Encountering soviet geography: oral histories of British geographical studies of the USSR and Eastern Europe 1945-1991

This paper considers the history of British geographical studies of the USSR and Eastern Europe 1945-1991, presenting material from a research project which has included thirty-two oral history interviews. Oral history is an especially fruitful research methodology in this context due to the distinct issues of formality and informality involved in researching the Soviet bloc. After discussing the nature of the subdiscipline and the Cold War context, including the role of the British state in shaping the field, the paper considers the role of formal academic meetings and exchanges, and the place of unofficial spaces of encounter in the formation of an intellectual culture. The paper concludes by reflecting on the merits of oral history in studies of the production of geographical knowledge

Massive relic neutrinos in the galactic halo and the knee in the cosmic ray spectrum

Despite many efforts to find a reasonable explanation, the origin of the "knee" in the cosmic ray spectrum at energy around 10**15.5 eV remains mysterious. In this letter we suggest that the "knee" may be due to a GZK-like effect of cosmic rays interacting with massive neutrinos in the galactic halo. Simple kinematics connects the location of the "knee" with the mass of the neutrinos, and, while the required interaction cross section is larger than that predicted by the Standard Model, it can be accommodated by a small neutrino magnetic dipole moment. The values for the neutrino parameters obtained from the analysis of existing experimental data are compatible with present laboratory bounds.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, uses RevTe

LANGUAGE LEARNING UNDER CLASSROOM CONDITIONS DURING THE TRANSITION TO HYBRID INSTRUCTION: A CASE-STUDY OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE DURING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY

We examined the unmanipulated performance of students under real classroom conditions in order to assess the effect of a technology-enhanced hybrid learning approach to second language, (L2) instruction on beginning and advanced Spanish language learners. This research focused on the transition period of technology implementation when the entire section of Spanish of a modern language department of a liberal arts university transitioned from traditional face-to-face instruction, to a technology-enhanced hybrid learning approach with concurrent reduction in face-to-face classroom hours. This implementation provided an opportunity to compare the performance of students prior to and during the transition to hybrid model of instruction across multiple language proficiency levels. This research is designed to critically evaluate the performance of students under real classroom conditions in order to examine the effectiveness of a hybrid approach during its implementation such that the performance of students participating in the methodological transition can be understood in light of the performance of students in the previous quarters. The results indicate that introductory students did not realize the full potential benefits of hybrid instruction in the transition period, but that the performance of advanced students was improved, suggesting that a phased-in approach to hybrid instruction implementation, where advanced students are the first to transition to hybrid instruction, may supplement training experiences for instructors and support staff and improve overall student success during technology implementation.   Article visualizations

Molecular Parataxonomy as Taxon Description: Examples from Recently Named Zoanthidea (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) with Revision Based on Serial Histology of Microanatomy.

Current taxonomic practices require corroboration from multiple lines of evidence to provide sufficient rigor for species discovery and description. However, many recently named taxa (species–families) are defined by nucleotide sequence with little or no description of the features that traditionally define higher taxa and link nucleotide-based information to the existing taxonomic system. Without knowledge of form, it may be impossible to identify conspecifics, congeners, and confamiliars of new taxa among the hundreds of specimens and described species for which nucleotide sequencing is not now, and may never be, available. Additionally, some nucleotide sequences are invariant or inconsistently differentiated between congeners; severely limiting the utility of nucleotide-based taxon definitions. Here we use serial histology of paratypes to reveal the microanatomy of internal structures and revise the definitions of the Zoanthidea taxa Corallizoanthus tsukaharai Reimer, Antipathozoanthus hickmani Reimer & Fujii, Parazoanthus darwini Reimer & Fujii, Terrazoanthus onoi Reimer & Fujii, Terrazoanthus sinnigeri Reimer & Fujii, Microzoanthus kagerou Fujii & Reimer, and Zoanthus kuroshio Reimer & Ono; examination of Mesozoanthus lilkweminensis Reimer & Sinniger failed to produce interpretable sections. The results described here, with individual measurements documented in Morphbank (collection 829724) and Encyclopedia of Life (by taxon name), indicate a notably rich diversity of form for an order that is often characterized as depauperate in morphological diversity. One prominent example is a novel marginal muscle structure (cyclically transitional) that is not observable without serial sections. These findings may renew interest in morphological characters and provide the foundation for revision of Zoanthidea higher taxa, particularly now that phylogenetic relationships for these taxa can be inferred

LANGUAGE LEARNING UNDER CLASSROOM CONDITIONS DURING THE TRANSITION TO HYBRID INSTRUCTION: A CASE-STUDY OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE DURING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY

We examined the unmanipulated performance of students under real classroom conditions in order to assess the effect of a technology-enhanced hybrid learning approach to second language, (L2) instruction on beginning and advanced Spanish language learners. This research focused on the transition period of technology implementation when the entire section of Spanish of a modern language department of a liberal arts university transitioned from traditional face-to-face instruction, to a technology-enhanced hybrid learning approach with concurrent reduction in face-to-face classroom hours. This implementation provided an opportunity to compare the performance of students prior to and during the transition to hybrid model of instruction across multiple language proficiency levels. This research is designed to critically evaluate the performance of students under real classroom conditions in order to examine the effectiveness of a hybrid approach during its implementation such that the performance of students participating in the methodological transition can be understood in light of the performance of students in the previous quarters. The results indicate that introductory students did not realize the full potential benefits of hybrid instruction in the transition period, but that the performance of advanced students was improved, suggesting that a phased-in approach to hybrid instruction implementation, where advanced students are the first to transition to hybrid instruction, may supplement training experiences for instructors and support staff and improve overall student success during technology implementation.   Article visualizations

The decision tree approach to classification

A class of multistage decision tree classifiers is proposed and studied relative to the classification of multispectral remotely sensed data. The decision tree classifiers are shown to have the potential for improving both the classification accuracy and the computation efficiency. Dimensionality in pattern recognition is discussed and two theorems on the lower bound of logic computation for multiclass classification are derived. The automatic or optimization approach is emphasized. Experimental results on real data are reported, which clearly demonstrate the usefulness of decision tree classifiers

Sensors for triggering practical Functional Electrical Stimulation walking systems

Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) techniques have shown significant improvement in mobility and functionality to many patients with pathological gait resulting from upper motor neurological injuries such as stroke, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), etc. Effective functioning of FES walking systems relies on accurate and reliable detection of gait events (i.e heel rise and heel strike) which depends on the type of sensors and the detection algorithm used

Supplier selection in risk consideration: a fuzzy based topsis approach

Supplier selection, the process of finding the right suppliers who are able to provide the buyer with the right quality products and/or services at the right price, at the right time and in the right quantities, is one of the most critical activities for establishing an effective supply chain. In classical Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods, the ratings and the weights of the criteria are known precisely. Owning to vagueness of the decision data, the crisp data are inadequate for real-life situations. Since human judgments including preferences are often vague and cannot be expressed by exact numerical values, the application of fuzzy concepts in decision making is deemed to be relevant. On the other hand, it is a hard problem since supplier selection is typically a MCDM problem involving several conflicting criteria on which decision maker’s knowledge is usually vague and imprecise. In the present work, a risk-based suppliers’ evaluation module is proposed. Linguistic values are used to assess the ratings and weights for the risk based supplier selection factors. These linguistic ratings can be expressed in triangular fuzzy numbers. Then, a hierarchy MCDM model based on fuzzy-sets theory is proposed to deal with the supplier selection problems in the supply chain system. According to the concept of the fuzzy TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), a closeness coefficient is defined to determine the ranking order of all suppliers by calculating the both fuzzy positive-ideal solution and fuzzy negative-ideal solution, simultaneously. Empirical data have been analysed and results obtained thereof, have been reported to exhibit application potential of the decision-support systems in appropriate situation