Language use in the Epena district of northern Congo

This thesis, based on two language surveys conducted in 1988 and 1989, addresses the question “What language do you speak?” for the people of the district of Epena in the Likouala Region of the People’s Republic of the Congo. The goals of the study were to: 1) inventory all the languages and dialects spoken in the district; 2) clarify their relationships with each other and neighboring languages; 3) measure the degree of intelligibility between speakers of different language varieties, specifically among the Bomitaba people; 4) investigate in what situations the people use which languages; and 5) provide bases for making a recommendation concerning the need and desirability for a vernacular literacy project in one or more of the languages of the district, and propose where to locate such a project, if needed. Three research tools were used: 1) word lists were collected and analyzed to determine the apparent cognate percentages between language varieties, 2) short stories recorded in four varieties of Bomitaba and tested for comprehension in seven Bomitaba villages, and 3) sociolinguistic questionnaires completed by individuals in each village and by village officials. The results of the word list analysis indicate that there are five village languages spoken in the district: Bomitaba, Babole, Bambenga, Bongili, and Yaswa. The first two are much larger, each having three or four distinct dialects. The scores from the recorded tests show that there is a high degree of intelligibility among the Bomitaba of both the Northern and Central dialects, with the former being generally understood a little better. The questionnaires indicate that the Bomitaba use almost exclusively their own language in their daily lives in the home and the village. The official language, French, is mostly used in school and in contacts with some government officials. Lingala, the national (trade) language for northern Congo, is spoken by the Bomitaba more than French in their contacts with non-Bomitaba. However, it is still not used very often by most Bomitaba. It was concluded that a single vernacular literacy project for the Bomitaba, in the Northern (Matoko) dialect, or alternatively the Central (Epena) dialect, would be useful and desirable

Surveys of New Mexico Alfalfa Producers and Dairy Hay Users: Will Growth of the State's Dairy Industry be Limited by Alfalfa Availability?

Production Economics,

Standardizing Communications and Networks in the ICU

journal articleBiomedical Informatic

Real Time Data Acquisition: Recommendations for the Medical Information Bus (MIB)

journal articleBiomedical Informatic

That’s “Who-I-Am!”: An Identity Regulatory Model of Narcissism

Despite advances in understanding narcissism, limited attention has been paid to articulating a higherorder construct that explicitly captures the multi-faceted nature of narcissistic motives and displays. To address this missing link, this study presents an identity-based self-regulatory model of narcissism. We draw from identity control theory (ICT) and propose that dominance identity, a personal identity central to the narcissistic self-concept, is the overarching psychological motive driving narcissistic beliefs and behaviors. Validating, promoting, and protecting this dominance identity is the primary goal that guide narcissistic self-regulatory processes. We identify grandiose self-views, narcissistic self-promotion, and interpersonal aggression as the primary intra-personal and interpersonal strategies employed to sustain narcissistic personal identity. Complementing the prominent self-esteem based regulatory model of narcissism, the central premise of this framework is that dominance identity acts much like a thermostat that sets identity goals. Meanwhile, self-esteem, like a thermometer, is an evaluative indicator of such identity -goal attainment. This identity regulatory model provides a parsimonious way to organize current understanding of the underpinning psychological drivers of narcissism

The Financial Crisis Documentary

This project was a documentary film focused on exploring the 2008 financial crisis in the United States. The documentary incorporates interviews with former Senators, Congressmen and local business leaders in an effort to better understand the causes and effects of the crisis

Transparency, Translucence of Opacity? A Field Investigation of The Mediating Role of Positive Emotions In Trustful Leader-Follower Relations

In this study, the relationship between transparency and trust is hypothesized and investigated. Furthermore, the positive emotions variable was hypothesized to mediate the transparency � trust relationship. Participants’ perceptions of a leader’s transparency were more predictive of trust than experimenter designed manipulations. Study limitations, implications for management, and future research directions are discussed

Unlocking the mask: A look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors

The conceptual and empirical links between authentic leadership and follower attitudes, behaviors, and performance outcomes have not been fully developed. Although we have a number of articles developing the theory of authentic leadership and testing propositions that will appear in a forthcoming special issue of The Leadership Quarterly (Vol. 16, Issue 3, 2005), the focus of this article is to provide some of the initial foundation work for the broader theoretical framework of how authentic leaders influence follower attitudes, behaviors, and performance. Here, we draw from positive organizational behavior, trust, hope, emotion, identification, and identity theories to describe the processes by which authentic leaders exert their influence on followers’ attitudes and behaviors. Research propositions based on the proposed theoretical model and implications for future theory building and research are presented

Climate-driven changes in body condition

Although the lethal consequences of extreme heat are increasingly reported in the literature, the fitness costs of exposure to sub-lethal high air temperatures, typically identified in the 30- 40°C range, are poorly understood. We examine the effect of high (≥35°C) daily maxima on body condition of a semi-arid population of white-plumed honeyeaters Ptilotula penicillatus monitored between 1986 and 2012. During this 26 year period temperature has risen, on average, by 0.06°C each year at the site, the frequency of days with thermal maxima ≥35°C has increased and rainfall has declined. Exposure to high temperatures affected body condition of white-plumed honeyeaters, but only in low rainfall conditions. There was no effect of a single day of exposure to temperatures ≥35°C but repeated exposure was associated with reduced body condition: 3.0% reduction in body mass per day of exposure. Rainfall in the previous 30 days ameliorated these effects, with reduced condition evident only in dry conditions. Heat-exposed males with reduced body condition were less likely to be recaptured at the start of the following spring; they presumably died. Heat-exposed females, regardless of body condition, showed lower survival than exposed males, possibly due to their smaller body mass. The higher mortality of females and smaller males exposed to temperatures ≥35°C may have contributed to the increase in mean body size of this population over 23 years. Annual survival declined across time concomitant with increasing frequency of days ≥35°C and decreasing rainfall. Our study is one of few to identify a proximate cause of climate change related mortality, and associated long-term demographic consequence. Our results have broad implications for avian communities living in arid and semi-arid regions of Australia, and other mid-latitudes regions where daily maximum temperatures already approach physiological limits in regions affected by both decreased precipitation and warming.The work was conducted under permits SL100167 and SL100825 issued by the Office of Environment and Heritage, National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), NSW and bands were supplied by the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme. We thank the many volunteer banders and NPWS staff for support. Jim Thompson provided initial statistical advice and Loeske Kruuk, Peter Marsack and Katherine Selwood useful discussion or comments on the manuscript. The work received funding from the Norman Wettenhall Foundation and the Australian Research Council (ARC, Discovery grant DP120102651). Sutherland is funded by Arcadia, Peters by an ARC Future Fellowship (FT110100505) and Amano by a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/15-064

Identifying Psychiatric Patients at Risk for Repeated Involvement in Violence: The Next Step Toward Intensive Community Treatment Programs

Recent studies indicate that a small, but critical subgroup of psychiatric patients is involved in a disproportionately large number of violent incidents among the mentally ill. This subgroup is an appropriate focus for intensive community-based treatment programs designed to reduce violence. However, little research has been conducted on methods for identifying patients who repeatedly become involved in violent incidents. This article describes a large follow-up study in which these patients were identified using a simple screening process that is feasible for routine use. This screening process efficiently and effectively identified a small minority of patients who were at risk for repeated involvement in violence. Patients deemed “at risk” by the screening process had an average of 7 violent incidents during a six-month follow-up period. The characteristics of these patients are described, and implications of the screening tool for conducting future research, targeting individuals for more intensive treatment services, and developing violence-focused treatment programs are discussed