Genre Taxonomy: A Knowledge Repository of Communicative Actions

In this paper, we propose a genre taxonomy as a knowledge repository of communicative structures or "typified actions" enacted by organizational members. The Genre taxonomy aims at helping people to make sense of diverse types of communicative actions, and has three features to achieve this objective. First, the genre taxonomy represents the elements of both genres and genre systems, sequences of interrelated genres, as embedded in a social context considering the "5W1H" questions (Why, What, Who/Whom, When, Where, and How). In other words, the genre taxonomy represents the elements of both genres and genre systems in terms of purpose, contents, participants, timing of use, place of communicative action, and form including media, structuring devices and linguistic elements. Second, the genre taxonomy represents both widely recognized genres such as a report and specific genres such as a technical report used in a specific company, because the difference between a widely recognized genre and a specific variant based on the more general genre sheds light on the context of genre use. Third, the genre taxonomy represents use and evolution of genre over time to help people to understand how a genre is relevant to a community where the genre is enacted and changed. We have constructed a prototype of such a genre taxonomy using the Process Handbook, a process knowledge repository developed at MIT. We have included both widely recognized genres such as the memo and specific genres such as those used in the Process Handbook itself. We suggest that this genre taxonomy may be useful in the innovation of new document templates or methods for communication because it helps to clarify different possible uses of similar genres and explicates how genres play a coordination role among people and between people and their tasks.

Europe's financial perspectives in perspective

The budget of the European Union raises much commotion. Many member states anxiously guard their net payment positions: don't they pay too much for the EU compared to what they receive from the EU? Read also the accompanying press release .Yet, from an economic perspective the subsidiarity principle is much more important: Should the funds be allocated by the Union or by the individual member states? From that angle, a number of fundamental reforms of European agricultural policy and structural actions (support to lagging regions) suggest themselves. These reform options may roughly halve the EU budget. In addition they happen to bring the net payment positions of member states closer together.

A Company of Wayward Saints (October 14-16, 21-23, 1993)

Program for A Company of Wayward Saints (October 14-16, 21-23, 1993). To view the photos from this production of A Company of Wayward Saints, please click here

The Way (2010) and the Camino de Santiago: Christian, Spanish and Galician Identity

The Camino de Santiago has long been the most international manifestation of part of the Galician national identity, and the twenty-first century is no different. The route has been featured most recently in the Emilio Estevez film The Way (2010). In the film, the Basque country is differentiated from Castilian Spain through historical and linguistic references in conversation, while Galicia is only differentiated from the rest of the Camino visually, by way of the symbolic structure of the Cathedral. A homogenous perspective has been adopted, utilising stereotypical elements to represent Spain: the bulls in Pamplona, plentiful food and wine, myriad churches and chapels. This film is indicative of the American perspective of the Camino as witnessed in contemporary film and literature, where the Christian-Castilian identity of Spain, which was cemented in the nineteenth century, continues to dominate discourse

Quantitative and qualitative determinations of gametogenesis and radiation effects in the prenatal bovine testis

The objectives of this study were to (1) trace the development of the prenatal bovine testis, (2) evaluate the quantitative and quali-tative changes in the germ cell population, (3) evaluate the effects of gamma radiation on the developing testis, and (4) correlate sperm pro-duction with testicular morphology. The population of germ cells, number of mitotic figures for germinal and supporting cells, and testicular volume were determined in testes from known-age fetuses. Fifty-six males were irradiated with 400 R (air dose to dam) 60Co gamma radiation at ages ranging from 15-280 days postcoitum. Seven control and 11 irradiated males were unilaterally castrated at birth. Five control and 58 irradiated bulls were castrated at approxi-mately 10 months of age. The testes were prepared for histological analyses. Semen was collected from control, intact, and unilateral-castrated irradiated animals when they were approximately 2 years old. The germinal ridge was first observed at 52 days postcoitum and sex differentiation occurred as early as day 36. The sex cords were unorganized until about day 70; at this age the supporting cells were located adjacent to the basement membrane and the gonocytes or primi-tive germ cells were positioned in the lumen of the sex cord or primi-tive seminiferous tubule. The gonocyte, prior to day 120, had three small acidophilic nucleoli; at later ages a gonocyte with one large acidophilic nucleolus appeared and this cellular type was prevalent at birth. Following tubular organization the cytoplasmic to nuclear ratio increased with age. The overall germ cell population increased from 44 at days 32-55 to 12,000,000 at days 151-180. Only a slight increase in germ cell numbers was noted from 211-240 days until birth (283 days). The mitotic figure index (number of mitotic figures per 50,000 germ cells) was high while the gonad was in the germinal ridge stage and reached a peak at 36-38 days. The index remained high until day 90 and then dropped abruptly during the 91-120 day period. Some germinal mitoses were noted throughout the remainder of the prenatal period with a minor increase occurring in the last days preceeding parturition. Necrotic gonocytes were noted at days 120-150 and their numbers peaked at 241-280 days; necrosis, however, never affected more than 1 percent of the population at any given stage in gestation. The germ cell population prior to day 70 was apparently unaffected by irradiation (400 R to dam) but following irradiation at days 80-130 germ cell numbers were reduced to about 7 percent of the control value in testes excised at 3-19 days postpartum. In testes removed 10 months postnatally, no damage was observed in testes irradiated prior to day 70, but in testes irradiated during the 70-90 day period 69 percent of the 1200 cross-sections observed were sterile. Sterility among tubular cross-sections increased to 88 percent at 91-120 days postcoitum, remained essentially unchanged to day 210 and decreased to 20 percent at 241-280 days of gestation. Bulls irradiated at 150 days of gestation produced 70 and 78 per-cent fewer sperm-per-ejaculate than their counterpart intact and unilateral-castrate controls, respectively. Sperm motility in the irradiated intact and unilateral castrates was 37 and 20 percent less than the intact and unilateral-castrate controls. Since 400 R is a near-lethal dose for the dam and since bulls irra-diated at a stage of maximum sensitivity produced seven-tenths billion sperm-per-ejaculate, a number well above the 6 million motile sperm re-quired for optimum fertility in artificial insemination, the probability of sterilizing the bull in the prenatal state with a single-acute whole-body dose of gamma-irradiation is low

Brais Pinto: A Short History of the Galician "Beat" Generation

Resumen || The Grupo Brais Pinto poets were forerunners of the modernization of Galician literature and politics in Franco's Castilian Spain. This importance does not lie in the five books of poetry brought out by the eponymous underground publishing house, but rather in the change engendered after the fact, and the subsequent quasi-mythical status of the members. It is precisely for this reason the group remains relevant today. Consequently, it is interesting to look into Xosé Luis Méndez Ferrín's suggestion that they were a sort of Galician Beat Generation. There are certain affinities that shed light on how they were and are percieved in the Galician literary system