A study of the growth in speech sound discrimination ability of kindergarten children

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Preliminary soilwater conductivity analysis to date clandestine burials of homicide victims

This study reports on a new geoscientific method to estimate the post-burial interval (PBI) and potential post-mortem interval (PMI) date of homicide victims in clandestine graves by measuring decomposition fluid conductivities. Establishing PBI/PMI dates may be critical for forensic investigators to establish time-lines to link or indeed rule out suspects to a crime. Regular in situ soilwater analysis from a simulated clandestine grave (which contained a domestic buried pig carcass) in a semi-rural environment had significantly elevated conductivity measurements when compared to background values. A temporal rapid increase of the conductivity of burial fluids was observed until one-year post-burial, after this values slowly increased until two years (end of the current study period). Conversion of x-axis from post-burial days to 'accumulated degree days' (ADDs) corrected for both local temperature variations and associated depth of burial and resulted in an improved fit for multiple linear regression analyses. ADD correction also allowed comparison with a previous conductivity grave study on a different site with a different soil type and environment; this showed comparable results with a similar trend observed. A separate simulated discovered burial had a conductivity estimated PBI date that showed 12% error from its actual burial date. Research is also applicable in examining illegal animal burials; time of burial and waste deposition. Further research is required to extend the monitoring period, to use human cadavers and to repeat this with other soil types and depositional environments

Ceramics and coastal communities in medieval (12th-14th Century) Europe: negotiating identity in England's Channel ports

Using the example of pottery imported into the Channel ports of southern England, an approach to examining the role of pottery in the emergence and mediation of coastal communities is proposed. Building upon recent scholarship it is argued that it is no longer tenable to see pottery as a carrier of identity or as part of a ‘cultural package’, with meaning instead emerging with identity as people interact with pottery within and outside of port environments. The study proposes that imported pottery found meaning in different ways depending upon the context of acquisition and use and, as such, it mediated different forms of community and identity. The paper ends with a consideration of the wider implications of this approach for ongoing studies of material culture, trade and urban identities in medieval Europe

Assembling the archaeology of the global Middle Ages

Responding to recent developments in archaeological theory and growing interest in the ‘global Middle Ages’, an approach to exploring relations between local and global processes in the medieval world is proposed. The World-systems approach, applied by some historians to these kinds of macro-paradigms and questions, can expose significant challenges regarding social and economic development at a global scale. However, here it is suggested that the ‘assemblage thought’ of Deleuze and Guattari, developed by DeLanda, might offer a more productive approach for assessing the multi-scalar interactions that defined the lives of communities in the Middle Ages. Here consideration is given to the character of the Middle Ages and its relation to modernity; the implications of the multi-scalar approach are also exemplified using a brief discussion of the Anglo-Italian wool trade in the Late Middle Ages

Decline or transformation? Archaeology and the late Medieval 'urban decline' in southern England

Archaeological evidence is used to examine how urban life changed in the later medieval towns of Sussex, Surrey, and Hampshire in southern England, in light of ongoing debates about the existence of a fifteenth-century urban ‘decline’. The article proposes that rather than seeking evidence of decline, we should consider how and why experiences of urban life vary. The role of towns in commercial and political networks is highlighted as a key cause of variability in late medieval urban experience

Making an ultracold gas

We provide an introduction to the experimental physics of quantum gases. At the low densities of ultracold quantum gases, confinement can be understood from single-particle physics, and interactions can be understood from two-body physics. The structure of atoms provides resonances both in the optical domain and in the radio-frequency domain. Atomic structure data is given for the 27 atomic isotopes that had been brought to quantum degeneracy at the time this chapter was written. We discuss the motivations behind choosing among these species. We review how static and oscillatory fields are treated mathematically. An electric dipole moment can be induced in a neutral atom, and is the basis for optical manipulation as well as short-range interactions. Many atoms have permanent magnetic dipole moments, which can be used for trapping or long-range interactions. The Toronto $^{40}$K/$^{87}$Rb lattice experiment provides an illustration of how these tools are combined to create an ultracold, quantum-degenerate gas.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures. New version includes corrections, improved format, and hyperlinked references. To appear as Chapter 2 in "Quantum gas experiments - exploring many-body states," P. Torma, K. Sengstock, eds. (Imperial College Press, 2014

Inflation Compensation and Its Components in Chile

This document studies the determinants of the components of inflation compensation, defined as the difference that exists between nominal and indexed interest rates. This analysis permits to evaluate how much they impact the portfolio choices of economic agents and, therefore, in interest rates observed in the market. For this, the determinants are broken down into components, building time series nonexistent until now. Subsequently models of behavior for inflation expectations are estimated, together with risk premiums for inflation, indexing and liquidity, for instruments of different maturities and in two dimensions. The empirical results confirm the hypothesis presented on the importance of incorporating not only expectations of inflation to explain inflation compensation in Chile, but also the existing risks in the market deriving finally to a more extensive Fisher relation than in their beginnings.

Marco normativo para la igualdad de mujeres y hombres en Ecuador

Treball final de Màster Universitari en Igualtat i Gènere en l'Àmbit Públic i Privat (Pla de 2013). Codi: SRM042. Curs acadèmic 2015-2016La igualdad de género significa que tanto mujeres como hombres gozan de las mismas condiciones para el pleno ejercicio de sus derechos, así como de su potencial para el desarrollo político, económico, social y cultural. Para ello es necesario el establecimiento de un conjunto de medidas que lleven a equilibrar las desigualdades históricas y sociales que han impedido el disfrute pleno de los derechos a las mujeres. En Ecuador, es un mandato constitucional la aplicación de las convenciones internacionales suscritas y ratificadas, siendo este marco normativo internacional un pilar fundamental que sustenta el marco normativo nacional. Es decir, el marco normativo en materia de igualdad tiene como característica el “efecto cascada”, lo que significa que la normativa de nivel internacional influye directamente en las normativas regionales, y estas en las estatales. Al respecto, en Ecuador se han desarrollado diversas normativas y legislaciones en relación al tema de la igualdad, propuestas principalmente por la activa participación de las mujeres como colectivo, quienes también han denunciado el carácter incompleto o discriminatorio de los marcos constitucionales y las leyes secundarias. Es así que, el objetivo del presente documento, es dar a conocer el marco normativo básico para la igualdad de mujeres y hombres que gobierna en Ecuador en la actualidad, considerando todos los niveles de confluencia: internacional, continental y estatal, exponiendo las principales disposiciones legales que rigen en el país en materia de igualdad, tanto en sus aciertos como en sus deficiencias

Time-lapse geophysical investigations over a simulated urban clandestine grave

A simulated clandestine shallow grave was created within a heterogeneous, made-ground, urban environment where a clothed, plastic resin, human skeleton, animal products, and physiological saline were placed in anatomically correct positions and re-covered to ground level. A series of repeat (time-lapse), near-surface geophysical surveys were undertaken: (1) prior to burial (to act as control), (2) 1 month, and (3) 3 months post-burial. A range of different geophysical techniques was employed including: bulk ground resistivity and conductivity, fluxgate gradiometry and high-frequency ground penetrating radar (GPR), soil magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and self potential (SP). Bulk ground resistivity and SP proved optimal for initial grave location whilst ERT profiles and GPR horizontal "time-slices" showed the best spatial resolutions. Research suggests that in complex urban made-ground environments, initial resistivity surveys be collected before GPR and ERT follow-up surveys are collected over the identified geophysical anomalies