Cocoa Farming in Ghana: Emic Experience, Etic Interpretation

This paper develops the tension between emic and etic analysis, recounting the experience of life on a cocoa farm in Ghana, from the perspective of an urban youth with familial connections to the rural community. The dual perspective of living in the city along with frequent visits to and summer sojourns on the farm provided an “outsider’s” perceptions of the rural culture. Yet even these dual emic perspectives were insufficient to bring recognition of the underlying economic realities of cocoa bean production that depended partly on migrant labor. That etic insight came later in the United Kingdom, when studying similar economic systems in Southeast Asia. The story vividly illustrates the necessity of both an emic, insider’s understanding of culture and etic, cross-cultural, scientific insight. Both perspectives are required to have a complete recognition of how the encapsulated beliefs and mores of one’s upbringing depend on the underlying forces of production that drive society. Similarly, the shifting and multilayered levels of what is emic and what is etic in a particular context are addressed in the explication of these personal experiences

A computationally efficient method for obtaining model forecast winds in the vicinity of complex coastal orography

Advances in computers have provided the means for generating fine resolution mesoscale numerical weather predictions (NWPs). Each computer advance brings demands for forecasts on ever smaller scales, especially by such disciplines as air pollution modeling and fire weather forecasting. Weather forecasts and observations on very small scales are essential for driving the models used in these important decision-making processes. Even with the improvements in mesoscale NWPs, the horizontal scales desired by these communities are still too small to be treated by current computer technology in a timely and practical fashion. Even if the computer resources were adequate, mesoscale model parameterizations are not necessarily appropriate for these small scales, thereby potentially introducing significant model error in mesoscale NWPs.The use of supercomputers supported by the Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program was necessary to generate the results presented in this study

Examining the Effects of Precision Scheduled Railroading on Intercity Passenger and High-Speed Rail Service

More than just scheduling terminal-to-terminal trips for trains, “Precision Scheduled Railroading” (PSR) creates entire point-to-point trip plans for individual railroad shipments. Since precision execution was first put into practice, the benefits to shipment arrival reliability and to freight railroads’ profitability have been demonstrated by its use in several Class One freight railroads. However, the effects of the PSR operating strategy on passenger railway operations in shared freight/passenger corridors has not been studied in detail. This research examines the effects of PSR railroad operations on passenger railways, including measuring “Host Railroad Minutes of Delay per 10,000 Train-Miles” and “On-Time Performance” of individual passenger railways, both intercity and high-speed

Transcutaneous measurement of blood velocity profiles and flow

A comprehensive report is presented of the application of a pulsed ultrasound Doppler velocity meter for transcutaneous measurement of time varying velocity, velocity profiles, and instantaneous flow in arteries of anaesthetized dogs. The procedure used to provide direct velocity and flow calibration using the Doppler equation is outlined. Typical transcutaneous recordings obtained from the femoral artery, abdominal aorta, and carotid artery are illustrated. The results compare favourably with data obtained by invasive means such as electromagnetic cuff flowmeters. The possibility of high resolution, non-invasive haemodynamic measurements on dogs is demonstrated and the application to conscious human subjects suggeste

Advanced Heart Failure: A Call to Action

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73182/1/j.1751-7133.2008.00022.x.pd