Nonlinear Models of Zooplankton Communities

Modeling zooplankton dynamics accurately is increasingly important because zooplankton can have a critical impact on several environmental issues ranging from eutrophication to climate change. Because of the importance of zooplankton in marine ecosystems, there is a need to develop precise mathematical models. Most models, however, set zooplankton mortality as due to predation only. This approach is inaccurate as many zooplankton can die from non-predatory causes such as disease or starvation. Here we construct a model that includes both predatory and non-predatory zooplankton mortality rather than a linear differential equation model that relies on curve-fitting to data. Through MATLAB simulations, this theoretical nonlinear model was found to be a strongly contracting system even under certain amounts of stochastic influence. While a linear approach when modeling marine species is the natural first step, a nonlinear approach, which is based more on mathematical and ecological theories rather than curve-fitting, allows for more complicated and realistic dynamics in addition to more accurate predictions

Psychotherapists’ personal appearance and the therapeutic relationship: A grounded theory of client perspectives

Research conducted in the fields of sports psychology, psychiatry, nursing, complimentary medicine, social and cognitive psychology, and business psychology, suggests that appearance influences how others perceive the other to be, and in some instances, how this impacts on behaviour. However, within the broad psychotherapeutic literature there is little information about how the personal appearance of one individual affects the behaviour of another and within the field of counselling psychology, which focuses on the centrality of the therapeutic relationship and on intersubjectivity, this topic has yet to be explored.. This study aimed to explore clients’ responses to their therapist’s personal appearance; how this is constructed and if these constructions and experiences influence the therapeutic relationship in anyway. The second objective of the study was to construct a grounded theory of this process. A constructivist grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2006) was adopted and 16 participants who were currently in therapy or had recently ended therapy were recruited to the study, 14 participants took part in in depth semi structured interviews; a further two participants completed a qualitative survey. The basic social psychological process constructed from the interview and survey data highlights how important the therapist’s appearance is in the formation and maintenance of the therapeutic relationship. Participants appeared to monitor their therapists appearance closely as they engaged in: Searching for cues and clues; and Constructing and reconstructing the therapist in what appeared to be a process of seeking a secure base and Becoming attached. Ruptures and distractions caused by the therapist’s personal appearance seem to provoke hypervigilance in clients and could lead to rupture and detachment. Furthermore the findings suggest that the therapist as a whole is considered, rather than focusing on specific aspects of appearance; it seemed to be difficult for participants to isolate appearance. The findings illustrate how individuals utilise their therapist’s appearance in order to establish safety, trustworthiness and a sense of belonging within the therapeutic relationship. It is clear that multiple aspects of the therapist’s appearance, which contribute to the whole object, play a big part in the therapy, including fixed and changeable characteristics, as well as nonverbal communication

The evolution of the Hong Kong currency board during global exchange rate instability, 1967-1973

Hong Kong SAR is well known as one of the few economies to operate a form of currency board as the basis of its monetary system. This system arose out of colonial status and has been retained except for a period of floating from 1975-83 to the present day, with some amendments. This article explores the evolution of the Exchange Fund during a period of global exchange rate instability showing that the abandonment of the monetary anchor in 1975 was part of a series of innovations to the use of the Fund as the colonial government sought to manage the exchange rate risks posed by the collapse of the Bretton Woods system

Changes in the pronunciation of Māori and implications for teachers and learners of Māori

This paper discusses changes in the pronunciation of Māori and implications for teachers and learners of Māori. Data on changes in the pronunciation of Māori derives from the MAONZE project (Māori and New Zealand English with support from the Marsden fund). The project uses recordings from three sets of speakers to track changes in the pronunciation of Māori and evaluate influence from English. Results from the project show changes in both vowel quality and vowel duration and some evidence of diphthong mergers in pairs such as ai/ae and ou/au, especially amongst the younger speakers. In terms of duration the younger speakers are producing smaller length distinctions between long/short vowel pairs other than /ā, a/. We discuss the implications of such changes for those teaching Māori and for students learning Māori as a subject. These changes raise interesting questions concerning the pronunciation of Māori by future generations

Meta-analyses of Post-acquisition Performance: Indications of Unidentified Moderators

Empirical research has not consistently identified antecedents for predicting post-acquisition performance. We employ meta-analytic techniques to empirically assess the impact of the most commonly researched antecedent variables on post-acquisition performance. We find robust results indicating that, on average and across the most commonly studied variables, acquiring firms’ performance does not positively change as a function of their acquisition activity, and is negatively affected to a modest extent. More importantly, our results indicate that unidentified variables may explain significant variance in post-acquisition performance, suggesting the need for additional theory development and changes to M&A research methods

/u/ fronting and /t/ aspiration in Māori and New Zealand English

This article examines the relationship between the frontness of /u/ and the aspiration of /t/ in both Māori and New Zealand English (NZE). In both languages, these processes can be observed since the earliest recordings dating from the latter part of the nineteenth century. We report analyses of these developments for three groups of male speakers of Māori spanning the twentieth century. We compare the Māori analyses with analyses of related features of the speakers' English and of the English of monolingual contemporaries. The occurrence of these processes in Māori cannot be seen simply as interference from NZE as the Māori-speaking population became increasingly bilingual. We conclude that it was the arrival of English with its contrast between aspirated and unaspirated plosives, rather than direct borrowing, that was the trigger for the fronting of the hitherto stable back Māori /u/ vowel together with increased aspiration of /t/ before both /i/ and /u/