Emergentism and musicology: an alternative perspective to the understanding of dissonance.

In this paper we develop an approach to musicology within the discussion of emergentism. First of all, we claim that some theories of musicology could be insufficient in describing and explaining musical phenomena when emergent properties are not taken into account. Actually, musicology usually considers just syntactical elements, structures and processes and puts only a little emphasis, if any, over perceptual aspects of human hearing. On the other hand, recent research efforts are currently being directed towards an understanding of the emergent properties of auditory perception, especially in fields such as cognitive science. Such research leads to other views concerning old issues in musicology and could create a fruitful approach, filling the gap between musicology and auditory perception

Prosodic and discourse function variations in lexical bundles in university lectures

Multiword sequences are important components of language because they are building blocks that can be used to create long stretches of discourse. They are word combinations that have particular importance because of their co-occurrence and function in discourse that suggest that they are stored and retrieved from memory as a whole rather than as separate word units. The functions that they perform in discourse can vary according to register. In spoken academic discourse, one of the essential functions of multi-word sequences is a discourse organizing function that include introducing a topic and elaborating on an existing topic These varied discourse functions have two main roles in the information structure of discourse: as a major rhetorical organizer or a minor rhetorical organizer (Chaudron & Richards, 1986). However, studies that have examined the discourse-organizing role of spoken linguistic devices, including multi-word sequences, either have examined limited data or have analyzed them from written transcripts only, overlooking an important aspect of speech, i.e., prosody, that has an important communicative role. This study focuses on one type of multi-word sequence, lexical bundles, which are frequently used recurrent word combinations that are identified computationally in a corpus to understand how their prosodic variations are linked to their discourse function(s). Lexical bundles in spoken academic discourse have been found to have a discourse-organizing function through analyzing spoken text from orthographic transcription. However, what remains to be explored is their prosodic features that have the potential to specify specific discourse-organizing functions more precisely. Therefore, this study focuses on understanding the relationship between the prosodic variation(s) and discourse function(s) of frequently occurring lexical bundles in a corpus. This study used a corpus-driven framework to analyze the prosodic and discourse function variations of lexical bundles in a spoken academic corpus compiled from YALE open courses. The discourse function of the lexical bundles was analyzed using transcripts and audio files to find emerging patterns in their rhetorical function in information structure. In other words, lexical bundles were classified according to the relationship to preceding and following discourse, i.e., whether it introduced a new topic or expanded, contrasted, or emphasized specific details related to the main topic. Prosodic analysis involved examining pitch movement and prominence within the lexical bundle. Then, the emerging prosodic patterns and their corresponding discourse functions were cross-tabulated to understand the relationship between them. Findings indicate that some lexical bundles had multiple prosodic variations related to discourse function variations while others had minimal prosodic variation related to one discourse function. The discourse functions were categorized as having a major rhetorical organization role (introducing the main topic for discussion, connecting topics, major contrast) or a minor rhetorical organization role (expanding on a topic through specific details, providing background information, exemplification, or rephrasing, contrasting ideas, emphasizing important information). The variation in discourse function and prosody of lexical bundles in university lectures may indicate that some lexical bundles are more formulaic than others

Children and carer's experience and satisfaction of two local anaesthetic techniques; for treatment of carious mandibular primary molars in children

Background: Local anaesthesia (LA) forms the backbone of pain control techniques in dentistry and has a major role in dentistry for children. Inferior Dental Nerve Block (IDNB) has been the LA technique of choice for treatment of carious mandibular primary molars in children. However, several disadvantages have been associated with the IDNB. Buccal Infiltration (BI) with 4% Articaine have been proposed as more comfortable and pleasant alternative LA techniques to IDNB which became widely used in paediatric dentistry especially for the treatment of carious mandibular primary molars in children above the age of 4 years. Aim: To explore children and carer`s experience and satisfaction of their child’s dental treatment under LA and compare their acceptance of two LA techniques; BI with 4% Articaine and IDNB with 2% lidocaine for the treatment of mandibular carious primary molars in children under ten years of age. Method: A prospective study design was used to explore patient and carer`s acceptance of the two local anaesthetic techniques. 96 patients aged 5-9 years and their carer`s completed two questionnaires on treatment acceptance. Result: A total of 49 (50%) participants received BI with 4% Articaine and 49 (50%) had IDNB with 2% lidocaine. Two patients had IDNB but no dental treatment was performed as patients could not cope with dental treatment, thus these participants did not complete the questionnaires. The majority of the children (84.7%) and their carers (91%) were happy with their experience at the dentist including the administration of the LA (61.5% for BI and 64% for IDNB), delivery of the dental treatment (87.8% for BI and 81.6% for IDNB) and dentist management including dental teamwork (over 90%). Conclusion: Both local anaesthetic techniques; BI with 4% articaine and IDNB with 2% lignocaine were accepted among patients and carers. Dental team attitude can significantly impact the treatment outcome in children. Establishing a clear communication between the dentist, the child patient and his/her carer as well as implementing good behaviour management techniques contribute significantly to treatment acceptance among children and carers

Inference on Overlapping Coefficients in Two Exponential Populations

Three measures of overlap, namely Matusita’s measureρ , Morisita’s measure λ and Weitzman’s measure Δ are investigated in this article for two exponential populations with different means. It is well that the estimators of those measures of overlap are biased. The bias is of these estimators depends on the unknown overlap parameters. There are no closed-form, exact formulas, for those estimators variances or their exact sampling distributions. Monte Carlo evaluations are used to study the bias and precision of the proposed overlap measures. Bootstrap method and Taylor series approximation are used to construct confidence intervals for the overlap measures

Investigation on the Compressive Strength of Gunny Sack Fiber Concrete under High-Temperatures

Gunny sack fiber concrete has not been explored especially the behavior under high temperatures. This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation of gunny sack fibrous concrete (percentage of 0.5% of volume) given a monotonic- compressive load. A number of cylindrical test specimens were made which consisted of control specimens and which were incinerated at temperatures of 300oC, 600oC and 900oC. The concrete -compressive strength was designed with three variations of the cement water ratio to get the compressive strength of a standard cylinder with normal, medium and high -quality compressive strength categories. Experimental results show that normal to high quality concrete can be produced with gunny sack fiber substitution. The compressive strength of the gunny sack fiber concrete decreased significantly from the control specimen to the specimen which was burned at 300oC. The loss of compressive strength from the control specimens to the post-burn specimens of medium quality and high -quality of gunny sack fiber concrete was the same compared with the loss of compressive strength of normal- quality concrete. This study also carried out a comparison of the degradation of the compressive strength of steel fibrous concrete with gunny sack fiber in post-burn conditions

Workforce localisation and business competitiveness in the Gulf countries: case study of a multinational bank in the United Arab Emirates

Companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) must employ a specific percentage of Emirati nationals in certain positions and industries. This is referred to as Emiratisation, and studies have shown that firms in the UAE face challenges in meeting this legal obligation. Emiratisation laws provided the researcher with a unique opportunity to study this complex phenomenon in a real-life situation, as it forces companies to hire Emirati nationals, thereby requiring them to acquire new resources. This thesis aims to examine Emiratisation through the lens of the resource-based view (RBV) of strategy, which seems appropriate because companies use resources to produce business outcomes. The thesis investigates how Emirati nationals can be seen as a tangible resource that companies can utilise and explores the extent to which human resource management strategies can be seen as intangible resources that firms can use to address some of the challenges of Emiratisation. The main aim of this thesis is to study a multinational bank in the UAE as a case study of a multinational corporation (MNC) that must hire, develop and train nationals for specific or specialised roles in order to gain insight into the motivation, rationale, perceived benefits and challenges of doing so. The thesis is designed to answer three primary questions by discovering why and how the case study organisation is implementing Emiratisation: 1. How might an RBV of strategy help an organisation pursue Emiratisation? 2. What are the barriers to and facilitators of following an RBV of strategy in this context? 3. Which human resource (HR) policies and practices might help to overcome the challenges identified, and how do MNCs address the challenges of Emiratisation? In designing the thesis, the researcher reviewed the extant literature to help develop an initial conceptual framework to illustrate the connections between the themes in the literature. The data were collected from primary sources. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 participants working in roles relating to setting and implementing localisation strategies and practices. This thesis concluded that by implementing an RBV in which Emirati employees are managed as an internal resource/asset to the firm, it is possible to achieve a better understanding of Emiratisation. The MNC used for the case study faces numerous challenges in implementing Emiratisation and utilising Emirati employees in an effective manner to enable them to contribute to business outcomes. First, Emiratis represent a small percentage of the population. Second, new Emirati recruits often lack the required skills for the job. Finally, it is difficult to retain highly skilled Emiratis, as they are extremely attractive to other companies in the UAE. The main contribution of this study to the literature can be summarised as clarifying the different paths that Penrose’s original work took in rethinking managers as masters and re-bundling resources in a way that meets the needs of the corporation while simultaneously adapting to reality (Penrose 1959). It also illustrates how the RBV can be used to analyse a company’s use of its tangible assets (HR) and intangible assets (HR processes) to overcome the challenges created by the introduction of a national localisation policy. The case study will help to demonstrate how an MNC can overcome the challenges created by the localisation policy in this unique part of the world by using HR policies and processes in areas such as sourcing, training, employee integration and retention. The results of the current study showed that the level of compensation is equal, there are no differences in the training programmes or promotions offered and there is no difference in the policies related to awarding bonuses between local employees and expatriates. In order to validate the findings of the current research, future research projects could use mixed-method qualitative and quantitative analyses to support a multiplicity of empirical analyses

Squirrel Monkeys’ Response to Inequitable Outcomes Indicates a Behavioural Convergence Within the Primates

Although several primates respond negatively to inequity, it is unknown whether this results from homology or convergent processes. Behaviours shared within a taxonomic group are often assumed to be homologous, yet this distinction is important for a better understanding of the function of the behaviour. Previous hypotheses have linked cooperation and inequity responses. Supporting this, all species in which inequity responses have been documented are cooperative. In this study, we tested this hypothesis by investigating the response to inequity in squirrel monkeys, which share a phylogenetic Family with capuchin monkeys, but do not cooperate extensively. Subjects exchanged tokens to receive food rewards in conditions in which the level of effort required and reward received varied. Squirrel monkeys did not respond negatively to inequity. However, the monkeys were sensitive to the variation present in the task; male subjects showed a contrast effect and, as in previous studies, subjects were more sensitive to differences in reward in the context of a task than when rewards were given for free. Taken with other results, these results support the hypothesis that a negative response to inequity evolved convergently in primates, probably as a mechanism for evaluating outcomes relative to one’s partners in cooperative species

Keadilan Kompensasi dalam Persepsi Pekerja Wanita Hamil dan Melahirkan

Workers is are the most important factors of production within an enterprise to achieve goals and to determinethe progress of a company. The company should establish regulations regarding workers compensationespecially for pregnant and giving birth workers. The company must ensure the safety, security and comfort ofthe workforce. Therefore, the company shall establish regulations that comply with National labor Regulations.The objectives of this research was to find out whether the pregnant female workers are treated fairly regardingtheir compensations in terms of financial and non financial compensations. About 101 femake workers fromplywood industry in Central Java were chosen as respondents of this study. The results of this study showed thatrespondents perceived the implementation of regulation of wages, social security, the availability of leave, andthe protection of health and safety from the company they worked are good enough in accordance with thecompany regulationas and National labor regulations

Pengaruh Model Inquiry Training Disertai Media Audiovisual Terhadap Hasil Belajar Dan Retensi Hasil Belajar Siswa Pada Pembelajaran IPA (Fisika) Di Mts

This research focuses on the inquiry training model accompanied by audiovisual media. The purpose of this research are to describe student scientific process skills during learning process, to study the effect of the model to students physics learning achievement, and to determine the influence of the model to student's retention.. This type of research is experiment by using post-test only control group design. Data collection methods that used are interviews, observation, test and documentation. Data analysis technique that used is descriptive and independent sample t -test with SPSS 16. The results of the research are the average of students scientific process skills is 90,80. Based on the data analysis is found sig.(2-tailed) 0.000<0.05. The retention of the model is sig.(2-tailed) 0.0250>0.05. The model can make the student scientificantly influence to good category and significantly influence to students physics learning achievement, but it cannot affect to the student's retention

On Matched Pairs Sign Test Using Bivariate Ranked Set Sampling: An Application to Environmental Issues

The matched pairs sign test using bivariate ranked set sampling (BVRSS) is introduced and investigated. We show that this test is asymptotically more efficient than its counterpart sign test based on a bivariate simple random sample (BVSRS). The asymptotic null distribution and the efficiency of the test are derived. The Pitman asymptotic relative efficiency is used to compare the asymptotic performance of the matched pairs sign test using BVRSS versus using BVSRS. For small sample sizes, the bootstrap method is used to estimate P-values. Numerical comparisons are used to gain insight about the efficiency of the BVRSS sign test compared to the BVSRS sign test. Our numerical and theoretical results indicate that using BVRSS for the matched pairs sign test is substantially more efficient than using BVSRS. Illustration using palm trees data from sultanate of Oman is provided. Key words: Bootstrap method, bivariate ranked set sample, power of the test, P-value of the test, Pitman\u27s relative efficiency, sign test