Comparing Rich Points: Understanding Japanese Languaculture

This paper examines a particular instance of the relationship between Japanese language and culture in detail. The case in point is the Sino-Japanese noun doo borrowed from Chinese (dao ‘road, way’ 道) in the 1st millennium CE. This Chinese word has long had a strong metaphorical connotation (spiritual path or way) since the classics of the 1st millennium BCE, most notably the Daodejing 道徳経 of Laozi 老子. Today, SJ doo is frequently used as a suffix in nouns with meanings that connote a spiritual path or way, or at least some method of self-cultivation. Since the character 道 is customarily glossed miti ‘road, path’, this native noun too now has a metaphorical connotation. I focus on these Japanese words because, as I will argue, they provide a good test of a general theory of meaning proposed in George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s work Metaphors We Live By. Lakoff and Johnson argue convincingly that metaphors are not just literary or poetic uses of words separate from ordinary language use. Metaphorical relations, in their view, are essential to how speakers of a language deal with meanings. One of their key examples is the journey metaphor seen in such English sentences as “we arrived at a conclusion” and “I don’t think our relationship is going anywhere.” For Lakoff and Johnson, such sentences illustrate the metaphors ARGUMENTS ARE JOURNEYS and LOVE IS A JOURNEY. By comparing Japanese doo and miti ‘road, path’ with English ‘journey’ in this context, we can find similarities and differences that can be understood in terms of the concepts languaculture and rich points as discussed by Michael Agar in his study Language Shock. Agar argues (1) that language use cannot be understood outside the cultural context in which it occurs, and (2) that conspicuous differences in the way two languacultures talk about the same or similar real-world facts and events reveal how they are structured. Human beings have much in common all over the world, so similarities in languacultures are numerous and expected, at least for people living in similar ecological circumstances. Rich points stand out precisely because they are unexpected in two languacultures, especially those out of direct contact for long periods of time. By comparing Japanese doo and miti with English ‘journey’ in Lakoff and Johnson’s sense, I propose to show that the journey metaphor is the locus of an important rich point. I will identify examples of Japanese sentences that use these words and describe the similarities and differences between them and pertinent sentences of English.No embarg

Evaluating Mississippi Non-Industrial Private Forest Landowners Acceptance of an Interactive Video Short Course

An interactive forest landowner short course was held in Mississippi in the spring of 2001. Participants evaluated the interactive video versus traditional short course delivery methods. Ninety-five percent of participants said that they would attend another interactive program in the future if given the opportunity. Technical problems were the main reasons cited for not preferring the interactive video format. Results indicate that several subject areas not currently covered in traditional short courses were requested for future interactive programming. Travel costs were significantly reduced. Suggestions for ensuring the success of future interactive programs are given

TEACHER ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR AND PRINCIPAL EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: HOW THEY RELATE AND INTERACT

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence, if any, that a building principal’s emotional intelligence has on the amount of organizational citizenship behavior exhibited by teachers. Organizational citizenship behaviors are economically irrational. OCB’s cannot be required as part of the job and are discretionary. Preforming such task requires motivation that is irrational. Traditional conventional leadership research fails to give plausible productive insights to how Principals can foster OCB. An emotional appeal or connection between the leader and follower has been found to foster. Selfless or altruistic acts require an emotional connection or appeal to provide the motivation to participate in them. Principal emotional intelligence may bridge the gap and assist in creating the necessary emotional connection or appeal. EI has been found to have a positive relationship with OCB directed at individuals as well as the organization (Turnipseed & Vandewaa, 2012). This study is significant because it provides insight into the question: Does the emotional intelligence of a Principal foster teacher participation in organizational citizenship behaviors? Ten schools from the same school district in northwest Missouri participated in the study. Participation in the study was determined based on the successful completion of the EI assessment on each Principal. The EI assessment chosen for the study was the ability based 360º Emotional Competency Inventory created by Richard Boyatzis. The assessment consisted of 36 questions on a 5pt Likert scale that needed to be completed by at least 3 colleagues on the Principal to be included in the study. Upon successful completion of the ECI on a given Principal, all teachers from that building became eligible to complete the OCB survey. The OCB survey consists of 10 demographic and 22 OCB questions on a 5pt liker scale. The survey is from OCB research conducted by Kerrie Herren (2014), who adapted the scales created by Podsakoff, Ahearne, and Mackenzie (1997) to fit an educational setting. Teachers were asked to respond to the OCB questions based on their perception of the actions of the teachers in their building as a whole. The results found that the overall measure of a principal’s emotional intelligence was not significantly related to teacher organizational citizenship behavior. This is potentially due to individual competencies that are positively and negatively significant canceling to comprise the overall EI. Competencies found to be significantly negative were: emotional self-control, pattern recognition and networking. Whereas, teamwork, achievement orientation, empathy and initiative were all found to be significantly positive

Improving southern oak seedling survival can boost after-tax investment returns

Private forest landowners have many reasons for managing their timberlands- from intensive timber production to wildlife habitat to family recreation. An exciting forestry development is the establishment of oak plantations on agricultural land. Both state and federal governmental assistance programs can provide part of the initial investment involved in forest establishment costs. Unfortunately, there are few existing studies to help landowners decide if the investment will be profitable

Regular MDMA Use is Associated with Decreased Risk of Drug Injection Among Street-Involved Youth Who Use Illicit Drugs.

OBJECTIVES: Childhood trauma is common among street-involved youth and is associated with injection drug use. Illicit 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) use is also common among street-involved youth, and data suggest this substance has clinical utility in management of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and associated harms. Despite this, little is known about co-occurring patterns of MDMA use and injection drug use. METHODS: Data were derived from a prospective cohort of street-involved youth using illicit drugs in Vancouver, Canada. Using multivariable generalized estimating equation logistic regression, we examined the association between MDMA use and the use of injection drugs, adjusting for confounders such as polysubstance use and sociodemographic factors. RESULTS: 4941 surveys from 1208 participants between September 2005 and May 2015 were included. Of these, 829 (68.6%) were male, 815 (67.5%) reported white ethnicity, and median age was 21.7 years. Overall, 599 (49.6%) participants reported MDMA use, 544 (45.0%) reported injection drug use, and 244 (20.2%) reported concurrent MDMA and injection drug use at least once during the study period. In multivariable analyses, regular MDMA use was significantly negatively associated with injection drug use (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] = 0.57, 95% CI: 0.46-0.69). DISCUSSION: After accounting for socio-demographic factors and polysubstance use, periods of reported regular MDMA use were negatively associated with reported injection drug use among this cohort. These findings suggest that, unlike the use of most other non-injection drugs, illicit MDMA use does not appear to promote injection drug use but rather is associated with a reduced likelihood of injection drug use

Towards connecting biodiversity and geodiversity across scales with satellite remote sensing

Issue Geodiversity (i.e., the variation in Earth\u27s abiotic processes and features) has strong effects on biodiversity patterns. However, major gaps remain in our understanding of how relationships between biodiversity and geodiversity vary over space and time. Biodiversity data are globally sparse and concentrated in particular regions. In contrast, many forms of geodiversity can be measured continuously across the globe with satellite remote sensing. Satellite remote sensing directly measures environmental variables with grain sizes as small as tens of metres and can therefore elucidate biodiversity–geodiversity relationships across scales. Evidence We show how one important geodiversity variable, elevation, relates to alpha, beta and gamma taxonomic diversity of trees across spatial scales. We use elevation from NASA\u27s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and c. 16,000 Forest Inventory and Analysis plots to quantify spatial scaling relationships between biodiversity and geodiversity with generalized linear models (for alpha and gamma diversity) and beta regression (for beta diversity) across five spatial grains ranging from 5 to 100 km. We illustrate different relationships depending on the form of diversity; beta and gamma diversity show the strongest relationship with variation in elevation. Conclusion With the onset of climate change, it is more important than ever to examine geodiversity for its potential to foster biodiversity. Widely available satellite remotely sensed geodiversity data offer an important and expanding suite of measurements for understanding and predicting changes in different forms of biodiversity across scales. Interdisciplinary research teams spanning biodiversity, geoscience and remote sensing are well poised to advance understanding of biodiversity–geodiversity relationships across scales and guide the conservation of nature

Alternative activation of macrophages by filarial nematodes is MyD88-independent

AbstractAlternative macrophage activation is largely defined by IL-4Rα stimulation but the contribution of Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling to this phenotype is not currently known. We have investigated macrophage activation status under Th2 conditions in the absence of the core TLR adaptor molecule, MyD88. No impairment was observed in the ability of MyD88-deficient bone marrow derived macrophages to produce or express alternative activation markers, including arginase, RELM-α or Ym1, in response to IL-4 treatment in vitro. Further, we observed no difference in the ability of peritoneal exudate cells from nematode implanted wild type (WT) or MyD88-deficient mice to produce arginase or express the alternative activation markers RELM-α or Ym1. Therefore, MyD88 is not a fundamental requirement for Th2-driven macrophage alternative activation, either in vitro or in vivo

Parallels, prescience and the past: analogical reasoning and contemporary international politics

Analogical reasoning has held a perpetual appeal to policymakers who have often drafted in historical metaphor as a mode of informing decision-making. However, this article contends that since the beginning of the ‘War on Terror’ we have arguably seen the rise of a more potent form of analogy, namely ones that are selected because they fulfil an ideological function. Analogical reasoning as a tool of rational decision-making has increasingly become replaced by analogical reasoning as a tool of trenchant ideologically-informed policy justification. This article addresses three key areas which map out the importance of analogical reasoning to an understanding of developments in contemporary international politics: the relationship between history and politics, in intellectual and policy terms; a critical assessment of the appeal that analogical reasoning holds for policymakers; and the development of a rationale for a more effective use of history in international public policymaking

Surface processes recorded by rocks and soils on Meridiani Planum, Mars: Microscopic Imager observations during Opportunity's first three extended missions

The Microscopic Imager (MI) on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has returned images of Mars with higher resolution than any previous camera system, allowing detailed petrographic and sedimentological studies of the rocks and soils at the Meridiani Planum landing site. Designed to simulate a geologist's hand lens, the MI is mounted on Opportunity's instrument arm and can resolve objects 0.1 mm across or larger. This paper provides an overview of MI operations, data calibration, and analysis of MI data returned during the first 900 sols (Mars days) of the Opportunity landed mission. Analyses of Opportunity MI data have helped to resolve major questions about the origin of observed textures and features. These studies support eolian sediment transport, rather than impact surge processes, as the dominant depositional mechanism for Burns formation strata. MI stereo observations of a rock outcrop near the rim of Erebus Crater support the previous interpretation of similar sedimentary structures in Eagle Crater as being formed by surficial flow of liquid water. Well-sorted spherules dominate ripple surfaces on the Meridiani plains, and the size of spherules between ripples decreases by about 1 mm from north to south along Opportunity's traverse between Endurance and Erebus craters