Anglo-Nigerian Pidgin: a sociopsychological survey of urban, Southern Nigeria

Pidgins and creoles are hybrid languages that evolve from situations of language contact ( e.g. slave trade); creoles are traditionally regarded as pidgins that have acquired native speakers. Since the 1960s, the contemporary study of pidgins and creoles has grown from strength to strength, and has earned much-deserved academic recognition and respect in the field of linguistics, the subject area being now known as pidginistics and creolistics. Strangely, while some progress appears to have been made in the quest to define, classify and better understand their linguistic-structural dispositions (and possible applications), precious little study has been conducted on the anatomy of social attitudes toward such languages, in spite of the stigmatized statuses they traditionally suffer. To compound this point, equally relatively few language attitude studies have been conducted in Africa. This survey hopes to fill some of the current gap. Consequently, it was decided that a sociopsychological survey would be undertaken on Anglo-Nigerian Pidgin (ANP), a contact variety, which is said to have derived from initial contacts with Portuguese sailors in the 15th century and the diverse ethnicities along the coastline of the geopolitical area now called 'Nigeria', and probably underwent processes of relexification/adlexification with intensified contacts with the British, especially in the 18 th century (Hancock, 1968). The findings on ANP appear to demonstrate that social attitudes are mainly based on pragmatic issues of formal and informal instrumentality, as would be the case with any other ('natural') language, and not on sociomoral considerations. The survey also throws up three possibly-viable hypotheses on language attitude orientations (Age of Contact Hypothesis; Source of Contact Hypothesis; and, Language Competence Hypothesis)

Writing Postcards from the Museum: Composing Personalised Tangible Souvenirs

Building a long-lasting personal relationship with visitors by maintaining their engagement after the visit is one of the most challenging endeavours cultural heritage sites face. When successful, this connection fosters new opportunities for the visitor to get in touch with the heritage, e.g. to visit again or to take part in cultural activities. One way to establish a personal connection is via personalisation services that generate souvenirs for the visitors to take away and foster future engagements with the heritage. This paper discusses how the techniques for personalised text generation can be applied to produce post-visit postcards exploiting the interaction logs collected during the museum visit. The personalised postcard summarises the visit, creates a link with what was experienced and suggests further paths for content discovery. A user study conducted over four weeks confirms the appreciation for the personalised postcard and suggests future developments

J.S. Bell's Concept of Local Causality

John Stewart Bell's famous 1964 theorem is widely regarded as one of the most important developments in the foundations of physics. It has even been described as "the most profound discovery of science." Yet even as we approach the 50th anniversary of Bell's discovery, its meaning and implications remain controversial. Many textbooks and commentators report that Bell's theorem refutes the possibility (suggested especially by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen in 1935) of supplementing ordinary quantum theory with additional ("hidden") variables that might restore determinism and/or some notion of an observer-independent reality. On this view, Bell's theorem supports the orthodox Copenhagen interpretation. Bell's own view of his theorem, however, was quite different. He instead took the theorem as establishing an "essential conflict" between the now well-tested empirical predictions of quantum theory and relativistic \emph{local causality}. The goal of the present paper is, in general, to make Bell's own views more widely known and, in particular, to explain in detail Bell's little-known mathematical formulation of the concept of relativistic local causality on which his theorem rests. We thus collect and organize many of Bell's crucial statements on these topics, which are scattered throughout his writings, into a self-contained, pedagogical discussion including elaborations of the concepts "beable", "completeness", and "causality" which figure in the formulation. We also show how local causality (as formulated by Bell) can be used to derive an empirically testable Bell-type inequality, and how it can be used to recapitulate the EPR argument.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Entropy of A Scalar Field In (3 + 1)-dimensional Taub-NUT Space-Time

In this article we discuss a few aspects of the space-time description of fields and particles. In sectionn II and III we demonstrate that fields are as fundamental as particles. In section IV we discuss non-equivalence of the Schwarzschild coordinates and the Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates. In section V we discuss that it is not possible to define causal structure in discrete space-time manifolds. In App.B we show that a line is not just a collection of points and we will have to introduce one-dimensional line-intervals as fundamental geometric elements. Similar discussions are valid for area and volume-elements. In App.C and App.D we make a comparative study of Quantum Field Theory and Quantum Mechanics and contradictions associated with probabilistics interpretation of these theories with space-time dimensional analysis. In App.E and App.F we discuss the geometry of Robertson-Walker model and electrostatic behavior of dielectrics respectively. In Sup.I we discuss the regularity of Spin-Spherical harmonics and also derive an energy-spectrum which is free of back-reaction problem. In Sup.II we discuss that in general the integral version of Gauss's divergence law in Electrodynamics is not valid and rederive Gauss's law and Ampere's law. We also show that under duality transformation magnetic charge conservation law do not remain time reversal symmetric. In Sup.III we derive the complete equation for viscous compressible fluids and make a few comments regarding some cotradictions associated with boundary conditions for fluid dynamics. In Sup.IV we discuss a few aspects on double slit interference experiments. We conclude this article with a few questions in Sup.V.Comment: Revtex, 26 pages, A few sections are adde

Predicting Aviation Performance in Rotor-Wing Students

A critical shortage of commercial fixed and rotor-wing pilots has elevated the importance of the recruitment, training, and certification of pilots. The U.S. Department of Labor has identified situational awareness, selective attention, and inhibitory function as important and frequently occurring Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) for the job of commercial pilot. Previous research has shown that success in situation awareness training performance predicts future fixed-wing airline pilot performance. In addition, the flanker task, measuring selective attention and inhibitory function, has been shown to predict performance across a variety of professions. The purpose of the current study will be to predict student performance in instrumentality courses of a rotor-wing aircraft program using assessments of situation awareness, selective attention, and inhibitory function. Currently, no research has investigated the predictive ability of situational awareness, selective attention, and inhibitory function in rotor-wing aviation student course performance. The hypothesis for the current study is: Higher student scores on situational awareness, selective attention, and inhibitory function assessments will have a positive relationship with course performance measures. Participants will be rotor-wing aviation students enrolled in instrumentality courses at a local university. Participants will complete a modified version of the Factors Affecting Situation Awareness (FASA) assessment of situational awareness and a modified Flanker task measuring participants\u27 ability to avoid the interference of distractors via reaction time. Scores from each measure will be compared to various student course performance measures collected throughout their Aviation program courses. Results of this research can be used to improve the recruitment and training process of academic and commercial training programs for commercial pilots. The identification of KSAs that predict future pilot performance could be used to improve the training pipeline for commercial pilots, thereby reducing the critical shortage currently impacting the domestic and global markets

Comparison of the Effects of Hexavalent Chromium in the Alimentary Canal of F344 Rats and B6C3F1 Mice Following Exposure in Drinking Water: Implications for Carcinogenic Modes of Action

Exposure to high concentrations of hexavalent chromium (Cr[VI]) in drinking water is reported to induce oral mucosa tumors in F344 rats and intestinal tumors in B6C3F1 mice. To investigate the modes of action underlying these tumors, 90-day drinking water studies (with interim necropsy at day 8) were conducted with concentrations of 0.1–182 mg/l Cr(VI), administered as 0.3–520 mg/l sodium dichromate dihydrate. Blood and tissue samples were analyzed for chromium content, oxidative stress, iron levels, and gross and microscopic lesions. Results for the F344 rats are described herein and compared with results from B6C3F1 mice published previously. After 90 days of exposure, total chromium concentrations in the rat and mouse oral mucosae were comparable, yet significant dose-dependent decreases in the reduced-to-oxidized glutathione ratio (GSH/GSSG) were observed only in rats. In the duodenum, changes in GSH/GSSG were only observed in mice. Levels of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine were not increased in the oral or duodenal mucosae of either species. Glutathione levels were increased in the duodenum but decreased in the jejunum of both species, indicating potential differential responses in the intestinal segments. Histiocytic infiltration was observed in the duodenum of both species, yet duodenal cytokines were repressed in mice but increased in rats. Serum and bone marrow iron levels were more decreased in rats than mice. Collectively, these data suggest that Cr(VI)-induced carcinogenesis in the rodent alimentary canal involves oxidative stress; however, differences in histopathology, cytokines, and iron status suggest potential contributions from other factors as well

One-Loop Renormalization of Lorentz-Violating Electrodynamics

We show that the general Lorentz- and CPT-violating extension of quantum electrodynamics is one-loop renormalizable. The one-loop Lorentz-violating beta functions are obtained, and the running of the coefficients for Lorentz and CPT violation is determined. Some implications for theory and experiment are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, accepted for publication in Physical Review

B-->pi and B-->K transitions in standard and quenched chiral perturbation theory

We study the effects of chiral logs on the heavy-->light pseudoscalar meson transition form factors by using standard and quenched chiral perturbation theory combined with the static heavy quark limit. The resulting expressions are used to indicate the size of uncertainties due to the use of the quenched approximation in the current lattice studies. They may also be used to assess the size of systematic uncertainties induced by missing chiral log terms in extrapolating toward the physical pion mass. We also provide the coefficient multiplying the quenched chiral log, which may be useful if the quenched lattice studies are performed with very light mesons.Comment: 33 pages, 8 PostScript figures, version to appear in PR