Event-related brain potential evidence for animacy processing asymmetries during sentence comprehension

The animacy distinction is deeply rooted in the language faculty. A key example is differential object marking, the phenomenon where animate sentential objects receive specific marking. We used event-related potentials to examine the neural processing consequences of case-marking violations on animate and inanimate direct objects in Spanish. Inanimate objects with incorrect prepositional case marker ‘a’ (‘al suelo’) elicited a P600 effect compared to unmarked objects, consistent with previous literature. However, animate objects without the required prepositional case marker (‘el obispo’) only elicited an N400 effect compared to marked objects. This novel finding, an exclusive N400 modulation by a straightforward grammatical rule violation, does not follow from extant neurocognitive models of sentence processing, and mirrors unexpected “semantic P600” effects for thematically problematic sentences. These results may reflect animacy asymmetry in competition for argument prominence: following the article, thematic interpretation difficulties are elicited only by unexpectedly animate objects

Modelling to bridge many boundaries: the Colorado and Murray-Darling River basins

Increasing pressure on shared water resources has often been a driver for the development and utilisation of water resource models (WRMs) to inform planning and management decisions. With an increasing emphasis on regional decision-making among competing actors as opposed to top-down and authoritative directives, the need for integrated knowledge and water diplomacy efforts across federal and international rivers provides a test bed for the ability of WRMs to operate within complex historical, social, environmental, institutional and political contexts. This paper draws on theories of sustainability science to examine the role of WRMs to inform transboundary water resource governance in large river basins. We survey designers and users of WRMs in the Colorado River Basin in North America and the Murray-Darling Basin in southeastern Australia. Water governance in such federal rivers challenges inter-governmental and multi-level coordination and we explore these dynamics through the application of WRMs. The development pathways of WRMs are found to influence their uptake and acceptance as decision support tools. Furthermore, we find evidence that WRMs are used as boundary objects and perform the functions of ‘boundary work’ between scientists, decision-makers and stakeholders in the midst of regional environmental changes

Exploring cooperative transboundary river management strategies for the Eastern Nile Basin

A water resource modeling process is demonstrated to support multistakeholder negotiationsover transboundary management of the Nile River. This process addresses the challenge of identifyingmanagement options of new hydraulic infrastructure that potentially affects downstream coriparian nationsand how the management of existing infrastructure can be adapted. The method includes an explorationof potential management decisions using a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm, intertwined with aniterative process of formulating cooperative strategies to overcome technical and political barriers faced in atransboundary negotiation. The case study is the addition of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)and considers how its operation may be coordinated with adaptations to the operations of Egypt’s HighAswan Dam. The results demonstrate that a lack of coordination is likely to be harmful to downstreamriparians and suggest that adaptations to infrastructure in Sudan and Egypt can reduce risks to water suppliesand energy generation. Although risks can be substantially reduced by agreed releases from the GERD andbasic adaptations to the High Aswan Dam, these measures are still insufficient to assure that no additionalrisk is assumed by Egypt. The method then demonstrates how improvements to water security for bothdownstream riparians can be achieved through dynamic adaptation of the operation of the GERD duringdrought conditions. Finally, the paper demonstrates how the robustness of potential managementarrangements can be evaluated considering potential effects of climate change, including increasedinterannual variability and highly uncertain changes such as increases in the future persistence of droughts

Exploring cooperative transboundary river management strategies for the Eastern Nile Basin

A water resource modeling process is demonstrated to support multistakeholder negotiationsover transboundary management of the Nile River. This process addresses the challenge of identifyingmanagement options of new hydraulic infrastructure that potentially affects downstream coriparian nationsand how the management of existing infrastructure can be adapted. The method includes an explorationof potential management decisions using a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm, intertwined with aniterative process of formulating cooperative strategies to overcome technical and political barriers faced in atransboundary negotiation. The case study is the addition of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)and considers how its operation may be coordinated with adaptations to the operations of Egypt’s HighAswan Dam. The results demonstrate that a lack of coordination is likely to be harmful to downstreamriparians and suggest that adaptations to infrastructure in Sudan and Egypt can reduce risks to water suppliesand energy generation. Although risks can be substantially reduced by agreed releases from the GERD andbasic adaptations to the High Aswan Dam, these measures are still insufficient to assure that no additionalrisk is assumed by Egypt. The method then demonstrates how improvements to water security for bothdownstream riparians can be achieved through dynamic adaptation of the operation of the GERD duringdrought conditions. Finally, the paper demonstrates how the robustness of potential managementarrangements can be evaluated considering potential effects of climate change, including increasedinterannual variability and highly uncertain changes such as increases in the future persistence of droughts