Cognitive Rhythms Reluctantly Revisited

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.In response to the Power (1983) - Beattie (1984) controversy, a more general critique of the construct of cognitive rhythms is presented. It is argued that the term itself is a misnomer, that the relevance of articulation rate has been neglected, that fluent and hesitant phases of cognitive rhythms have been assessed both subjectively and intuitively, that the speech-production model underlying the concept is simplistic, and that the empirical evidence is based on an extraordinarily small corpus which has been described inadequately in the research literature

The macroeconomics of delayed exchange-rate unification : theory and evidence from Tanzania

Parallel exchange-rate markets have often been dismissed by authorities as a nuisance or as the domain of a small group of economic saboteurs. Using Tanzania as a case study, the authors argue instead that these markets played a central macroeconomicrole in the 1970s and 1980s. They provide a rigorous macroeconomic analysis of the parallel foreign-exchange market and its fiscal implications. First, they investigate the evolution of that market in Tanzania from the mid-1960s to 1990. That period stretched from the adoption of exchange controls to macroeconomic collapse and then to subsequent reforms in the mid- to late 1980s. A reduced -form econometric equation (of a Dornbusch stock-flow model type) indicates that both trade and financial portfolio factors were important in determining the parallel premium, with trade determinants the parallel premium, with trade determinants dominating in the long run, as theory suggests. Then they investigate the fiscal impact of the parallel exchange-rate premium, an issue emphasized in the literature on exchange-rate unification. They construct a counterfactual simulation of fiscal and balance-of-payments flows under alternative assumptions about the indexing of those flows to the parallel and official exchange rate. They find that a more aggressive move toward exchange-rate unification would have already delivered a fiscal bonus by the mid-1980s. Accordingly, unification of the exchange rate would have reduced monetary growth and inflationary pressures. So, contrary to conventional advice often given in Africa and elsewhere, the case of Tanzania suggests that from a fiscal viewpoint there was no economic rationale for gradualism in exchange-rate unification and delay of a move toward convertibility.Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Macroeconomic Management,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Stabilization

A study of approved Federal income tax methods of spreading current income to past and future years.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston Universit

RascalC: A Jackknife Approach to Estimating Single and Multi-Tracer Galaxy Covariance Matrices

To make use of clustering statistics from large cosmological surveys, accurate and precise covariance matrices are needed. We present a new code to estimate large scale galaxy two-point correlation function (2PCF) covariances in arbitrary survey geometries that, due to new sampling techniques, runs $\sim 10^4$ times faster than previous codes, computing finely-binned covariance matrices with negligible noise in less than 100 CPU-hours. As in previous works, non-Gaussianity is approximated via a small rescaling of shot-noise in the theoretical model, calibrated by comparing jackknife survey covariances to an associated jackknife model. The flexible code, RascalC, has been publicly released, and automatically takes care of all necessary pre- and post-processing, requiring only a single input dataset (without a prior 2PCF model). Deviations between large scale model covariances from a mock survey and those from a large suite of mocks are found to be be indistinguishable from noise. In addition, the choice of input mock are shown to be irrelevant for desired noise levels below $\sim 10^5$ mocks. Coupled with its generalization to multi-tracer data-sets, this shows the algorithm to be an excellent tool for analysis, reducing the need for large numbers of mock simulations to be computed.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures. Accepted by MNRAS. Code is available at http://github.com/oliverphilcox/RascalC with documentation at http://rascalc.readthedocs.io

Analysis of permanent magnets as elasmobranch bycatch reduction devices in hook-and-line and longline trials

Previous studies indicate that elasmobranch fishes (sharks, skates and rays) detect the Earth’s geomagnetic field by indirect magnetoreception through electromagnetic induction, using their ampullae of Lorenzini. Applying this concept, we evaluated the capture of elasmobranchs in the presence of permanent magnets in hook-and-line and inshore longline fishing experiments. Hooks with neodymium-iron-boron magnets significantly reduced the capture of elasmobranchs overall in comparison with control and procedural control hooks in the hook-and-line experiment. Catches of Atlantic sharpnose shark (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae) and smooth dogfish (Mustelus canis) were signif icantly reduced with magnetic hook-and-line treatments, whereas catches of spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) and clearnose skate (Raja eglanteria) were not. Longline hooks with barium-ferrite magnets significantly reduced total elasmobranch capture when compared with control hooks. In the longline study, capture of blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) and southern stingrays (Dasyatis americana) was reduced on magnetic hooks, whereas capture of sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) was not affected. Teleosts, such as red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus), oyster toadfish (Opsanus tau), black sea bass (Centropristis striata), and the bluefish (Pomatomas saltatrix), showed no hook preference in either hook-and-line or longline studies. These results indicate that permanent magnets, although eliciting species-specific capture trends, warrant further investigation in commercial longline and recreational fisheries, where bycatch mortality is a leading contributor to declines in elasmobranch populations

The Use of Time in Storytelling

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.A total of 18 experimental corpora of spontaneous speech in five languages (English, Finnish, French, German, and Spanish) were examined under the hypothesis that they are characterized by commonalities in the use of time. Each study was based on the same speech type, story telling elicited by pictorial materials. The temporal measures were speech and articulation rates, pause duration, phrase length, and percentage of pause time/total time. The hypothesis was confirmed except for studies carried out with identifiably variant methodologies. Further support for the hypothesis was found by contrasting the use of time characteristic of interviewees' speech

In The Struggle: Pedagogies Of Politically Engaged Scholarship In The San Joaquin Valley Of California

A handful of scholars conducted research and advocated for change in the San Joaquin Valley of California during twentieth century. Six social scientists, who I refer to as "politically engaged scholars," engaged in struggles for social justice, economic equity and democratic governance, both as scholars who produced knowledge and constructed theory and as political actors who aimed to advance particular interests and ends. In the Valley's adversarial contexts, they varied their roles as scholars by leading strikes, organizing underserved communities, founding community development programs, creating non-profit institutions, in addition to working as traditional social scientists. Their intellectual work illustrated the political dimensions of social science and the educational praxis of engaged scholarship as the scholars deviated from the conventional role of detached observers into active participants in highly charged debates. The concept of pedagogy frames my research because it allows an alternative understanding of these scholars who entered research settings as change agents and openly admitted values into their scholarship. Since social scientists produce knowledge for cultural and professional consumption, and sometimes explicitly for public purposes, their work occupies an educational nexus between the academy and the broader society where research findings and academic knowledge are produced, disseminated and represented in particular ways. In order to understand their pedagogical practice, I use a narrative structure comprised of the scholar's first person stories and my interpretation of a variety of texts including their academic papers. The resulting narrative informs pedagogies of political engagement through scholarship. The scholars' experiences, values and findings blend together as the harassment they experienced and politicization of their scientific findings become subplots in larger struggles for economic justice and the defense of democracy in the San Joaquin Valley. Their stories and this narrative find that democracy is fundamentally linked to a just, sustaining and egalitarian economic system

Educating religiously toward a public spirituality

The question at the heart of this dissertation is: “How can Christian religious education help people know the value and importance of a healthy public/common life and further their interest and ability to participate in the public sphere toward the common good?” Care for our public lives must to be a part of our spirituality. It is not enough to know about the importance of the public realm to our well-being, rather, this concern must be part of what matters to us, a dimension of our affect and desire, something we want and care about. Hence the coupling of ‘public’ with ‘spirituality.’ A public spirituality is something that helps us see beyond the interpersonal dimension of life and recognize the wider public context for these relationships. It appreciates the importance of public life, civil society, and the public sphere. It is grounded in the public dimension of Catholic faith and connected to rich sources of wisdom from Christian tradition. This spirituality draws the person or community into the public sphere to participate in sustained, persuasive, respectful, and critical conversations about issues that matter to them. This dissertation argues that the task of religious education is to educate for such a spirituality and using the work of Thomas H. Groome, it outlines a particular way that in which this can happen. Chapter 1 demonstrates the importance of ‘the public’ to our well-being, looking closely at the role of civil society, the public sphere, and secularization. Chapter 2 articulates the public dimension of Catholic faith, with attention to the themes of participation, the common good, and how theology is done in public. Chapter 3 lays the foundation for a public spirituality, focusing on the Trinity, the challenge of the stranger, the mystical-transformational dimension of Christian spirituality, and Christianity as a way of seeing. Chapter 4 offers illustrations of public spirituality at work in three organizations: the Conference of Religious of Ireland Justice, Theos, U.K., and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. Finally, Chapter 5, proposes a shared Christian praxis approach to Christian religious education as a model to nurture and nourish a public spirituality.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry