Communicating the ideas and attitudes of spying in film music: A social semiotic approach

Taking the example of two 1960s popular spy films this paper explores how social semiotics can make a contribution to the analysis of film music. Following other scholars who have sought to create inventories of sound meanings to help us break down the way that music communicates, this paper explores how we can draw on the principles of Hallidayan functional grammar to present an inventory of meaning potentials in sound. This provides one useful way to describe the semiotic resources available to composers to allow them to communicate quite specific ideas, attitudes and identities through combinations of different sounds and sound qualities, by presenting them as systems of meaning rather than as lists of connotations. Here we apply this to the different uses of music and sound in Dr No and The Ipcress Files which allows us to show how we can reveal different ideologies of spying

Intercomparing drifts from eddy-resolving and cycling floats in the deep western boundary current along the Mid-Atlanic Ridge

The Lagrangian nature of cycling floats is evaluated in the framework defined by the Deep Western Boundary Current of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In a statistical approach, speeds and drifts are estimated for an APEX cycling float and compared with the velocities inferred from a park ensemble of four eddy-resolving RAFOS floats. They were deployed at the same location and ballasted for drifting at the same mission depth. Displacement errors induced by geostrophic shear and wind forced currents are analyzed. We observe that the velocity estimated from the RAFOS floats is not statistically different from the velocity estimated from the APEX float. Likewise, the initial separation between the cycling float and a simultaneously deployed RAFOS float has been studied in terms of the turbulent diffusivity. Though the performance of this study in comparable cases without a mean current field may be limited, these oceanic observations support exploiting the Lagrangian nature of the cycling floats

Trade Unions and Training Practices in British Workplaces

We use establishment-level data from the 1991 Employers Manpower and Skills Practices Survey (EMSPS) and individual-level data from the Autumn 1993 Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) to investigate the links between training provision and workplace unionization. We focus on two training measures, an incidence variable and an intensity variable. Both are strongly positively related to whether unions are recognised in the workplace. Working in a unionized establishment substantially raises the probability of receiving training and the amount of training received by British workers. We view these results as confirming the potentially important role that British unions can play in developing skill formation.

Predicting employees' commitment to and support for organisational change

This study aimed to identify factors that predict employees' commitment to and support for organisational change. The three components of Herscovitch and Meyer's (2002) commitment to organisational change model were hypothesised to mediate the relationship between organisational climate and behavioural support for organisational change. Data were collected from a Queensland government department (N = 342). Analysis of correlations revealed that organisational climate, commitment to change, and behavioural support for change variables were all significantly related. Structural equation modelling demonstrated that affective, normative, and continuance commitment to change were all predictors of behavioural support for organisational change. Positive work climate also contributed directly to the prediction of behavioural support for change over and above the indirect influence through commitment to organisational change, indicating a partial mediation effect. These findings support Herscovitch and Meyer's (2002) three-component model of commitment to organisational change and extend their nomological network by showing the relevance of two types of organisational climate to the core components of the model. Affective commitment to organisational change is a positive influence on employees' behavioural support for change and also reflects healthy aspects of the organisational climate. However, continuance commitment to organisational change is detrimental influence on employees' behavioural support for change and is linked with unhealthy dimensions of the organisational climate

Predicting occupational strain and job satisfaction: the role of stress, coping, personality, and affectivity variables

Four studies employed path analysis to examine how measures of occupational stressors, coping resources, and negative affectivity (NA) and positive affectivity (PA) interact to predict occupational strain. The Occupational Stress Inventory (Osipow & Spokane, 1987) was used to measure stress, strain, and coping. The Positive and Negative Affectivity Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) was used for the affectivity variables. The hypothesised model showed NA and PA as background dispositional variables that influenced relations among stress, strain, and coping while still allowing stress and coping to have a direct influence on strain. Goodness of fit indices were acceptable with the model predicting 15 per cent of the variance in stress, 24 per cent of coping, and 70 per cent of strain. Study 2 replicated these findings. Study 3 added a positive outcome variable, job satisfaction (JSI: Brayfield & Rothe, 1951) to the model. The expanded model again fit the data well. A fourth study added a global measure of personality (NEO-FFI: Costa & McCrae, 1991) to the model tested in Study 3. Results indicated that personality measures did not add anything to the prediction of job satisfaction and strain in a model that already included measures of stressors, coping resources, NA and PA. The series of four studies yielded a reliable structural model that highlights the influence of organizational and dispositional variables on occupational strain and job satisfaction

Low Velocity Airdrop Tests of an X-38 Backup Parachute Design

The NASA Johnson Space Center's X-38 program designed a new backup parachute system to recover the 25,000 lb X-38 prototype for the Crew Return Vehicle spacecraft. Due to weight and cost constraints, the main backup parachute design incorporated rapid and low cost fabrication techniques using off-the-shelf materials. Near the vent, the canopy was constructed of continuous ribbons, to provide more damage tolerance. The remainder of the canopy was a constructed with a continuous ringslot design. After cancellation of the X-38 program, the parachute design was resized, built, and drop tested for Natick Soldiers Center's Low Velocity Air Drop (LVAD) program to deliver cargo loads up to 22,000 lbs from altitudes as low as 500 feet above the ground. Drop tests results showed that the 500-foot LVAD parachute deployment conditions cause severe skirt inversion and inflation problems for large parachutes. The bag strip occurred at a high angle of attack, causing skirt inversion before the parachute could inflate. The addition of a short reefing line prevented the skirt inversion. Using a lower porosity in the vent area, than is normally used in large parachutes, improved inflation. The drop testing demonstrated that the parachute design could be refined to meet the requirements for the 500-foot LVAD mission

Degradation of two novel congenital TTP ADAMTS13 mutants by the cell proteasome prevents ADAMTS13 secretion

INTRODUCTION: Over 150 mutations have been identified in the ADAMTS13 gene in patients with congenital thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). The majority of these (86%), lead to reduced (<50%) secretion of mutant recombinant ADAMTS13. The mechanism by which this occurs has not been investigated in vitro. Two novel ADAMTS13 mutations (p.I143T and p.Y570C) identified in two congenital adolescence onset TTP patients were studied, to investigate their effects on ADAMTS13 secretion and subcellular localisation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: HEK293T cells were transiently transfected with wild type or mutant ADAMTS13 cDNA. Immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy were used to study localisation within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi. The cell proteasome and lysosomes were inhibited in cells stably expressing ADAMTS13 to investigate degradation of ADAMTS13 by either organelle. RESULTS: Both mutations severely impaired secretion and both mutants localised within the ER and Golgi. Proteasome inhibition led to the intracellular accumulation of both mutants, suggesting proteasome degradation. Lysosome inhibition on the other hand did not lead to increased intracellular accumulation of the mutants. CONCLUSIONS: Proteasome degradation of these ADAMTS13 mutants contributed to their reduced secretion

Synchronization of active mechanical oscillators by an inertial load

Motivated by the operation of myogenic (self-oscillatory) insect flight muscle, we study a model consisting of a large number of identical oscillatory contractile elements joined in a chain, whose end is attached to a damped mass-spring oscillator. When the inertial load is small, the serial coupling favors an antisynchronous state in which the extension of one oscillator is compensated by the contraction of another, in order to preserve the total length. However, a sufficiently massive load can sychronize the oscillators and can even induce oscillation in situations where isolated elements would be stable. The system has a complex phase diagram displaying quiescent, synchronous and antisynchrononous phases, as well as an unsual asynchronous phase in which the total length of the chain oscillates at a different frequency from the individual active elements.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Seasonal variation in breast cancer diagnosis in Singapore

This study investigates seasonality in the diagnosis of 3219 female breast carcinoma cases reported between 1995–8 in Singapore. There is little evidence of marked seasonal variation. Angular regression suggested that observed differences in peak diagnosis with respect to menopausal status, tumour size, ER and PR status may be chance. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co