. In the near future, therefore, a larger number of children under school age will be cared for by persons other than their mothers and fathers. This situation raises important questions regarding society's willingness to create a productive environment for the nurturing of young children. Indeed, public aspirations for child care now go far beyond a mere babysitting function. The last forty years of research in child development have made it clear that the early years are critical to later development, a fact which provides an obligation to create a productive environment in which young children can master important developmental skills. There is an additional responsibility to identifu children with handicaps and special developmental problems and to design specific programs to meet their needs. These research results presented by Ramey, Fanan, Collier and their colleagues suggest that it is possible to improve developmental patterns of young children with a well-designed intervention program; that such a program away from home does not apparently influence negatively the mother-child relationships; and that given good health care and practices, group child care does not markedly increase the health risks ofyoungsters in the group peer setting. On the basis of their sustained efforts over the past 13 vears and their understanding of other childhood development studies, researchers at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center believe that the requisite knowledge and skills are now amilable to create a public-supported system of child care that can provide a positive environment for preschoolers, particularly those who may othenvise have later developmental problems.

While the scientific evidence gathered in such studies as described here can help

--*lerle Thorpe and others

Media's Effect on Drunk Driving Laws

disseminated to media editors, highway safety offrcials, and other researchers. Luckey believes that tracking the role the media had in passage of these new laws will illumine operation of the po-

liticalprocess. During the first phase of the project, Luckeyand his colleagues, Dr. Kenneth C. Mills, lecturer of health policy and administration, and David Jolly, health education doctoral student, are conducting

Dr. James W Luckey

Dr. James W. Luckey,

clinical assistant

professor in the Department of Health Policyand Administration in the School of Public Health, heads a team of researchers who are studying the forces that elerated the drinking and driving problem to legislative attention and finally to an important new statute in North Carolina, the Safe Roads Act. The threeyear project began last fall with funding from the U.S. Department of 'ltansportation. Dr. Luckey notes that negative consequences of drunken driving have been recognized for some time, but only in recent years has the issue emerged as a pressing one for organized action. Although Dr. Luckey's project focuses specifically on North Carolina's new law, his purpose is to elucidate, in general, the workings of the legislative process, with special focus on the media's influence on legislative agenda. Also the proiect will assess the impact media attention has had on the enforcement of laws drawn to prevent drunken driving and the rate of alcohol-related deaths. The conclusions of the proiect will be

extensive interviews with legislators, iudges, lawyers, enforcement officials, media leaders, citizens'groups, and the religious community. More than 50 interviews will offer qualitative insights into the pertinent questions: Why were legislators in 1983 so committed to moving on the bill? Were the media octtbe in raising the drunk driver issue or reactiue to overwhelming public sentiment? How important to the process was an organization like Mothers Against Drunk Drivers? The frrst phase also includes the gathering of content information from selected local newspapers and television stations. Emilia Richichiand Kim McGaughey, graduate students in HPM, will chart the medias effect on changes in emphasis of the drinking and driving issue during the past four years. Thus media coverage can be seen as an intervening rariable affecting the number of alcohol-related accidents and DUI enforcement data. The second phase of the proiect will be primarily concerned with data collection and statistical analysis. John H. Lacey, M.P.H., and Dr. J. Richard Stewart, both staff associates of the Universitys Highway Safety Research Center, will study data on crashes, enforcement, and adiudication and how these relate to media coverage and legislative actions. Dr. Jane Brown, associate professor in the School of Journalism and director of the University's Center for Research in Journalism and Mass Communications, will assist in compiling media information, including pertinent state surveys and public opinion polls. Ultimately the proiect will offer a comprehensive resource of arailable information concerning the initiation and the effects of drinking and driving countermeasures.

Ion-Beam Laboratory A recent gift from IBM of a 500-keV Van de Graaff ion-beam accelerator will broaden the boundaries of research being conducted in the Department of Physics by a team led by Dr. Wei-Kan Chu and research assistant professor Dr. Terie Finstad. This machine will be set up in the department s lon-Beam Laboratory alongside the present 2-MeVaccelerator. Together, these tools will afford researchers the opportunity to conduct basic research into the physical and chemical properties of materials-research that is essential for continued adrances in the applied areas of microelectronics, optics, and alloy design.

An ion is an atom that has acquired a net electric charge from losing one or more electrons. One of the basic methods scientists use to identify or to modiff properties of materials is to study the collision of ions with certain materials, a process called "particle-solid interaction." The ion-beam accelerator is the tool for

this process.

I b,.

Dr.Wei-Kan Chu

At the beginning of its function, the accelerator charges a gas by setting up an oscillation field similar to the operation of a neon light bulb. Helium gas is often used because its atoms are heavy enough

for penetration yet not too heavy to damage the material being analyzed. A negative freld then brings out a controlled number of these positive helium ions, which are then subjected to a large, elec-

tric potential (up to

million volts). This

energy potential is produced using the Van de Graaff principle in which a large rubber band is spun by two pulleys like a conveyer belt. Electrons, which are negative, are spread on one end of this band

and continuously removed at the other end by a grounding mechanism. This produces a great electric enerry potential which accelerates the positive ions down a long racuum tube at high velocity. About halfinay to their target-or about halfraay across a large room-a controlled magnetic fleld selects and redirects the helium ions so the particles in the beam will have the same momentum. At the end of the racuum chamber these ions bombard a solid material sample. The results of this particle-solid interaction reveal much about the material's characteristics. When the ion beam contacts the solid, many of the particles rebound, or backscatter. A silicon sensor in the chamber measures the enerry distribution of these backscattering particles. The energy spectrum carries information about the target's structure, impuri$ distribution, layer thickness, and composition. Much of this work, called backscattering spectrometry, provides research data useful in the fabrication of silicon chips. Seven doctoral students and two visitors are working with Dr. Chu and Dr. Finstad in different aspects of material characterization study. Keelho Cho and Seong Soo Choi are involved in the "shallow junction" program. They explain that in building silicon chip devices, the doping layers need to be very shallow. Their task is to test larious techniques for shallow junction formation and their compatibility with other materials. Cheryl Dale and research visitor Chuan-Kang Pan are working in "contact metallurgy," studying larious methods to determine which materials best reduce contact resistance, a characteristic which facilitates the travel of electronic signals through

silicon chips. The research of Duk Yon Han, William Allen, and research visitor Dai-Chou Zheng relates to a third component of Dr. Chu's program, "superlattice structures." These man-made, layered structures have applications for optical devices and may be strategic in the future of microelectronics. The IBM gift allows the department to expand into a new category of researctrmaterial modification. The 500-keV machine, which is to be installed by doctoral students Eric Frey and Tony Haynes, can implant different types of ions into a target material, thus actually altering its chemical and physical properties. For example, in addition to the modification of electrical and optical properties of semiconductors, ion implantation can make the surface of a metal harder and can alter friction. It can make material more resistant to wear and less likely to conode. "We can supersaturate a material by adding impurities way beyond what nature allows," says Chu, "and this implantation can yield a new material-one that may be more useful than what is arailable."

North Carolina's Quadricentennial During the next four years, North Carolina

will be celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Lost Colony-the flrst English colony in the New World and the earliest recorded history of what is today North Carolina. Under the direction of Dr. Ralph E. Wileman, professor in the School of Education, some two dozen students, most of them graduate students in educational media, are researching, designing, and producing a thirty-minute, multi-image presentation of the history culture, and unique qualities of the state. ln October of this year, the presentation, which uses nine computer-controlled slide proiectors, will be ready to go on the road to be shown to students and adults in all 100 counties during the three pars of the North Carolina 400 Celebration. Each

Dr. Rolph E. Wleman

showing will be followed a discussion led by an educator or local civic leader. The project team is putting together a leader's guide designed to help promote this discussion. The presentation of more than 700 slides is dMded into six sections: geography, history social history business, art, and celebrations. Educational media graduate students Pam Grimball, Rick Lonon, Beth Fisher, Pam Mcleod, John Sweeney, Jane Gleason, and Karen Allred have done extensive research in designing the scope of the show. Museums, libraries, chambers of commerce, the N.C. Depailment of Tourism, and the N.C. Department of History and fuchives were some of the many sources tapped. This spring individual groups of students designed the six sections, choosing what would be on the screen and then producing the necessary slides. A persistent editorial problem for the teams was deciding what subiect matter should be left out. Joe Shoff, a graduate student in charge of the geography section, says, "One of the biggest restrictions was the enormous amount of material." Presenting 400 years of history and culture in a hal[hour show is an ambitious undertaking, but the educational media team is using all the arailable tools to make it a success.

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Carolindsht Anthropologr researchers explore remains of Siouan Indian life

Roy S. Dichens, Jr., Ph.D.,

ossociate professor

of anthropology

The mention of North Carolina lndians usually brings to mind such groups as the Cherokee, Catawba, and'lirscarora. These large and complex tribes once occupied rast areas of the Southeast, with the territory of the Cherokee, for example, covering over 40,000 square miles. Less well known are the many smaller tribes and bands of lndians that inhabited the Atlantic Piedmont and Coastal Plain regions.

On the Piedmont of North Carolina, there were over a dozen small tribes-Occaneechi, Tutelo, Eno, Saura, Saxapahaw, Keyauwee, Shoccoree, and otherswhose members spoke dialects of the Eastern Siouan language. These Siouan tribes, as they are called, were among the frrst to be reduced in numbers and to have their remnant populations removed to areas less desired by the white man. They succumbed early to European diseases, which spread rapidly

through their settlements. Their populations were further decimated and their cultures disrupted by military actions, political manipulations, and involvement in the deerskin trade. Byaround 1730

most of the Siouan people were gone forever from the Carolina Piedmont, with only an occasional place-name or "old field" lingering as a reminder of their former presence. Historical documentation is, at best, sketchy for these Piedmont tribes. Some groups are mentioned only by name, with little or no information given about their lifestyles, dress, languages, food habits, social organization, or physical appearance. Still other groups undoubtedly were gone before historycould even record their existence. ln 1983 the University of North Carolina's Research Laboratories of Anthropology began a five-year proiect to study the Piedmont Siouan cultures through the science of archaeology. The project was designed to combine data already collected by the Research Laboratories, some from excarations dating as early as 1938, with new information obtained from carefully coordinated freld and laboratory work. The proiect is led by Roy S. Dickens, Jr., laboratory director and associate professor of anthropology, with assistance from archaeologists H. 'liawick Ward and R. P. Stephen Davis, Jr. The project focuses on three river drainages of the northern Piedmontthe Eno-Flat, the Haw, and the upper Dan. Wthin these three areas the archaeologists will search for village and camp sites representing frve time intenals-late prehistoric (ca. A.D. 1300-1540), protohistoric (A.D. 1540-1600), early historic (A.D. 1600-1650), middle historic (A.D. 1650-1710), and late historic (A.D. l7l01730). fu appropriate sites are found, they will be systematically excarated to obtain information for each period. From

this information it will be possible to reconstruct changes in cultural patterns as the Indians of each area came under increasing pressures from Europeans. Dickens and his colleagues and students are trying to determine what these Siouan cultures were like prior to European contact and how they changed with the arriral of Europeans, especially after the introduction of foreign disease strains. An important question for them is whether the Indians adopted European ways or merely made adiustments in their existing cultural patterns to cope with the European presence. Also of concern to Dickens' group are the effects of the deerskin trade on the native economy, technology, and social organization. Basic to much of their research is an inquiry into how the Indians responded to their natural environments over time. The data necessary to answer these and other questions do not come easily. An interdisciplinary approach is essential, and tedious and exacting recovery techniques must be undertaken in the freld to gain the requisite artifacts. An important aspect of the current proiect is the student training program undertaken each summer under the auspices of the Research Laboratories and the Department of Anthropology. In this archaeology field school, graduate and undergraduate students from Chapel Hill and elsewhere coordinate their efforts in a unique educational experience. Last summer the fleld school was held near Hillsborough, North Carolina, where two important Siouan settlements were explored. One of these sites, partly excamted between 1938 and 1942 by Dr. Joffre Coe, professor emeritus of anthropology

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and former director of the Research laboratories of Anthropology, appears to represent a small palisaded village occupied around A.D. 1545, 2l years before the first Spanish explorers came into the Piedmont area. The second site, discovered in I983, represents a village occupied from about 1680 to 1710. This latter site may be the remains of Occaneechi Town, which was described in 1701 by John Lawson, a British surveyor. Work at these Hillsborough settlements has already produced important information which has changed archaeologists' views about the lives of the Indians who settled in this upper Piedmont region.

Site Excevation Sites are usually identifred by the pres-

ence of aboriginal artifacts on the ground surface. These artifacts include stone tools, flakes, pottery fragments, and other kinds of habitation debris that accumulated when the site was occupied. Many village sites within the Piedmont, being situated on rich alluvial bottomlands, are plowed almost yearly. Although plowing disturbs the uppermost levels of a site and can ultimately destroy it completely, it also enhances a site's "visibilig" by bringing artifacts to the surface where they can be discovered by archaeologists. Both of the Hillsborough sites were originally discovered through this kind of surface inspection. Actual archaeological excaration of a site is a meticulous and demanding process involving not only the retrieral of artifacts but more importantly the careful recording of the spatial and cultural contexts within which the artifacts are found. Because excaration is destructive, the archaeologist has a professional obligation to maximize the amount of information obtained. fuchaeological sites are limited, non-renewable resources and, once excarated, can never be replaced. Investigation of a site begins by establishing a grid over the suspected site surface. The grid is comprised of contiguous l0 x l0-foot units. This provides a permanent frame of reference for locating everything discovered at the site. Another permanent marker placed at the site provides a vertical reference point for elemtions taken with a surveyor's transit. Excamtion begins by stripping the plowed topsoil from one or more l0-foot

Archoeologicol field unrh is often tedious and painstaking. At right, onthropology groduote student Mary Ann Holm ond field school sludent Bill lurgeLshi excowte on archaeological feature. The sun shode ouer the feoture helps preDent the pits moist contents, in this cose,

bones and plont remains, hom drying too rapidly. ln the foreground, senior archoeologist Trawich Word (left) and field school student Bryan Sorohon (right) are cleoning an adjocent excoDation unit to be photogrophed ond mapped.

squares. At the Hillsborough sites, this "plowzone" is less than a foot deep. All disturbed soil is screened through sifters

facts and ecofacts (plant and animal remains). The contents are washed through one-sixteenth-inch windowscreen to maximize their recovery. In addition, selected soil samples from features are processed by a water separation technique called flotation to recover extremely fragile carbonized seeds and other smallplant fragments. Once completed, the feature is cleaned, photographed, drawn to scale, and described in detail on specially designed data forms.

with one-half-inch mesh to recover artifacts. Once the plowzone is removed, the floor of the l0 x l0-foot excaration unit is carefully shaved with sharpened mason's trowels to expose the dark stains of aboriginally dug pits and postholes which intrude into the yellow clay subsoil. A light mist of water is sprayed over the cleaned surface to enhance the more subtle soil differences that might otherwise go undetected. Black-and-white and color photographs, together with scale drawings and other notes, provide a permanent record of what was observed within an excaration unit. This process may be repeated on a much larger scale once several adjacent squares have been excamted, particularly when they expose all or a portion of an architectural feature such as the post pattern for a house wall or village stockade.

After all mapping and photography have been completed, careful investiga-

tion is begun of pits and other disturbances that extend into the subsoil. These archaeological features, which include abandoned storage pits, cooking pits, hearths, postmolds, and human burials, are usually excarated by natural soil zones. Since features are sealed contexts-i.e., they represent brief periods of human activity after which there was little chance of mixing of materials from other activities-they are often rich in both arti-

Humen

Buri.ls

The excalation of a human burial is even more meticulous, requiring several days to complete. Excaration methods resemble those used for other features up to the time human bones are encountered. From that point on, the pit flll is slowly and carefully removed without disturbing the skeletal remains or associated artifacts. This process involves the use of small tools such as grapefruit knives and dental picks and is designed to preserve the spatial relationships of both skeletal remains and artifacts for later recording. Since the burial represents a "frozen moment" in time, all such relationships have cultural meaning which are of special interest to the archaeologist. At the completion of excaration, the burial remains are extensively documented with photographs and drawings. Individual bones

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are then carefully removed for further study.

While archaeological investigations at a site do not seek out human burials, their discovery is almost unavoidable on Piedmont Siouan sites because the dead were usually intened within the village. fuchaeologists recognize the sacred nature of these burials and work closely

with the North Carolina Commission of Indian Mairs in removing and analyzing such remains. "The study of burials is necessary' Dickens points out, "if the story of the North Carolina Siouan Indian

people is to be told completely." Graduate student Homes Wlson has chosen the extensive human skeletal remains discovered in the Siouan proiect for the subject of her dissertation. She performs laboratory analysis to determine age of death, sex, stature, and pathologies. These data, in turn, provide information about life expectancy, mortality rates, population size, and general health of the populations represented. In coniunction with skeletal information, she is studying burial pattems and obiects found in the graves to answer questions of hor,v status was determined and how wealth was distributed in these village societies. In addition, Wilson plans to examine the trace elements, or micromineral composition, of the human bone from the burials to learn additional information on social organization, health, and diet. Faunal and floral remains from sites associated with each population will help her to interpret changes in diet during the period of Indian-European interaction. Items found with the skeletal remains take on special significance for these scientists. Not only are they useful for dating the burial, but they also reveal a great deal about the culture. The discovery of large numbets of beads in almost all of the Piedmont burials indicates the nlue of beads as units of trade. Other important items of exchange for the inland Indithese findings, were ans, as evidenced marine shells. Dickens observes that a skeleton with large numbers of beads and shells probably marks the burial place of an important member of the tribe. Shell ornaments found in the Siouan burials are the subject of a proiect by master's student Beverly Sizemore. From her analysis she hopes to provide information on

seun to clothing. The burial below is hom a loter site (ca. 1700) on the Eno Riuer near Hillsborough. The pit form of this burial is more squared, suggesting the use of metal im-

During the early historic period, contact with Europeans affected Lnrious aspects of Piedmont Siouon culture, including the treotment of the dead. The burial oboue, hom o site on the upper Dan Rioer doting ca. 1650, illustrotes the traditional Siouan buriol pattem. The deceased wos placed, in flexed position, in o side chomber at the bose of an oml pit, accompanied by an inuerted cloy botttl and W both shell ond bone beads which uxre

plements. More importantly, groue occompaniments consist primorily of European trade items, including a wine bottle, pewter pipe,

routes of trade and communication during the acculturation period. Other interesting artifacts found in the burials include tools, clothing, ornaments, and cooking utensils. Pairs of iron scissors were found in several of the historic Hillsborough burials. According to Dickens, the presence of this type of tool in a burial probably signifres the gror,ving

importance of European textiles to the Indians. Buttons also seem to have been important, but Stephen Davis points out that the Siouan Indians may have used them first for decoration rather than for functional purposes. Copper ornaments found in the burials also suggest the Indians' creativity with unfamiliar materials. Often prefening to continue using their

iron oxe, and iron scrssors. The flexed position of the skeleton, howeuer, is typically Siouan ond distinctly non-European.

diet, patterns of food collecting and culti-

Etion, and local ecolory of the Indian communities at different points in time. Some of the broader issues of the Siouan Project are questions about the size, composition, and organization of the tribes. Piedmont toruns, streams, and foothills still bear names such as Occaneechi, Saxapahaw, Shoccoree, Kelauwee, and Sauratown. Such place names are among the last reminders of where the Siouan Indian tribes may have resided when first encountered fur traders, explorers, and survelors. Now, careful examinations of historical records, along with archaeological and environmental data, are beginning to produce a clearer picture of how the Indians patterned their settlements and exploited their local environments. Doctoral student Daniel Simpkins observes that archaeologists can now delineate networks of related sites which they believe are associated with specific tribes. Simpkins' study, which concentrates on these networks, will further enlighten anthropologists' understanding ofchanges in Siouan Indian settlement patterns through time. The Siouan Proiect presents a unique opportunity to the public to become involved in and informed about archaeology and American Indian culture. Volunteers from outside the University have participated in the freld excarations as well as in the laboratory processing of the artifacts. The staffand students have shown remarkable willingness to share their knowledge with interested groups in the community. Dickens and his associates hope that through their efforts the public will become better informed about the fragile nature of the archaeological record, a non-renewable resource that is being lost at an ever-increasing pace. Sites that may hold many of the answers to our questions about North Carolina's Indian heritage are being destropd by highways, reservoirs, impoundments, and housing developments, as well as by thoughtless relic collectors. "One very important responsibility of the archaeologist is public education," Dickens remarks. "ln this regard the Siouan Project is not iust for the archaeologistscholar; it is for allwho are interested in and have a parning for knowledge about the past.'

Mary Ann Holm, onthropology groduate slu-

dent, is onalyzing the onimql food remoins of the Piedmont Siouan Indians os part of her masterb reseorch. By studying the discarded bones from butchering and culinary actioities, Holm uill be oble to shed light upon Siouan hunting pottems ond diet os uxll os prouide insights into the early historic ecology of the Piedmont region. Comporisons of founal re-

clay pots for cooking, they cut and shaped the copper of European utensils into ornaments. In one burial the team found a complete smoking kit composed of a pewter pipe, an ember tender (small forceps-like tool for holding a hot coal to light the pipe), and a flint to strike a spark.

Othcr Inqulrlcr Supporting the research activities of the fleld school, the Research Laboratories' division of paleoethnobotany, under the direction of Dr. Richard Yamell, serves the special interests of students like Kristen Johnson, who studies plant re-

moins hom sites occupied at different points in time during the lost prehistoric ond early historic periods will permit a more coreful

ewluotion of han Siouan economic syslems chonged in the lace of populotion decimation, increasing inuoluement in the deershin trode, ond the concomitont disruption of troditionol lifewoys.

mains from the archaeological deposits. Johnson is seeking data about the interaction of the Piedmont natives and their natural environments: She recovers the chaned remains of plants present in the soil of middens (trash deposits), hearths, pits, and other archaeological features with the flotation technique. With this method soil is agitated in a large barrel of water so that light-weight materials, such as charred wood, nutshells, and seeds, float over a spout and into a fine screen. After the samples are dry they are sorted, weighed, and identifred to obtain a record of plant parts that were discarded or accidentally dropped into fires by village inhabitants. By interpreting these data, Johnson will draw conclusions about the

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Tiowich Ward, R.

P. Stephen Daois, Jr., and others

o.R.s

Methods of Oral Interpretation combine research in humanities with performing arts

In the early days of her teaching career, Martha Nell Hardy used to pronounce to her students, "Oral interpretation of literature, with its mixture of great thought, criticism, and performance, will save the world." Having matured in her career in the University's Department of Speech and Communication, she no longer has the courage to make this claim, but she still believes that the particular medium she has chosen for her life's work can effect positive change by bringing people closer. The work that Hardy is doing in speech communication uses the basic human affrnity for the spoken word to return literature to its roots in the oral tradition. The result is, she feels, a better way of knowing the artistry of the written forms. "Per-

forming literature points out structure, underlines rhythm, reinforces the aural qualities," Hardy observes. "Consistencies and inconsistencies that may be obscure in silent reading are suddenly illuminated in the hearing and the seeing." For her personal proiects Hardy typi-

cally selects fictional or historical characters and presents them through performance of a script based on her research. The usual narrative forms, like novels, short stories, biographies, and personal accounts, such as iournals, diaries, and letters, as well as nonJiterary sources, like public records and memorabilia, provide interpretive data. After careful selection she aranges the rarious materials into a viable structure where individual pieces and their iuxtaposition with one another make a rhetorical statement. Her product is an anthological or collated script{he basis for performance more powerful in revealing truth and influencing attitudes than any of the numerous source materials alone. Hardy has been refining her ideas about oral literature for a long time. Early in the 1970's she and colleagues

Professor Martha Nell Hordy in her role as Tamsen Donner.

in the group now known as the Carolina Regional Theatre began to compose programs of this type for grassroots audiences. Derived from many different types of sources, literary as well as nonliterary the performances which her groups staged provided a fresh way of looking at vital problems. One particularly successful production of the Carolina Regional Theatre was 'Appalachia Sounding," which portrayed the strengths and rich heritage of the Appalachian people.

ln her more recent efforts Hardy has selected topics which reflect both her fascination with historical patterns and her interest in women's studies. To prepare her interpretation of people and events, Hardy has turned more to utilitarian records and personal communications. Using as source material these non-nanative forms poses more of a challenge, but the results for Hardy have been rewarding. Tamsen Donner: o unmanb journey, a one-person production written and performed by Hardy, is the latest complete

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work in her long list of credits. Hardydescribes Donner as a "renaissance woman-mother, teacher, journalist, botanist, poet, and painter." Born at the beginning of the nineteenth century she traveled from Massachusetts to North Carolina as a young girl to become a teacher in a female seminary. After marriage and the subsequent loss of her husband and children, she moved to lllinois where she married George Donner. At the age of 46 with three small children and two step-daughters, Donner set out with her family to join the Westward Movement, to resettle in California and open a school for girls. In what has come to be known as the Donner Pass, half of the wagon train perished, including Tamsen Donner. All that this creative woman had written was lost, but a journal and poetry describing the iourney were recreated by poet Ruth Whitman in a book which became Hardys inspiration. After trying to interest other people in preparing a performance, Hardy undertook the task herself. For over a year she researched the life of Tamsen Donner, examining records of the family and accounts of the Donner Expedition and reading about the Westward Movement in general. From her findings she prepared a performance script, then rehearsed and produced a show which has enjoyed critical acclaim during three years of touring. Just this year Tomsen Donner: o unmanb journey was videotaped for broadcast over public television. Hardys interpretation of the Donner materials has been the inspiration for another one-woman performance which graduate student Brenda Womble recently presented as part of her masters thesis in speech communication. Womble has done her degree work in the curriculum of oral interpretation, one of three areas of specialization arailable to graduate students in speech communication. Womble characterizes her program as a "marriage of the research-oriented humanities and the performing arts." In preparing her performance, Womble adapted a short piece in Jean Toomer's Cone, a poetic narrative which explores through fictional portrayals the experience of the southern black woman. Shown on the back cover, Womble adopts the persona of Toomer's narrator, an old black woman, as she reveals conflicting ralues of different generations in the

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"Voices of Southem Women," a neu project recently giuen seed funding hom the North Coro-

lino Humonities Committee, draus from the talents and expertise of a teom of foculty and graduate students. During a planning session, participants from UNC-CH discuss research strotegy for the pilol segment, to be bosed on the life of Ello Moy Wiggins, one of the leoders of the uiolent Gostonio textile mills strihes of

South. Her research method has been similar to that which Hardy uses, examining those primary and secondary sources that inform the reading and the presentation of the literary material. Womble has aimed for the same intensity of characterization that she witnessed in Hardy's Tamsen Donner. "Hardy," she recalls, "makes her audience feel the strengths, the ability to carry on, to ride over the hurdles, and to live in a society that awarded her character with almost nothing." And she hopes, too, that some day she can perfect her art as Hardy has done, so much that when she stops, her audience will still want more. Recently Hardy has done work on a new project, "Voices of Southern Women," which will result eventually in a series of programs for public television. Working as part of a team of humanists from several departments in the Universigand from the Duke-UNC Womens Study Research Center and the UNC Center for Public Television, Hardy is conducting research into the lives of selected female frgures in southern history. She explains that southern women were chosen

1929. Pictured here are (left to right) project director Dr. Milly Banonger of the Deportment ol Dramatic Art, Dr. Joy Kasson of the Cuniculum in Americon Studies, Dr. Beuerly Long of the Deportment of Speech Communicotion, and Professor Martha Nell Hardy, Choirmon of the Deportment of Speech Communicotion. Project porticiponts are hoping to ottroct further funding for subsequent segments.

primarily because of the rich store of primary research materials arailable here. "North Carolina," she observes, "is especially blessed with numerous original documents as well as fresh oral history resources on southern women." The scope of the series embraces the past century and a half, from plantations to contemporary white-collar workplaces, from the myth of Scarlett O'Hara through the trarails of suffragists, poets, novelists, unionizers, and eloquent defenders of human rights. The research element will involve bringing together historical materials-oral, visual, and written-as the basis for demonstrating critical moments in southern women's lives. Each segment of the planned thirteen-part series will attempt to peel away false images about our ancestors in order to reveal realities about ourselves. This new series will undoubtedly provide a means of communication among and within social structures, a way of understanding what we are and how we may be different from others.

thyllis

Lewis

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v o R.s

TheMany hrmsof History History faculty pursue new methods and applications "History is now a discipline in much ferment, moving off in several directions at once," observes Otis L. Graham, Jr., distinguished university professor of history. His view is assuredly borne out by the activities in the University's Department of History where researchers are experimenting with novelapproaches and diverse topics. Quantification has become one important and frequent tool for viewing historical phenomena. Another major thrust of the department is the distinct methodolory used in oral history which bonou,s extensively from the arts and behavioral sciences. Meanwhile the traditional nanative approach continues to thrive as historians present their carefully gathered and analyzed evidence in a literary mode. An interesting application of history which uses all these approaches has recently evolved as a distinct fleld kncnsn as "public'or "applied" history. As these mried approaches and interest areas have gained legitimacy among historians, the craft of history has become a dynamic fleld of endeavor for the department's 120 graduate students.

Konrad H. Jorousch, Ph.D., Lurq professor of European cioilizotion, chechs research doto.

(hrntitetivc Approecher Konrad H. Jarausch, Lurcy professor of European civilization, is a persuasive pro-

ponent of quantification as a method of historical research. He has recently edited a German reader on quantitative methods, the first of its kind, Quontifizierung in der Geschichtswissenschoft (Quantifying in History), and finished a lext, Quontitatiue Methoden in der Geschichtsuissenschoft (Quantitatiue Methods in History). As a practitioner and advocate of quantification, Jarausch serves on national and international committees for the application of quantitative methods in history. Several years ago he "retooled" and shifted from writing diplomatic history and biography to studies such as Srudents, Society, and Politics in Imperiol Germorry, an examination of student activism and educational elitism, published in 1982. It was not the novelty of a new method that spuned Jarausch to acquire the skills of quantifrcation but the promise of investigating questions which the sources of diplomatic history neither raised nor answered. His earlier research on the European response to Adolf Hitler's seizure of power convinced him that literal examination of diplomatic and domestic documents has limited explanatory power and that one needs to look beneath the surface of politics into the social and ideological forces shaping men and events. Using figures from government publications compiled by meticulous Prussian record-keepers and numbers generated from enrollment lists, Jarausch was able to explore the social origins of students and faculty, the pattern of expanding and contracting enrollments, and shifts in cuniculum. fu a member of the second generation of historical quantifiers, Jarausch does

not indulge in the exaggerated hopes of earlier advocates of this methodology. One of the original spokesmen for the field, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, predicted in 1968 that by the 1980s "the historian will be a programmer or he will be nothing." Subsequent events have not sustained this view. As Jarausch points out, quantification is best at yielding "medium-level generalizations about a situation in a given context and within a particular time frame-generalizations which allow the charting of gray areas of incremental change." The results often provoke new questions about that context or time. "Figures alone fail to reflect accurately the complexity of the human situation," Jarausch observes. He prefers, therefore, to use a combination of quantitative and qualitative sources. 'liaditional documents such as letters or diaries, pamphlets and speeches give meaning to numbers because they portray human aspirations and suffering more emphatically.

(hd lltrtory PcrrpcrffYer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall uses the methods and nanatives of oral history in her work. Hall is associate professor of history and director of the Southern Oral History Program. She has recently been awarded fellowships from the Woodrow Wlson Center and the American Council of Learned Societies to work on a new proiect combining her fields of study, women's history and the American South. "Disloyal to Civilization: Patterns of Female Dissent in the Twentieth Century South" will explore through biography the links among women's personal experience, their place in the social order, and their angle of vision on social ills. At the core of the study will be a series of interviews conducted with

Southern women who were politically ac-

tive in the period between 1920 and World War II. The nature of her study lends itself to investigation through the technique of oral history. Hall observes, "One of the premises of women's history is that you can't separate the prirate from the public, that if you want to understand a leader, you have to know and understand the prirate experiences that informed the decisions she made in the public realm." In the case of women, who traditionally have not been seen as historical characters and have not perceived themselves in that light, the written sources of that information are often sparse. Hall reflects, "You have to have a certain sense ofyourself as a historical actor to say to the Southern Historical Collection, 'Here are my papers. I'm sure you will make room for them."' Fortunately for scholars of the twentieth century oral history can supplement often scarce manuscript sources. In addition to its usefulness in biographical studies, oral history has become a mainstay in the fleld of social history. Scholars who study women, minorities, and working-class peoplegroups which usually produce few written documents-have relied heavily on oral materials. Hall's own work in this area is exemplified in the book on which she is cunently engaged, Lihe o Family: An Oral History of the Textile South, 1880-1940. The primary source materials of this book are 248 interviews conducted with residents of the Carolina Piedmont who participated in the industrialization of the region. In designing the project, Hall and other members of the Southern Oral History Program approached the people of the Piedmont as experts on their own lives. Other sources had revealed attitudes of mill owners and social workers toward the textile workers of the region; some statistical information yielded glimpses of the lives of mill or,vners; but the interviews provided workers' own interpretations of the processes of change occurring in their environment. Like quantification, oral history has established its place in the repertoire of historical research methods. Over time, however, its practitioners have become more aware of its strengths and weaknesses and have acquired the distance to emluate its potential. Critics of oral history have pointed to the inaccuracies in

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people's nanatives-confused dates and places, different events collapsed together, and other distortions of memory. Those involved with oral history have suggested that this characteristic is not necessarily a weakness but merely another aspect of the nanative. "Oral history is about memory" Hallexplains. "lt's not a slice of life. lt's not a contemporary source. If you talk to someone in 1984

about 1924, you're not getting the unar nished truth about 1924. You're getting what someone who has lived through those sixty years and has had all those subsequent experiences remembers and sees as important." Hall does not accept oral history as evidence immune to interpretation or criticism. On the contrary she sees a danger in the romanticism often cloaking oral history. People tend to believe the authenticity of first-person testimony more readily than the analysis of learned people supposedly speaking with authority. "Oral history can shade over into anti-intellectualism," she admits, "but the function of the historian remains the sameto give meaning through interpretation."

Ihe Dedtfionel ilerrefive George Bror,vn Tindall, Kenan professor of

history has been studying and writing

Korstod in transcribing recorded interuiews.

Southern history for 40 years, but as he points out, 20 years ago he would not have thought to call himself a "nanative" historian. Only with the proliferation of newer methods has discussion mounted concerning types of history and historians. With the success of the new social history revolution, more traditional narrative history fell into disrepute. Storytelling did not appear to have the same emphasis on analysis or rigor in use of sources employed by the new historians. These new historians, on the other hand, were accused of lacking rigor in style. But the pendulum is swinging back in favor of narrative and Tindall's remarkable ability has become a goal of many younger historians: to write with clarity and wit in a manner that makes history accessible without compromising academic integrity.

Tindall has taken on the formidable task of explaining nothing less than the sweep of American history from pre-Columbian Indian civilizations to the Reagan Restoration. His new textbook, America: A Nonatioe History, which was designed for use in American history survey courses, is the culmination of thirteen years ofwork. Though this research has drawn upon the work of historians who have used rarious forms of inquiry, Tindall chose the nanative for presenting

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his synthesis. As he explains in his prel ace, "l have tried to fashion the sprawling American past into a story, one brimming with characters and great events. lt is a story the events of which are connected in patterns of influence and consequence, not recounted in isolation from one another. By showing connections among past events, I've tried to bring out for readers their significance, their meaning.' For Tindall history has many of its origins in literary imagination as the opening sentence of his textbook reveals: "The earliest Americans are lost in the mists of time, where legends abound." He is aware that the complexity of the past is nearly impossible to reconstruct. Thus to him Faulkner's Absolom,,4bsa/oml is the ideal historian's novel. "You've got Quentin Compson sitting up at Hanard," Tindall explains, "telling the story of Sutpen's Hundred to his Canadian roommate, trying to reconstruct what happened from bits and pieces of information he has picked up in his hometown, and never at all sure that he has all the relelant evidence. There's always a degree of uncertainty in history."

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Brann Tindqil, Ph.D., Kenan professor

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hblicHirtory Another direction in which the study of history is moving relates to the work's application. This pubtt history is the practice of history in off-campus settings for non-academic purposes. Although its roots go back to the pre-World War I period, public history as a profession began to flourish only recently. The development of public history as a distinct field can be largely attributed to the decline of academic employment opportunities for historians. Following the lead of The University of California at Santa Barbara, more than 30 universities have initiated graduate degree programs in public history which prepare students for roles outside the university. Another reason for the growth of public history has been the increasing realization that implicitly and explicitly policymakers use history as a maior element in making their decisions. But as professional historians observe, these "amateur" historians often apply principles of history unwisely. Dr. Otis Graham points out, for example, that presidential administrations have frequently constructed historical analogies and called upon recollections of the past for articulating their policy choices, in many instances without aptness or rigor. Therefore, he asserts that a major purpose of the public historian's effort is to improve how history affects important decision-making. Public history is expressed in three components in today's university programs: policy studies, community and institutional studies, and cultural resource management. In the first, case studies of past policy issues are prepared to augment the information arailable to officials faced with decisions. For example, a case study may be central in providing information to Congress or the president faced with a decision to make about U.S. military involvement. The second category includes producing histories of cities, businesses, neighborhoods, and families. The historian's work product typically is sought to enhance an entity's public relations, to inform its internal policies, and to define its identity. The third type of public history prepares historians for work in historical presenation and institutional archiving. Graham reports that some large corporations have sought the advice of public historians for determin-

Dr. Otis Graham is a proponent of

public his-

tory ond proctices it himself on occosion. His recent publicotions on immigrotion poliq ore oriented toward influencing nolionol immigration poliq. ln the photo here Graham is shown in his April, 1981, oppeorance before the U.S. House of Representotiues SubCommittee on Census ond Population as on expert witness conceming the controuersiol immigrotion leg

islation debote.

ing which of their voluminous company records to discard. Each of the methods of historical study is mluable to the public historian. Some applications will necessitate quantitative skills in handling large masses of data. Many public history assignments deal with living people which calls to play the oral history techniques. These off-campus historians also stress the ability to write clear prose in telling the story gracefully. No matter what the method or application, historians at Chapel Hill are vigorously fulfllling their professional and social responsibilities. As Jacquelyn Hall expresses it, "The element of uncertainty in our lives demands that history scholars exercise their right to explain, make iudg' ments about the complex reality of the past, and cope with the relations between facts and developments through time."

-Mory

Murphy ond Merle Thorpe