Latency Relaxation: A Brief Analytical Review

In this report I review certain aspects of the research on the latency relaxation (LR), the minute relaxation of a stimulated muscle that occurs during the latter half of the latent period, i.e., just prior to the onset of contraction (e.g., Sandow, 1944). The first part of my discussion will be historical, dealing with the early, mostly descriptive work on the LR, and then I shall present a more analytically oriented attempt to indicate the significance of the LR in relation to certain aspects of the response of a muscle to stimulation

Subsystem Variables Associated with Positive Foster Mother-Foster Child Relationships

Many researchers have explored variables that appear to influence a foster child\u27s placement, and both researchers and theorists have noted the need for an overarching understanding of the variables that may affect a foster child\u27s care and progress. This study examined four interlinking subsystems of foster care: the foster child, the family of origin, the foster parent, and the social worker. Data regarding relevant variables for each of these subsystems were analyzed by means of canonical correlations, factor analyses, a multiple regression, and zero-order correlations. Participants in the study were 42 foster children from the Chesapeake and Suffolk Departments of Social Services, each of whom completed the Children\u27s Reports of Parental Behavior-56 (CRPB-56; Margolies & Weintraub, 1977) and their social workers, each of whom completed a questionnaire designed for this study. Data regarding the foster mothers were provided by the social workers, and data regarding the families of origin were gathered from the foster children\u27s charts using a form designed for this study. Results revealed that variables associated with the foster child and the foster mother were those most significantly associated with the quality of the relationship between the two. Specifically, a better fit between the foster mother and the foster child, better foster mother parenting skills, greater foster mother empathy, and the foster mother\u27s greater awareness of and ability to deal with the foster child\u27s losses were the foster mother variables associated with better foster mother-foster child relationships and greater improvement by the foster child within the placement. Greater foster child competencies, fewer acting out behavioral problems and, to a lesser extent, fewer acting in problems and earlier ages at the time of first removal from the family of origin were the foster child variables associated with better relationships and greater improvement within the placement. The findings of this study suggest that better selection and training of foster mothers, as well as interventions aimed at increasing foster child competencies and decreasing behavioral problems would result in improved foster care relationships and greater progress by foster children within their placements

An Emmet's tale: The duality of social and lexical change

Stockwell and Minkova (2001: 34) state that ‘the lexicon is the language layer most responsive to socio-political and cultural changes’. Despite this, lexis has been labelled as the ‘Cinderella of sociolinguistics’ (Beal 2010; Durkin 2012) due to the lack of focus on this level of linguistic structure by variationist sociolinguists. This article redresses the dearth of lexis-oriented sociolinguistic studies by considering the ways in which the lexicon is responsive to cultural changes in Cornwall, UK, by providing a case-study of the polysemous noun emmet (‘ant’ or ‘tourist’). From a study of 80 speakers from Cornwall, I consider the variation and change of emmet from the perspectives of semasiological and onomasiological usage as well as its social meaning. I conclude that this article provides support for Stockwell & Minkova’s (2001) claim and that lexical variation can provide unique insights to the sociolinguistic endeavour and enable sociolinguists to tell new stories about language and society

On U_q(SU(2))-symmetric Driven Diffusion

We study analytically a model where particles with a hard-core repulsion diffuse on a finite one-dimensional lattice with space-dependent, asymmetric hopping rates. The system dynamics are given by the \mbox{U$_{q}$[SU(2)]}-symmetric Hamiltonian of a generalized anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Exploiting this symmetry we derive exact expressions for various correlation functions. We discuss the density profile and the two-point function and compute the correlation length $\xi_s$ as well as the correlation time $\xi_t$. The dynamics of the density and the correlations are shown to be governed by the energy gaps of a one-particle system. For large systems $\xi_s$ and $\xi_t$ depend only on the asymmetry. For small asymmetry one finds $\xi_t \sim \xi_s^2$ indicating a dynamical exponent $z=2$ as for symmetric diffusion.Comment: 10 pages, LATE

Size related processes in phytoplankton

Growth, death, respiration, excretion and sedimentation describe the major rate processes of phytoplankton. These rates often scale allometrically (rate=a*mass^b). The allometric coefficient (b) describes the deviation from a linear reltionship. Literature values derived from experiments showed allometric coefficients of -0.48 to -0.1. Experiments with natural phytoplankton communities from the baltic and the subtropical gyre of the North Atlantic ocean showed an allometric coeffcient range of -0.72 to -0.3. The results indicate that size scaling of rate processes in phytoplankton is more pronounced than previously thought