Local Languages, Local Malay, and Bahasa Indonesia; a Case Study From North Maluku

Many small languages from eastern Indonesia are threatened with extinction. While it is often assumed that ‘Indonesian' is replacing the lost languages, in reality, local languages are being replaced by local Malay. In this paper I review some of the reasons for this in North Maluku. I review the directional system in North Maluku Malay and argue that features like the directionals allow those giving up local languages to retain a sense of local linguistic identity. Retaining such an identity makes it easier to abandon local languages than would be the case if people were switching to ‘standard' Indonesian

Inference on locally ordered breaks in multiple regressions

We consider issues related to inference about locally ordered breaks in a system of equations, as originally proposed by Qu and Perron (2007 Qu, Z., Perron, P. (2007). Estimating and testing structural changes in multivariate regressions. Econometrica 75:459–502.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]). These apply when break dates in different equations within the system are not separated by a positive fraction of the sample size. This allows constructing joint confidence intervals of all such locally ordered break dates. We extend the results of Qu and Perron (2007 Qu, Z., Perron, P. (2007). Estimating and testing structural changes in multivariate regressions. Econometrica 75:459–502.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]) in several directions. First, we allow the covariates to be any mix of trends and stationary or integrated regressors. Second, we allow for breaks in the variance-covariance matrix of the errors. Third, we allow for multiple locally ordered breaks, each occurring in a different equation within a subset of equations in the system. Via some simulation experiments, we show first that the limit distributions derived provide good approximations to the finite sample distributions. Second, we show that forming confidence intervals in such a joint fashion allows more precision (tighter intervals) compared to the standard approach of forming confidence intervals using the method of Bai and Perron (1998 Bai, J., Perron, P. (1998). Estimating and testing linear models with multiple structural changes. Econometrica 66:47–78.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]) applied to a single equation. Simulations also indicate that using the locally ordered break confidence intervals yields better coverage rates than using the framework for globally distinct breaks when the break dates are separated by roughly 10% of the total sample size

Don’t make me laugh: Responsive laughter in (dis)affiliation

This paper examines laughter as a methodical resource for marking a just-prior turn as laughable, even when that turn has not been designed as such by its producer. It focuses in particular on one usage, where laughter targets a prior turn as preposterous and thus laughable: laughter is seen to be but one possible response in such contexts, and, as such, highly disaffiliative. By examining instances of video-taped family interaction and audio recordings of broadcast interviews, I examine the sequential environment both leading up to the production of the laughter – what makes the targeted turn so laughable – and subsequent to it, that is, how the laughter is elaborated verbally. I also examine the features of the laughter itself, and specifically what makes it recognizable as marking a highly negative stance with respect to what it targets. But who exactly produces the responsive laughter is here critical: when the laugh producer is not the ostensible recipient of the prior, laughable turn, the laughter produced is heard both to disaffiliate from that prior but in so doing, to affiliate with its recipient. Such uses show how a single action can be simultaneously both affiliative and disaffiliative

The development and year one implementation of the Local Justice Reinvestment Pilot

This report focuses on the initial findings from a process evaluation of the Local Justice Reinvestment pilot (commissioned by the Ministry of Justice), which examines the early development and implementation of the pilot in the first test year. The pilot is one of the Ministry of Justice Payment by Results (PbR) schemes. The methodology was primarily qualitative and included: interviews with strategic and operational managers; interviews and focus groups with front line staff; workshops to map partnership and criminal justice system changes and a focus on exemplar interventions at three sites

Local Convergence and Global Diversity: The Robustness of Cultural Homophily

Recent extensions of the Axelrod model of cultural dissemination (Klemm et al 2003) showed that global diversity is extremely fragile with small amounts of cultural mutation. This seemed to undermine the original Axelrod theory that homophily preserves diversity. We show that cultural diversity is surprisingly robust if we increase the tendency towards homophily as follows. First, we raised the threshold of similarity below which influence is precluded. Second, we allowed agents to be influenced by all neighbors simultaneously, instead of only one neighbor as assumed in the orginal model. Computational experiments show how both modifications strongly increase the robustness of diversity against mutation. We also find that our extensions may reverse at least one of the main results of Axelrod. While Axelrod predicted that a larger number of cultural dimensions (features) reduces diversity, we find that more features may entail higher levels of diversity.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, Submitted for presentation in Mathematical Sociology Session, Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA), 200

2004 Alewife Festival

On June 5, 2004, the Exeter River Local Advisory Committee (ERLAC) held the 4th Annual Exeter River Alewife Festival along the banks of the Squamscott River in downtown Exeter. Over three dozen organizations exhibited at the Festival and event organizers estimate approximately 750 people, including many children, attended the event. The purpose of the Festival was to increase awareness of the Exeter River watershed and the role it plays in the Great Bay ecosystem, as well as its role in providing drinking water, wildlife habitat, and scenic, historic and recreational resources for residents in the ten watershed towns. Funding provided by the New Hampshire Estuaries Project enabled ERLAC to print posters, banners, and newspaper advertisements announcing the event

Large Cuts with Local Algorithms on Triangle-Free Graphs

We study the problem of finding large cuts in $d$-regular triangle-free graphs. In prior work, Shearer (1992) gives a randomised algorithm that finds a cut of expected size $(1/2 + 0.177/\sqrt{d})m$, where $m$ is the number of edges. We give a simpler algorithm that does much better: it finds a cut of expected size $(1/2 + 0.28125/\sqrt{d})m$. As a corollary, this shows that in any $d$-regular triangle-free graph there exists a cut of at least this size. Our algorithm can be interpreted as a very efficient randomised distributed algorithm: each node needs to produce only one random bit, and the algorithm runs in one synchronous communication round. This work is also a case study of applying computational techniques in the design of distributed algorithms: our algorithm was designed by a computer program that searched for optimal algorithms for small values of $d$.Comment: 1+17 pages, 8 figure

Support for the 3rd Annual Exeter River Alewife Festival

With support from the NH Estuaries Project (NHEP), the Exeter River Local Advisory Committee (ERLAC) held the 3rd Annual Exeter River Alewife Festival on May 31, 2003 in downtown Exeter. NHEP funding enabled ERLAC and the Festival Planning Committee to print and distribute posters and cards advertising the Festival, purchase newspaper advertisements and arrange opportunities for the press to learn more about the event. In addition, ERLAC members worked with area newspapers to write and print eleven articles highlighting aspects of the river and the watershed

How phonetic features project more talk

Investigations into the management of turn-taking have typically focussed on pitch and other prosodic phenomena, particularly pitch-accents. Here, non-pitch phonetic features and their role in turn-taking are described. Through sustained phonetic and interactional analysis of a naturally occurring, 12-minute long telephone call between two adult speakers of British English, sets of talk-projecting and turn-projecting features are identified. Talk-projecting features include the avoidance of durational lengthening, articulatory anticipation, continuation of voicing, the production of talk in maximally close proximity to a preceding point of possible turn-completion, and the reduction of consonants and vowels. Turn-projecting features include the converse of each of the talk-projecting features, and two other distinct features: release of plosives at the point of possible turn-completion, and the production of audible outbreaths. We show that features of articulatory and phonatory quality and duration are relevant factors in the design and treatment of talk as talk- or turn-projective