Interactive document summarisation.

This paper describes the Interactive Document Summariser (IDS), a dynamic document summarisation system, which can help users of digital libraries to access on-line documents more effectively. IDS provides dynamic control over summary characteristics, such as length and topic focus, so that changes made by the user are instantly reflected in an on-screen summary. A range of 'summary-in-context' views support seamless transitions between summaries and their source documents. IDS creates summaries by extracting keyphrases from a document with the Kea system, scoring sentences according to the keyphrases that they contain, and then extracting the highest scoring sentences. We report an evaluation of IDS summaries, in which human assessors identified suitable summary sentences in source documents, against which IDS summaries were judged. We found that IDS summaries were better than baseline summaries, and identify the characteristics of Kea keyphrases that lead to the best summaries

Intercultural development in global service-learning

This research project examined the effects of participation in a six-month global service-learning program in the intercultural development of a group of students. The students under consideration herein participated in the 2009 program year of the Grace University EDGE Program, which took place in Mali, West Africa. The present research builds on and contributes to three primary areas of research: intercultural development, service-learning, and study abroad. As the literature in these areas revealed the lack of a consistent way to assess global service-learning, I tried a three-part method of assessment. First, the Intercultural Development Inventory formally measured growth in intercultural competence. Second, guided course-writing generated by the students was used to facilitate followup interviews of most participants, especially considering the intersections between IDI results and students\u27 self-perceptions as reported in their papers. Third, the interviews were coded and explored for information related to the process of intercultural development. The participants, overall, demonstrated positive intercultural competence gains while undergoing a complex process involving the impetus for and experience of development, ultimately resulting in changed patterns of thought

Identification of Cultural Differences and Their Effects on International Relations: A Novel Approach

International Relations suffers from underspecified treatments of culture that risk reifying, essentializing, or ignoring the effects of cultural differences in the conduct of relationships between states. Following a review of the development of the culture concept, this interpretivist, epistemologically critical realist, dissertation introduces intercultural adaptive frameshifting from the intercultural communication literature. To assess whether culture has effect within an epistemic community, four frameworks are evaluated within a non-IR field (global Christian reasoning). Speech act theory is used to assess meaningful affect through illocutionary and/or perlocutionary divergence based on cultural difference. Following the findings that such cultural differences do in fact matter in the non-International Relations epistemic community, the culture concept is brought back into IR through three case studies employing most-similar and most-different case design. Counterfactual analysis is used to assess the potential for intercultural competence, exercised by one foreign policy executive in each dyadic case, to impact the conduct of international relations at a critical juncture brought about by cultural difference. Through process tracing, and particularly through practice tracing, culture is found to meaningfully affect the conduct of international relations, and intercultural adaptive frame-shifting (also called intercultural competence or intercultural development) is found to attenuate the effects. The findings of this dissertation are intentionally tentative, and primarily take the form of passing the hoop-test. This program of research points to the need for more robust consideration of the culture concept in International Relations. It does not supplant existing paradigms, but could easily come alongside and be used within Neoclassical Realism, Constructivism, and some strands of Liberalism and Neoliberal Institutionalism. The findings are meaningful for practice as well as theory, as intercultural competence is both assessable and trainable

Globalization and Country-Specific Service Links

The Jones-Kierzkowski model of global fragmentation of production draws attention to the cost and efficiency of “service links” connecting “production blocks” in different countries. Country-specific service links include transport and telecommunications infrastructure and the overall business climate. Mobile factors of production, most prominently foreign direct investment (FDI), can shop around for countries with the most functional and inexpensive service links along with low labor costs. Those countries with favorable business climates and well-functioning service links are able to attract FDI and other mobile inputs, and participate in international production networks. We provide evidence that successful exporters of manufactures, notably in East Asia, have relatively favorable service links. A cross-section analysis of manufactured exports and of FDI in manufacturing confirms the importance of service link infrastructure.Conflicting claims, Division rules, Operators, Minimal rights, Maximal claims, Duality, Convexity.

Globalization and Country-Specific Service Links

The Jones-Kierzkowski model of global fragmentation of production draws attention to the cost and efficiency of “service links” connecting “production blocks” in different countries. Country-specific service links include transport and telecommunications infrastructure and the overall business climate. Mobile factors of production, most prominently foreign direct investment (FDI), can shop around for countries with the most functional and inexpensive service links along with low labor costs. Those countries with favorable business climates and well-functioning service links are able to attract FDI and other mobile inputs, and participate in international production networks. We provide evidence that successful exporters of manufactures, notably in East Asia, have relatively favorable service links. A crosssection analysis of manufactured exports and of FDI in manufacturing confirms the importance of service link infrastructure.

Age and Growth of Larval and Juvenile Atlantic Croaker, Micropogonias Undulatus, from the Middle Atlantic Bight and Estuarine Waters of Virginia

Sagittal otoliths were used to determine age and growth of 605 larval and juvenile Atlantic croaker, Micropogonias undulatus, collected in the Middle Atlantic Bight and estuarine waters of Virginia. This study is the first to use age-based analysis for young Atlantic croaker collected in this region. A Laird-Gompertz model (r2=0.95) was used to describe the growth of Atlantic croaker up to 65 mm standard length (SL) and 142 days (t): SL((t)) = 2.657 exp (4.656 [1-exp (-0.0081t)]); where SL((t)) = standard length at day t. Spatial and temporal patterns in the size and age of Atlantic croaker showed a pattern of inshore immigration from offshore spawning grounds, and faster early-season growth compared with late-season growth. Back-calculated hatching dates of Atlantic croaker collected in Virginia estuaries indicated a protracted spawning period over 8 months, from early July 1987 to early February 1988, with at least 82% of spawning occurring from August to October. Regression analysis indicated that early-spawned larvae (July through August) grew more than 39% faster than late-spawned larvae (September through February). Lapillar and sagittal otoliths were compared with light microscopy; ages were under-estimated with lapillar otoliths, which were particularly inadequate in determining the age of older juveniles. The relation between SL and sagittal otolith maximum diameter was best described by a fourth order polynomial (r2=0.99) and faster-growing Atlantic croaker had larger otoliths (12%) than the same size slower-growing fish