Freshwater Mussel Shells as Indicators of Seasonal Occupation of Archaeological Sites: Review of the Method

Seasonal occupation of sites and utilization of resources by aborigines is a subject of growing importance to prehistoric archeologists; however, relatively few satisfactory techniques are available for making the necessary determinations. Recent research in New Zealand has indicated the potential value of bivalve mollusks in subsistence-settlement pattern studies. A method for seasonal dating of prehistoric sites involving growth ring analysis of freshwater mussel shells and the potential application of this method in Ozark archeology are discussed

Citizens of Character - The Values and Character Dispositions of 14-16 Year Olds in the Hodge Hill Constituency

Citizens of Character explores the attitudes, dispositions, and values of 14-16 year old students in a particular urban environment - the six schools of the Hodge Hill constituency in Birmingham - and the extent to which the education system and the local environment advance or inhibit their sense of self, their values and their character development. These students constituted a heterogeneous group of religious and non-religious individuals. This project goes beyond the normal exploration and measurement of strengths of character in individuals and looks at the factors that build character in families and schools. This research has wider implications for the relationship between character and aspirations, social change, school cultures, citizenship, identity and religion. The study discusses what students understand by character. It set out to ascertain the moral values held by a group of students living in an inner-city area. The study sought to question who or what has influenced their moral values and examined which individuals, institutions and situations might have hindered or promoted their development. Some of the issues and concerns which arose - for example, relations with neighbours, the matter of local and national pride and questions of trust - may seem not to impinge upon character education as such but are relevant in a wider context

Rural and Small Town Population is Growing in the 1990s

Rural and small town Canada continues to grow. Rural and small town growth rates vary widely among the provinces. Much of the growth within rural and small town areas is in the small towns. Sub-provincial data show wide regional differences within each province. The population in larger urban centres is growing faster. Thus, the share of Canada's population living in rural and small town areas has declined to 22 percent in 1996. Newfoundland is the only province with over 50 percent of its population living in rural and small town areas.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

The Hazard of Being an English Football League Manager: Empirical Estimates from the 2002/3 Season

This paper uses data drawn from the English Football League to model hazard rates for club managers in the 2002/3 season. Nearly one-third of managers involuntarily exited employment status with their club in that season. We model the hazard on the basis of a spell at risk, rather than the individual, using a standard logistic model. The role of neglected heterogeneity is also examined using random and fixed effects logistic models within the discrete-time setting. League position at the start of the spell at risk is found to be the most important determinant of a manager’s exit. A variety of individual specific human capital covariates were found to be unimportant in determining the hazard and no role for unobservable heterogeneity as captured by random effects was detected.econometrics; sports

Technical notes and correspondence: Stochastic robustness of linear time-invariant control systems

A simple numerical procedure for estimating the stochastic robustness of a linear time-invariant system is described. Monte Carlo evaluations of the system's eigenvalues allows the probability of instability and the related stochastic root locus to be estimated. This analysis approach treats not only Gaussian parameter uncertainties but non-Gaussian cases, including uncertain-but-bounded variation. Confidence intervals for the scalar probability of instability address computational issues inherent in Monte Carlo simulation. Trivial extensions of the procedure admit consideration of alternate discriminants; thus, the probabilities that stipulated degrees of instability will be exceeded or that closed-loop roots will leave desirable regions can also be estimated. Results are particularly amenable to graphical presentation

The Informational Content of Ex Ante Forecasts

The informational content of different forecasts can be compared by regressing the actual change in a variable to be forecasted on forecasts of the change. We use the procedure in Fair and Shiller (1987) to examine the informational content of three sets of ex ant. forecasts: the American Statistical Association and National Bureau of Economic Research Survey (ASA), Data Resources Incorporated (DRI), and Wharton Economic Forecasting Associates (UEFA). We compare these forecasts to each other and to "quasi ex ante" forecasts generated from a vector autoregressive model, an autoregressive components model, and a large-scale structural model (the Fair model).

Polarographic study of cadmium 5-hydroxy 2-(hydroxymethyl) 4H-pyran-4-one complex

A polarographic study was performed on the products formed in the interaction of cadmium (II) with a 5-hydroxy 2-(hydroxymethyl) 4H-Pyran-4-one, using varying conditions of pH, supporting electrolytes, and concentrations. Measurements using the differential pulse method show that cadmium (II) exhibits a molar combining ratio of complexing agents to cation ranging from 1 to 1 to 3 to 1 depending on the pH and the supporting electrolyte employed

The Astronomy of the Kamilaroi People and their Neighbours

The Kamilaroi people and their neighbours, the Euahlayi, Ngemba, and Murrawarri, are an Aboriginal cultural grouping located in the northwest and north central of New South Wales. They have a rich history, but have been missed in much of the literature concerned with sky knowledge in culture. This study collected stories, some of which have not previously been reported in an academic format, from Aboriginal people practicing their culture, augmented with stories from the literature, and analysed the data to create a database of sky knowledge that will be added to the larger body of Aboriginal cultural knowledge in Australia. We found that there is a strong sky culture reflected in the stories, and we also explored the stories for evidence of an ethnoscientific approach to knowledge of the sky.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure

Econometric Modeling as Information Aggregation

A forecast produced by an econometric model is a weighted aggregate of predetermined variables in the model. In many models the number of predetermined variables used is very large, often exceeding the number of observations. A method is proposed in this paper for testing an econometric model as an aggregator of the information in these predetermined variables relative to a specified subset of them. The test, called the "information aggregation" (IA) test, tests whether the model makes effective use of the information in the predetermined variables or whether a smaller information set carries as much information. The method can also be used to test one model against another. The method is used to test the Fair model as an information aggregator. The Fair model is also tested against two relatively non theoretical models: a VAR model and an "autoregressive components" (AC) model. The AC model, which is new in this paper, estimates an autoregressive equation for each component of real GNP, with real GNP being identically determined as the sum of the components. The results show that the AC model dominates the VAR model, although both models are dominated by the Fair model. The results also show that the Fair model seems to be a good information aggregator.

Orientations of linear stone arrangements in New South Wales

We test the hypothesis that Aboriginal linear stone arrangements in New South Wales (NSW) are oriented to cardinal directions. We accomplish this by measuring the azimuths of stone arrangements described in site cards from the NSW Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System. We then survey a subset of these sites to test the accuracy of information recorded on the site cards. We find a preference recorded in the site cards for cardinal orientations among azimuths. The field surveys show that the site cards are reasonably accurate, but the surveyors probably did not correct for magnetic declinations. Using Monte Carlo statistics, we show that these preferred orientations did not occur by chance and that Aboriginal people deliberately aligned these arrangements to the approximate cardinal directions. We briefly explore possible reasons for these preferred orientations and highlight the need for future work.Comment: Australian Archaeology, Volume 75 (December 2012), accepte