Mapping of Forest Alliances and Associations Using Fuzzy Systems and Nearest Neighbor Classifiers

The study and management of biological communities depends on systems of classification and mapping for the organization and communication of resource information. Recent advances in remote sensing technology may enable the mapping forest plant associations using image classification techniques. But few areas outside Europe have alliances and associations described in detail sufficient to support remote sensing-based modeling. Northwestern Montana has one of the few plant association treatments in the United States compliant with the recently established National Vegetation Classification system. This project examined the feasibility of mapping forest plant associations using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper data and advanced remote sensing technology and image classification techniques. Suitable reference data were selected from an extensive regional database of plot records. Fifteen percent of the plot samples were reserved for validation of map products, the remainder of plots designated as training data for map modeling. Key differentia for image classification were identified from a suite of spectral and biophysical variables. Fuzzy rules were formulated for partitioning physiognomic classes in the upper levels of our image classification hierarchy. Nearest neighbor classifiers were developed for classification of lower levels, the alliances and associations, where spectral and biophysical contrasts are less distinct. Maps were produced to reflect nine forest alliances and 24 associations across the study area. Error matrices were constructed for each map based on stratified random selections of map validation samples. Accuracy for the alliance map was estimated at 60%. Association classifiers provide between 54 and 86% accuracy within their respective alliances. Alternative techniques are proposed for aggregating classes and enhancing decision tree classifiers to model alliances and associations for interior forest types

Developing reading-writing connections; the impact of explicit instruction of literary devices on the quality of children's narrative writing

The purpose of this collaborative schools-university study was to investigate how the explicit instruction of literary devices during designated literacy sessions could improve the quality of children's narrative writing. A guiding question for the study was: Can children's writing can be enhanced by teachers drawing attention to the literary devices used by professional writers or “mentor authors”? The study was conducted with 18 teachers, working as research partners in nine elementary schools over one school year. The research group explored ways of developing children as reflective authors, able to draft and redraft writing in response to peer and teacher feedback. Daily literacy sessions were complemented by weekly writing workshops where students engaged in authorial activity and experienced writers' perspectives and readers' demands (Harwayne, 1992; May, 2004). Methods for data collection included video recording of peer-peer and teacher-led group discussions and audio recording of teacher-child conferences. Samples of children's narrative writing were collected and a comparison was made between the quality of their independent writing at the beginning and end of the research period. The research group documented the importance of peer-peer and teacher-student discourse in the development of children's metalanguage and awareness of audience. The study suggests that reading, discussing, and evaluating mentor texts can have a positive impact on the quality of children's independent writing

The limits of corporate social responsibility : Techniques of neutralization, stakeholder management and political CSR

Since scholarly interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has primarily focused on the synergies between social and economic performance, our understanding of how (and the conditions under which) companies use CSR to produce policy outcomes that work against public welfare has remained comparatively underdeveloped. In particular, little is known about how corporate decision-makers privately reconcile the conflicts between public and private interests, even though this is likely to be relevant to understanding the limitations of CSR as a means of aligning business activity with the broader public interest. This study addresses this issue using internal tobacco industry documents to explore British-American Tobacco’s (BAT) thinking on CSR and its effects on the company’s CSR Programme. The article presents a three-stage model of CSR development, based on Sykes and Matza’s theory of techniques of neutralization, which links together: how BAT managers made sense of the company’s declining political authority in the mid-1990s; how they subsequently justified the use of CSR as a tool of stakeholder management aimed at diffusing the political impact of public health advocates by breaking up political constituencies working towards evidence-based tobacco regulation; and how CSR works ideologically to shape stakeholders’ perceptions of the relative merits of competing approaches to tobacco control. Our analysis has three implications for research and practice. First, it underlines the importance of approaching corporate managers’ public comments on CSR critically and situating them in their economic, political and historical contexts. Second, it illustrates the importance of focusing on the political aims and effects of CSR. Third, by showing how CSR practices are used to stymie evidence-based government regulation, the article underlines the importance of highlighting and developing matrices to assess the negative social impacts of CSR