bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Kanadaj banprogramoj
Authors: Richmond Ian M.
Published: November 2010

The phenomenal growth of French immersion programs in Canada has been called by the popular press the educational success story of the 1980s. Although this view is certainly justified in terms of the method's popularity and political success, this study contends that it is not so in terms of the results obtained.
The author bases his contention on a comparison and analysis of results achieved on the Laval Placement Test by three groups of students at the university level: (1) native French speakers; (2) former French-immersion students; (3) former core-French students. The test results place the immersion group's language level much closer to that of the core-French group than to that of the native speakers, although the immersion group does appear to have a considerable advantage over the nonimmersion group, at least in the passive comprehension skills. The results are further analyzed in the light of existing literature on bilingualism and immersion programs. The comparison and analysis of the test results show that the often extravagant claims made for the bilingualism of immersion graduates can lead to false optimism about their real command of French.
The study concludes with a call for less complacency about the effectiveness of present immersion programs and for more research into alternative methods of language teaching.
A Glossary of Lectal Terms for the Description of Language Variation
Authors: Danesi Marcel
Published: November 2010

SOMMARIO
Un glossario di termini lettali per la descrizione della variazione linguistica
L'esigenza di trovare una terminologia comune o standardizzata per descrivere i fenomeni appartenenti a un'area specifica di ricerca caratterizza tutte le scienze. Questo è vero, quindi, anche nel caso della linguistica. Data l'attuale tendenza a sviluppare una metodologia che mira ad incorporare parametri contestuali di carattere spaziale, sociale e psico-comunicativo, esiste il bisogno ora, più che mai, di utilizzare un sistema terminologico comune. In questo articolo discuteremo che un sistema comune, basato sul suffisso -letto, è già implicito negli scritti di parecchi studiosi. Quindi, lo scopo principale del presente lavoro è di proporre un glossario minimo di termini lettali, molti di cui si trovano dispersi nella letteratura scientifica. Alcuni dei termini, tuttavia, sono usati qui per la prima volta.
RESUMO
Lekta terminaro por priskribi lingvan varion
La sercado de normigita, au komuna, terminologio por priskribi la terenon de fenomenoj, kiuj rilatas al difinita kampo de esploroj, karakterizas ciujn sciencojn. Tio validas ankaù pri lingvistiko. Pro la kreskanta emo evoluigi metodologion, kiu celas enpreni kuntekstajn parametrojn spacajn, sociajn kaj psikokomunikajn latt karaktero, sajnas esti bezono, ec pli urga ol antaûe, ke esploristoj uzu komunan terminologian sistemon. Tiu ci referajo argumentas, ke tia sistemo, bazita sur la sufikso -lekt, estas jam implica en la verkoj de multaj esploristoj. Sekve, gi sugestas minimuman liston de lektaj terminoj, multaj el kiuj troveblas dise tra la literaturo. Tamen, kelkaj terminoj estas ci tie unuan fojon uzataj.
Portugala lingvo en Ǔnesko?
Authors: Ŭusink-Nagata Akiko
Published: November 2010

Portuguese in Unesco?
Recommendation 73 of the World Conference on Cultural Policies (Mexico City, 1982) dealt with Portuguese and other languages, calling on the director-general of Unesco to promote study of the possible use of Portuguese as a working language in the organization. Six reasons were given, including the fact that Portuguese is now the official language of seven member-states, that it is used also in various forms in other parts of the world, that it is a language that bridges cultural and racial diversity, and that it is already an official language of the Organization of American States.
At the Unesco General Conference in 1983, representatives of three Portuguese-speaking countries addressed the session in Portuguese, and the representative of Portugal specifically called for the introduction of Portuguese as a working language. Currently there are three categories of languages at Unesco: the official languages of the General Conference, eight in number; the working languages of the General Conference and the Executive Board, of which there are six; and the working languages of the offices (English and French are those of headquarters).
A recent Unesco document dealing with the introduction of Portuguese and other working languages calculates the cost of introducing a new working language at between $4,421,000 and $6,521,100 per biennium for limited use (i.e., translation of certain documents and provision of interpretation in certain meetings) and between $13,889,500 and $18,520,600 for use on a par with the other working languages. While the Joint Inspection Unit of the United Nations has warned against the costs involved in introducing further languages into the UN system, the director-general has tended to favor a somewhat more egalitarian approach to the problem, emphasizing the necessity to weigh such considerations as cultural values against the purely utilitarian question of cost.
Taiwan's Romanized Script for Mandarin Chinese
Authors: Jordan David K.
Published: November 2010

Novan sistemon por reprezenti la cinan (mandarenan) lingvon per latinaj literoj anoncis la Ministerio pri Edukado de la Respubliko de Cinio (Tajvano) en majo 1984. La piano restos "provizora" dum unu jaro por permesi publikan diskutadon. La celo estas anstataûi la de 1928 gis nun oficialan sed efektive neuzatan sistemon "Gwoyeu Romatzyh," kiu reprezentas diferencojn de tonalteco per malsamaj literumadoj (ekz., la unua silabo de "Gwoyeu Romatzyh" literumigas guo, gwo, guoo, au guoh, dépende de la tonalteco). Tajvano ne partoprenis la lingvoreformojn de la aliaj cinaj provincoj, kaj tial ne uzas la kontinentan sistemon Hanyu Pinyin. En la lernejoj oni instruas la sonojn de la mandarena per pli malnova sed tre efika ne-latina alfabeto Mandarenaj Fonetikaj Simboloj (MFS). La nova latiniga sistemo, ne anstataùos MFSon, sed estas uzota en internaciaj sferoj kiam ajn latina sistemo estas deviga au konvena. La provizora skemo pli malpli isomorfos kun la MFS, kaj fakte havas ec la nomon MFS 2. Oni esperas, ke tiu isomorfeco faciligos lernadon de la nova sistemo flanke de cinoj kiuj jam konas MFSon (kiu nun nomigos MFS 1) kaj de la ne-latina MFS 1 flanke de eksterlandaj studentoj. La artikolo pritraktas kelkajn diferencojn inter MFS 2 kaj la sistemo Hanyu Pinyin vaste uzata ekster Tajvano, sed ne enhavas plenan priskribon, car la skemo restas provizora. La Ministerio ne anoncis planojn por propagandi au ec mem uzi la sistemon post tiam, kiam gi atingos sian definitivan formon.
Review of Allardt & Starck (1981): Språkgränser och samhällsstruktur. Finlandssvenskarna i ett jämförande perspektiv
Authors: Schubert Klaus
Published: November 2010

La libro enhavas tri partojn, superrigardan pri etna identeco, unuetnan pri la finn-landaj svedoj kaj detalstudan pri la svedoj de Helsinki, komplete dulingva grupo. In-ternacie plej interesa estas la unua, pli teoria parto, en kiu Allardt zorge kaj detale prezentas la kunefikadon de aro da individuaj kaj grupaj faktoroj, kiuj karakterizas etnan grupon. La klopodojn trovi trafan difinon komplikigas la fakto, ke neniu kriterio validas por ciuj minoritatanoj, kaj ke apenaû iu kriterio estas administre kontrolebla. Allardt komparas la vekigon de etna konscio en la 1970aj jaroj kun la estiganta naciismo en la 19a jarcento kaj montras kiel la etna ekagado koincidas kun generala politika impeto en okcidenta Eûropo. Gi trafas kreskintan pretecon ce la registaroj cedi funda-mentajn rajtojn ankaù al minoritatoj. La studo traktas kiel tio speguligas en la ling-volegoj de diversaj statoj kaj diskutas la du cefajn principojn, kiuj gvidas la konstatadon de bezono je minoritatlingvaj publikaj servoj, la teritorian kaj la personan principojn. La svedlingva libro enhavas valoran materialon por internaciaj komparoj kaj meritas internacian atenton.
Problématique de la politique linguistique de l'Agence de coopération culturelle et technique
Authors: Corbeil Jean-Claude
Published: November 2010

SUMMARY
Problems of the Linguistic Policy of the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation
The Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation (ACCT) is an organization for multilateral cooperation that brings together all countries in which French is used. Although the working language of the organization is French, for the most part, member countries are bilingual or multilingual, a situation that has led to the adoption of a complex yet largely implicit linguistic policy, basic considerations of which are the status of French as a common language and the development of national languages within member states. A bilingual relationship between the French language, as a European language of international communication, and the national language poses a problem for the organization.
This article explores the history of the ACCT and the goals of the organization. It also analyzes the linguistic problems posed for the agency by the need to accommodate different varieties of French and, more importantly, by differences in the status of French in each of the member nations.
RESUMO
Problematiko de la lingvopolitiko de la Instanco pri Kultura kaj Teknika Kunlaboro
La Instanco pri Kultura kaj Teknika Kunlaboro (ACCT) estas organizo por mult-flanka kunlaboro, kiu kunigas ĉiujn landojn, en kiuj la franca lingvo estas uzata. Kvankam la labora lingvo de la organizo estas la franca, la statoj-membroj estas plej-parte dulingvaj aŭ multlingvaj—situacio, kiu rezultigis la starigon de komplika sed plejparte implicita lingvopolitiko, kies bazaj konsideroj estas la statuso de la franca kiel komuna lingvo, kaj la evoluigo de naciaj lingvoj ene de la teritorioj de la statoj-membroj. Tia dulingva rilato inter la franca lingvo, kiel eŭropa lingvo de internacia ko-munikado, kaj la nacia lingvo prezentas problemon por la organizo.
La artikolo esploras la historion de la menciita organizo kaj ĝiajn celojn. Gi ankaŭ analizas la lingvajn problemojn, kiujn ĝi prezentas, pro la bezono akomodi diversajn variantojn de la franca lingvo, kaj, pli grave, pro diferencoj en la statuso de la franca lingvo en la diversaj nacioj-membroj.
Wanted
Authors: Verloren van Themaat Willem A.
Published: November 2010

Bezonata: Kompara kultura historio de la aktive uzataj klasikaj lingvoj
Ne ekzistas kompara kultura historio de klasikaj lingvoj, t.e. lingvoj, kiuj daŭre ludas gravan rolon en religio, scienco, belarto au internacia komunikado longe post tiam, kiam ili cesas funkcii kiel popolaj lingvoj. Tia historio estus valora ilo ne nur por fakuloj pri klasikaj lingvoj, sed ankaŭ por lingvistoj ĝenerale kaj socilingvistoj aparte. La aŭtoro faras sugestojn por kompilado de tia verko, kaj faras alvokon al ĝia plenumiĝo.
Paradigmatic Psychology in Narrative Perspective
Authors: Cheyne Allan , Tarulli Donato
Published: November 2010

Structural and conceptual parallels between paradigmatic and narrative discourse are drawn and a single taxonomy of genres is applied to each. In particular, we argue that narrative depictions of person, place, and time, as reflected in Bakhtin's account of novelistic genres, find their parallels in the paradigmatic discourse of scientific psychology. In the first part of the paper we provide illustrations of the application of Bakhtin's description of narratives of adventure and ordeal to naturalistic and experimental reports in psychology. In the second part of the paper we turn to the theoretical discourse of psychology and illustrate the relevance of Bakhtin's historical typology of the Bildungsroman to various ways in which the notion of development is inscribed in psychological theory. In each case we consider the ways in which implicit narrative structures and themes enable and constrain practice and theory in paradigmatic science.
Stitches and Casts
Authors: Peterson Carole , Biggs Marleen
Published: November 2010

The narratives of children (2-13 years) who had experienced trauma injuries requiring hospital Emergency Room treatment were analyzed for coherence. Specifically, the degree to which the children embedded their accounts within both an orienta-tive and evaluative context was assessed as well as whether they organized their narratives around high points. In addition, distress of the children at both time of injury and of treatment was rated on a 6-point scale by parents. There were qualitative as well as quantitative changes in the narratives of children at different ages. As well, the children who were more distressed produced less coherent accounts. While 9-13-year-olds who were most upset produced more orientative propositions, highly distressed 2-3-year-olds produced fewer, and all age groups produced fewer evaluative propositions as distress increased. It was proposed that this pattern of decreased evaluation resembled the affect flattening found in victims of posttraumatic stress syndrome. As well, the changes in coherence across the preschool years were discussed in terms of their possible contribution to the phenomenon of infantile amnesia. (Psychology)
A Life History Perspective on Parenting
Authors: Johnson Merrilyn O. , Ball L. Julia , Haight Barbara , Hendrix Shirley
Published: November 2010

Utilizing the life history methodology, this paper will examine the reminiscent memories of parenting patterns and perceived parent-child interaction experienced by 18 adult women over 63 years of age, with the aim of exploring the linkage of these early experiences to the present day relationships these women have with their adult children. (Methodology: Life history)
The Value of Recounting Narratives
Authors: Ball Arnetha F.
Published: November 2010

This article examines the narratives of more than fifty students and teachers who live and work in inner-city areas of the U.S. and South Africa. The purpose of this investigation was to consider some striking similarities in the themes that emerged from the narratives of "most memorable learning experiences" shared by these inner-city learners and their implications for policy. In this article, attention is given not only to the value of these narratives to the individuals who have shared them, but also to the value of sharing these narratives with "Others" (i.e., policy makers, administrators, and curriculum developers) who are engaged in dialogues about the reform of education for inner-city populations here in the U.S. and in South Africa. The U.S. and South Africa are two countries with similarities that make them well-suited for this investigation. Structurally, the U.S. and South Africa are both seeking ways to more effectively educate large numbers of inner-city students who are culturally and linguistically different from the "mainstream" and from the students for whom the majority of instructional materials and school expectations are tailored. With an end to legal segregation in the U.S. and apartheid in South Africa, policy makers in both countries are making critical decisions concerning the reconstruction of education systems for students whom they know very little about. A disjunction exists between the lives of the students and the policy environment that seeks to design and control the educational experiences of inner-city youth. Through narratives, this article helps the reader to appreciate this disjunction and exposes a sharp contrast between the world in which the inner-city youth lives and the world implied by the policies and practices that are proposed. I propose that narratives of memorable learning experiences collected from students and teachers who live and work in inner-city areas can provide insight concerning "what counts" as learning and what aspects of life and school experiences have most shaped their lives as learners. This article demonstrates two important functions of narrative: it demonstrates how students and teachers who live and work in inner-city areas make sense of their experiences through narrative, and how (by listening to the voices of inner-city students and teachers) others can gain a data base from which to craft expanded visions of the possibilities for the change and restructuring of schools. (Content analyses of oral and written narrative data)
The Loss of Narrative Innocence
Authors: Sun Lulu C.H.
Published: November 2010

This interdisciplinary study examines the loss of narrative innocence in adolescents' narratives. The study analyzes the development of narrative consciousness and narrative writing abilities by comparing and contrasting the narratives of children (ages eight to eleven) with those of adolescents (ages fifteen to eighteen) from public schools in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The methodology used is literary analysis.
Low-Narrativity Narratives and Argumentation
Authors: Carranza Isolda E.
Published: November 2010

Two types of conversational narratives are examined in a corpus of interviews with Salvadoran immigrants who live in Washington, D.C. On the one hand, narrative sequences of counterfactual or hypothetical events position the virtual as opposed to or in comparison with the actual and, in doing so, they convey the narrator's commentary and perspective. On the other hand, narrative sequences of repeated or habitual events create the effect of a static, self-contained picture of the past and can be used to present experience as generalized and common. Both types of sequences are characterized as resources for argumentation. It is shown how recourse to irreality takes place to back a claim and how looking at the past from the past makes the storyteller's perspective relatively immune to challenge. The sociohistorical conditions of the events recounted in the data provide the basis for the view of the immigration and integration experiences presented in this paper. (Discourse Analysis, Linguistic Anthropology)
Conversational Stories as Performances
Authors: Georgakopoulou Alexandra
Published: November 2010

This study is intended as a step towards the full uncovery of the textual and contextual, cross-cultural and particularistic aspects of the contested notion of oral performances. The data comprise conversational storytelling performances from Greece. To capture the interplay between conventional resources and contextual contingencies involved in any performance, the study employs the three dimensions of narrativity, teller-tale-telling (Blum-Kulka, 1997), as the loci of performances. With respect to the tale, Greek stories range from mini-performances to full-fledged or sustained performances. The choice of one or the other is interrelated to a story's episodic structuring, topic, and purposes of telling. A constellation of devices (keys) form the hallmarks of Greek performances; these are classified as poetic or theatrical. With regard to the stories' telling, it is argued that the teller-audience interactional norms are geared towards granting strong floor-holding rights and upholding full-fledged, single-teller performances which call attention to the teller's skill and autonomy. Finally, the locus of teller is proposed as the main site for the emergent properties of performance events. It is also argued that the relationship between these properties and the teller can be best explored with reference to the concept of positioning (Bamberg, 1997). This allows us to shed light on how performance devices, in their individualized and local uses, act as indexes of personal and sociocultural identities. The study's findings point to avenues for future research and suggest analytical ways of pursuing it. Specifically, the classification of performance keys as poetic or theatrical could be useful for the exploration of cross-cultural aspects of performance styles. In addition, the "Greek" performance devices reinforce the assumption that there is a certain set of devices typical of verbal art cross-culturally; this needs to be further documented. Overall, the study aims at demonstrating the validity and necessity of exploring the pragmatic work which performance keys accomplish in interactional contexts.
{Narrative performance, Emergence, Teller-tale-telling, Positioning)
"I Hear from People Who Read Torah... "
Authors: Schely-Newman Esther
Published: November 2010

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ways a Jewish woman uses different genres in telling her life story. Setting the narrative within its cultural and social contexts enables an examination of narrative as a life story, as well as a mode of creating and expressing changes in women's roles. In her story, the narrator chooses to present herself as a disciple of a religious male leader (a rabbi), a position which allows her to use traditionally male genres of narration. Treating the interactions between reported and authored speech, and the multiplicity of dialogues the narrative maintains, provides an understanding of the methods for implicitly challenging gender construction by contesting genre distribution. {Personal narrative, Genre, Gender, Israeli women, Change)
Adult Children of Parents with Learning Difficulties
Authors: Booth Tim
Published: November 2010

This paper reports on a study of now-adult children who grew up in families headed by a parent or parents with learning difficulties. The study set out to use narrative techniques to capture something of their experience through the stories they told about their past and present lives. Narrative researchers invariably find themselves trapped between the richness of their material and the space for writing it up. This paper addresses this conundrum by arguing for the use of composite stories or stereotypes as a methodological device for trying to convey lives "in the round" through the synthesizing function of emplotment.
What Children Say When They Talk About the Past
Authors: Reese Elaine
Published: November 2010

The study of children's spontaneous talk about the past is critical to understanding narrative and autobiographical memory development. Mothers of 59 New Zealand children recorded their spontaneous talk about past events. In Study 1, mothers recorded children's verbal memories at 25 and 32 months. Study 2 consisted of one child's verbal memories from 14.5 to 19.5 months of age. The results from both studies revealed that children progressed from talking about absent objects and locations to mentioning more complex aspects of events. At first, children's verbal memories were largely cued by the environment, but children were capable of internally cued memories from a very young age. Children's verbal memory development was not completely dependent on their language skill. Children's spontaneous memories focused on much more mundane events than those adults chose to discuss with their young children. The shift in what children find interesting to encode and discuss, along with their skill in narrating events to others, may contribute to the beginning of autobiographical memory.
Gender-Stereotyped Lessons About Emotion in Family Narratives
Authors: Chance Chris , Fiese Barbara H.
Published: November 2010

The present study investigated the prevalence of gender-stereotyped messages in family stories told to preschool age children. Based on previous research and theory it was expected that mothers would frame their stories with sadness and fathers would frame their stories with themes of anger. It was further expected that sons and daughters would be presented with stories that differed in emotional themes. One hundred and twenty families with preschool age children participated in the study. Mothers and fathers were asked to tell their child a story about when they were disappointed as a child. Two hundred and four stories were coded for themes of sadness, anger, mixed sadness and anger, and no emotional frame. Contrary to predictions, there were relatively few stories told with an anger frame. Mothers overall tended to tell disappointment stories with a frame of sadness. Fathers overall were more likely to use no emotional frame in their stories. Mothers were more likely to tell stories with sadness frames to their daughters than to sons. Two examples are provided that illustrate an instrumental focus of fathers' stories and the emotional content of mothers' stories. The process of creating meaningful stories may be an important avenue that parents use to impart gender-related values to their children.
Nostalgic Narratives
Authors: Wilson Janelle L.
Published: November 2010

This study is an exploration into the sociology of nostalgia. Interviews with African-Americans who grew up in the 1950s demonstrate the juxtaposition of painful recollections of segregation with pleasant nostalgia for family, community, and church during that decade. The data are interpreted by drawing upon the work of Fred Davis. It is suggested that nostalgia facilitates the continuity of identity. Other functions of nostalgia are suggested as well. It is significant to note that the nostalgia expressed by informants is for the collective—e.g., the strength of family relations, church membership, and neighborhood ties. This study addresses the nature and experience of nostalgia and discusses the role of nostalgia in the process of constructing and maintaining identity.
The Psychology of Time-Travel
Authors: McKenzie Kevin
Published: November 2010

This paper explores how the temporal disjunction established in the production of narrative affords a way of managing the tension between competing demands for accountability in settings where the issue of cultural difference features as a participant concern. Specifically, in speculating upon the nature of cultural variation and cross-cultural contact, interview participants employ narrative accounts to manage the tension between the demand to formulate their concerns in an impartial and unprejudiced fashion on the one hand while displaying an appreciation of and sensitivity to cultural difference on the other. Such interactional work is considered for its theoretical significance to recent developments in discursive psychology. The deployment of narrative is therefore examined for how it relates to the situated production of social scientific investigation itself as a form of social activity in which speakers manage the reflexive implications of their own participation in an undertaking where knowledge of cultural difference is worked up as the outcome of the situated activity in which they are engaged.
{Narrative, Discursive Psychology, Culture, Identity, Reflexivity)
Nonlinear optical properties of phosphorus-doped silicon nanocrystals/nanoclusters
Authors: Ito M , Imakita K , Fujii M , Hayashi S
Published: December 2010

Comprehensive studies have been performed on the nonlinear optical responses of silica films containing phosphorus (P)-doped Si nanoclusters and/or nanocrystals. In P-doped Si nanocrystals, enhancements of the nonlinear refractive indices (n
2) and two photon absorption coefficients (β) relative to those of intrinsic Si nanocrystals were observed. The analysis of electron spin resonance and absorption spectra revealed that P donors are responsible for the large enhancements of n
2 and β.
Controlling pitch length of chiral monomer-doped nematic/cholesteric liquid crystals using photopolymerization
Authors: Liu Cheng-Kai , Fuh Andy Ying-Guey , Chen Yuan-Di , Cheng Ko-Ting
Published: December 2010

This work presents a simple approach to control the pitch length of chiral monomer-doped nematic/cholesteric liquid crystals (CM-NLCs/CM-CLCs) using photopolymerization. Illuminating CM-NLCs/CM-CLCs with unpolarized UV light causes the diffusion and polymerization of CM, and then increases/decreases the pitch length by reducing the concentration of the CM in the bulk. It should be noted that the pitch length change is irreversible in either red- or blue-shift. The key to control the pitch length of CM-NLCs/CM-CLCs is the competition between the right- and left-hand chiral dopants in the sample. CM-NLCs and CM-CLCs are used to study the red- and blue-shifts, respectively. The properties of cobweb-like polymer layers are also discussed.
Probing photo-ionization: simulations of positive streamers in varying N2 : O2-mixtures
Authors: Wormeester G , Pancheshnyi S , Luque A , Nijdam S , Ebert U
Published: December 2010

Photo-ionization is the accepted mechanism for the propagation of positive streamers in air though the parameters are not very well known; the efficiency of this mechanism largely depends on the presence of both nitrogen and oxygen. But experiments show that streamer propagation is amazingly robust against changes of the gas composition; even for pure nitrogen with impurity levels below 1 ppm streamers propagate essentially with the same velocity as in air, but their minimal diameter is smaller, and they branch more frequently. Additionally, they move more in a zigzag fashion and sometimes exhibit a feathery structure. In our simulations, we test the relative importance of photo-ionization and of the background ionization from pulsed repetitive discharges, in air as well as in nitrogen with 1 ppm O2. We also test reasonable parameter changes of the photo-ionization model. We find that photo-ionization dominates streamer propagation in air for repetition frequencies of at least 1 kHz, while in nitrogen with 1 ppm O2 the effect of the repetition frequency has to be included above 1 Hz. Finally, we explain the feather-like structures around streamer channels that are observed in experiments in high purity nitrogen, but not in air.
Silicon–germanium interdiffusion in strained Ge/SiGe multiple quantum well structures
Authors: Liu Xue-Chao , Leadley D R
Published: December 2010

A strain-symmetrized Ge/Si0.35Ge0.65 multiple quantum well (MQW) structure has been grown on a relaxed Si0.2Ge0.8 virtual substrate by reduced pressure chemical vapour deposition. The as-grown Ge/Si0.35Ge0.65 MQW structure with one period thickness of 25 nm (14 nm/11 nm) was annealed in nitrogen ambient at different temperatures from 550 to 750 °C. The thermal stability and interdiffusion properties were studied by high-resolution x-ray diffraction. No obvious interdiffusion or strain relaxation in the Ge/Si0.35Ge0.65 MQW structure was observed for annealing temperatures ⩽600 °C, while the onset of interdiffusion occurred as the temperature was increased to above 650 °C. The interdiffusion coefficient was obtained by analysing the decay rate of Ge/SiGe periodic satellites in the recorded intensity at temperatures 650–750 °C. The extracted activation energy was found to be 3.08 ± 0.1 eV for the strained Ge/Si0.35Ge0.65 MQW structure with an average Ge composition of 85 at%.
The effect of duty cycle on the microstructure and properties of graphite-like amorphous carbon films prepared by unbalanced magnetron sputtering
Authors: Wang Yongjun , Li Hongxuan , Ji Li , Zhao Fei , Liu Xiaohong , Kong Qinghua , Wang Yongxia , Quan Weilong , Zhou Huidi , Chen Jianmin
Published: December 2010

The effect of duty cycle on the microstructure and properties of graphite-like amorphous carbon films prepared by unbalanced magnetron sputtering was investigated. The structure of the resultant carbon film is amorphous, as shown by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Raman analysis shows that the studied films are dominated by sp2 sites, and the intensity ratio of the D and G peaks ranges from 4.0 at a duty cycle of 20% to 6.0 at 50%, which is one order of magnitude larger than that of diamond-like carbon films, indicating an obvious increase in sp2 sites with duty cycle. The surface morphology was investigated by atomic force microscopy. The images show that the as-deposited carbon films have a very rough surface, and the maximum granular structure size is up to 180 nm in diameter and 50 nm in height. The hardness and internal stress of the resultant carbon films increase with increasing duty cycle, accompanied by an increase in sp2 fraction in the films, which is different from the diamond-like carbon films. In addition, the resultant carbon films show superior tribological properties with high load-bearing capacity and excellent wear resistance. The influence of duty cycle on the microstructure and properties is discussed in detail.
On conductivity type conversion of p-type silicon exposed to a low-frequency inductively coupled plasma of Ar + H2
Authors: Zhou H P , Xu L X , Xu S , Huang S Y , Wei D Y , Xiao S Q , Yan W S , Xu M
Published: December 2010

The treatment of an Ar + H2 plasma generated by a low-frequency inductively coupled plasma system at 500 °C introduces an n-type region (of average electron concentration ∼1015 cm−3) on a Czochralski p-type substrate, forming a deep p–n junction. Examination by an electron microscope shows that the plasma treatment produces uniform nanocones on the surface and some defects, such as dislocations and platelets, in the subsurface. All these observed results are hydrogen-related. The conductivity type conversion is due to the formation of hydrogen-enhanced oxygen-related thermal donors (OTDs) as well as hydrogen-incorporated shallow thermal donors. The OTD-related signals are directly observed in the infrared absorption spectra. Both donors are annihilated after annealing at 550 °C for 10 min, resulting in conductivity recovery from n-type to original p-type. The electrical properties of the as-formed junction are investigated using current versus voltage (I–V), capacitance versus voltage (C–V) and Hall effect measurements. On this basis, the junction depth, carrier profile and hydrogen diffusion behaviour are studied. Moreover, a clear photovoltaic effect of the junction has been observed through the Suns-Voc and illuminated I–V tests.
Distributed surface donor states and the two-dimensional electron gas at AlGaN/GaN heterojunctions
Authors: Gordon Luke , Miao Mao-Sheng , Chowdhury Srabanti , Higashiwaki Masataka , Mishra Umesh K , Van de Walle Chris G
Published: December 2010

Surface donor states with distributed and finite density are implemented in Schrödinger–Poisson simulations of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors, with the goal of studying their effects on the two-dimensional electron gas. Our recent experimental observations of an increasing surface barrier height with increasing AlGaN thickness are fitted very well by simulations including surface donor levels represented by a constant density of states (DOS) with a density on the order of 1013 cm−2 eV−1. The highest occupied surface states are found to be around 1 eV below the conduction-band minimum, considerably higher in energy than previously reported single surface donor levels. These trends can be explained by the features of oxidized AlGaN surfaces. Furthermore, the surface DOS that fit the experimental results are found to be larger for samples with higher Al concentration.
Fluctuations in out-of-equilibrium systems: from theory to experiment
Authors: Ciliberto S , Joubaud S , Petrosyan A
Published: December 2010

We introduce from an experimental point of view the main concepts of fluctuation
theorems for work, heat and entropy production in out-of-equilibrium systems. We will
discuss the important difference between the applications of these concepts to
stochastic systems and to a second class of systems (chaotic systems) where the
fluctuations are induced either by chaotic flows or by fluctuating driving forces. We
will mainly analyze the stochastic systems using the measurements performed
in two experiments: (a) a harmonic oscillator driven out of equilibrium by an
external force; (b) a colloidal particle trapped in a time-dependent double-well
potential. We will rapidly describe some consequences of fluctuation theorems and
some useful applications to the analysis of experimental data. As an example,
the case of a molecular motor will be analyzed in some detail. Finally we will
discuss the problems related to the applications of fluctuation theorems to chaotic
systems.
maxAlike: maximum likelihood-based sequence reconstruction with application to improved primer design for unknown sequences
Authors: Menzel Peter , Stadler Peter F. , Gorodkin Jan
Published: December 2010

Motivation: The task of reconstructing a genomic sequence from a particular species is gaining more and more importance in the light of the rapid development of high-throughput sequencing technologies and their limitations. Applications include not only compensation for missing data in unsequenced genomic regions and the design of oligonucleotide primers for target genes in species with lacking sequence information but also the preparation of customized queries for homology searches.

Results: We introduce the maxAlike algorithm, which reconstructs a genomic sequence for a specific taxon based on sequence homologs in other species. The input is a multiple sequence alignment and a phylogenetic tree that also contains the target species. For this target species, the algorithm computes nucleotide probabilities at each sequence position. Consensus sequences are then reconstructed based on a certain confidence level. For 37 out of 44 target species in a test dataset, we obtain a significant increase of the reconstruction accuracy compared to both the consensus sequence from the alignment and the sequence of the nearest phylogenetic neighbor. When considering only nucleotides above a confidence limit, maxAlike is significantly better (up to 10%) in all 44 species. The improved sequence reconstruction also leads to an increase of the quality of PCR primer design for yet unsequenced genes: the differences between the expected Tm and real Tm of the primer-template duplex can be reduced by ~26% compared with other reconstruction approaches. We also show that the prediction accuracy is robust to common distortions of the input trees. The prediction accuracy drops by only 1% on average across all species for 77% of trees derived from random genomic loci in a test dataset.

Availability:  maxAlike is available for download and web server at: http://rth.dk/resources/maxAlike.

Contact:  gorodkin@rth.dk

Supplementary information:  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Open source platform for the execution and analysis of mechanical refolding experiments
Authors: Aioanei Daniel , Brucale Marco , Samorí Bruno
Published: December 2010

Motivation: Single-molecule force spectroscopy has facilitated the experimental investigation of biomolecular force-coupled kinetics, from which the kinetics at zero force can be extrapolated via explicit theoretical models. The atomic force microscope (AFM) in particular is routinely used to study protein unfolding kinetics, but only rarely protein folding kinetics. The discrepancy arises because mechanical protein refolding studies are more technically challenging.

Results: We developed software that can drive and analyse mechanical refolding experiments when used with the commercial AFM setup ‘Picoforce AFM’, Bruker (previously Digital Instruments). We expect the software to be easily adaptable to other AFM setups. We also developed an improved method for the statistical characterization of protein folding kinetics, and implemented it into an AFM-independent software module.

Availability: Software and documentation are available at http://code.google.com/p/refolding under Apache License 2.0.

Contact:  aioaneid@gmail.com

Supplementary information:  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Estimation of Heterogeneous Treatment Effects from Randomized Experiments, with Application to the Optimal Planning of the Get-Out-the-Vote Campaign
Authors: Imai Kosuke , Strauss Aaron
Published: December 2010

Although a growing number of political scientists are conducting randomized experiments, many of them only report the average treatment effects and do not systematically explore the variation in treatment effects across subpopulations. This is unfortunate from a scientific point of view because heterogeneous treatment effects can provide additional substantive insights. This current state of affairs is also problematic from a policy makers' perspective since such studies do not identify subgroups for which treatments are effective. In this paper, we propose a formal two-step framework that first identifies heterogeneous treatment effects from a randomized experiment and then uses this information to derive an optimal policy about which treatment should be given to whom. Our proposed method avoids the risk of false discoveries that are likely in post hoc subgroup analysis routinely conducted in the discipline. We discuss our methodology in the context of get-out-the-vote randomized field experiments and show how the proposed two-step framework can be applied in real-world settings.
Neither infants nor toddlers catch yawns from their mothers
Authors: Millen Ailsa , Anderson James R.
Published: December 2010

This study aimed to clarify whether infants and preschool children show susceptibility to contagious yawning, a well-known effect that has been demonstrated experimentally in older children and adults by exposing them to video sequences showing yawns. In a first study, parents kept a log of their child's yawns for a one week period. None of the log entries reported any contagious yawns by the children. Although less frequent than in older children and adults, spontaneous yawning by infants and preschoolers showed the typical morning, post-wakening peak, and an increase before bedtime in the evening. In an experimental study, infants and preschoolers watched a presentation that included many images of yawning and a repeated video clip of their own mother yawning, but there was no evidence of contagious yawning. The results suggest that, even when witnessing yawns by someone with whom they have a strong and positive emotional relationship, very young children do not show contagious yawning.
Herald waves of cholera in nineteenth century London
Authors: Tien Joseph H. , Poinar Hendrik N. , Fisman David N. , Earn David J. D.
Published: December 2010

Deaths from cholera in London, UK, were recorded weekly from 1824 to 1901. Three features of the time series stand out: (i) cholera deaths were strongly seasonal, with peak mortality almost always in the summer, (ii) the only non-summer outbreaks occurred in the spring of 1832, the autumn of 1848 and the winter of 1853, and (iii) extraordinarily severe summer outbreaks occurred in 1832, 1849, 1854 and 1866 (the four ‘great’ cholera years). The non-summer outbreaks of 1832, 1848 and 1853 appear to have been herald waves of newly invading cholera strains. In addition, a simple mathematical model confirms that a non-summer introduction of a new cholera strain can result in an initial herald wave, followed by a severe outbreak the following summer. Through the analysis of the genomes of nineteenth-century specimens, it may be possible to identify the strains that caused these herald waves and the well-known cholera epidemics that followed.
Exposure to visual cues of pathogen contagion changes preferences for masculinity and symmetry in opposite-sex faces
Authors: Little Anthony C. , DeBruine Lisa M. , Jones Benedict C.
Published: December 2010

Evolutionary approaches to human attractiveness have documented several traits that are proposed to be attractive across individuals and cultures, although both cross-individual and cross-cultural variations are also often found. Previous studies show that parasite prevalence and mortality/health are related to cultural variation in preferences for attractive traits. Visual experience of pathogen cues may mediate such variable preferences. Here we showed individuals slideshows of images with cues to low and high pathogen prevalence and measured their visual preferences for face traits. We found that both men and women moderated their preferences for facial masculinity and symmetry according to recent experience of visual cues to environmental pathogens. Change in preferences was seen mainly for opposite-sex faces, with women preferring more masculine and more symmetric male faces and men preferring more feminine and more symmetric female faces after exposure to pathogen cues than when not exposed to such cues. Cues to environmental pathogens had no significant effects on preferences for same-sex faces. These data complement studies of cross-cultural differences in preferences by suggesting a mechanism for variation in mate preferences. Similar visual experience could lead to within-cultural agreement and differing visual experience could lead to cross-cultural variation. Overall, our data demonstrate that preferences can be strategically flexible according to recent visual experience with pathogen cues. Given that cues to pathogens may signal an increase in contagion/mortality risk, it may be adaptive to shift visual preferences in favour of proposed good-gene markers in environments where such cues are more evident.
Origin and early evolution of neural circuits for the control of ciliary locomotion
Authors: Jékely Gáspár
Published: December 2010

Behaviour evolved before nervous systems. Various single-celled eukaryotes (protists) and the ciliated larvae of sponges devoid of neurons can display sophisticated behaviours, including phototaxis, gravitaxis or chemotaxis. In single-celled eukaryotes, sensory inputs directly influence the motor behaviour of the cell. In swimming sponge larvae, sensory cells influence the activity of cilia on the same cell, thereby steering the multicellular larva. In these organisms, the efficiency of sensory-to-motor transformation (defined as the ratio of sensory cells to total cell number) is low. With the advent of neurons, signal amplification and fast, long-range communication between sensory and motor cells became possible. This may have first occurred in a ciliated swimming stage of the first eumetazoans. The first axons may have haden passantsynaptic contacts to several ciliated cells to improve the efficiency of sensory-to-motor transformation, thereby allowing a reduction in the number of sensory cells tuned for the same input. This could have allowed the diversification of sensory modalities and of the behavioural repertoire. I propose that the first nervous systems consisted of combined sensory-motor neurons, directly translating sensory input into motor output on locomotor ciliated cells and steering muscle cells. Neuronal circuitry with low levels of integration has been retained in cnidarians and in the ciliated larvae of some marine invertebrates. This parallel processing stage could have been the starting point for the evolution of more integrated circuits performing the first complex computations such as persistence or coincidence detection. The sensory-motor nervous systems of cnidarians and ciliated larvae of diverse phyla show that brains, like all biological structures, are not irreducibly complex.
Kin-informative recognition cues in ants
Authors: Nehring Volker , Evison Sophie E. F. , Santorelli Lorenzo A. , d'Ettorre Patrizia , Hughes William O. H.
Published: December 2010

Although social groups are characterized by cooperation, they are also often the scene of conflict. In non-clonal systems, the reproductive interests of group members will differ and individuals may benefit by exploiting the cooperative efforts of other group members. However, such selfish behaviour is thought to be rare in one of the classic examples of cooperation—social insect colonies—because the colony-level costs of individual selfishness select against cues that would allow workers to recognize their closest relatives. In accord with this, previous studies of wasps and ants have found little or no kin information in recognition cues. Here, we test the hypothesis that social insects do not have kin-informative recognition cues by investigating the recognition cues and relatedness of workers from four colonies of the ant
Acromyrmex octospinosus
. Contrary to the theoretical prediction, we show that the cuticular hydrocarbons of ant workers in all four colonies are informative enough to allow full-sisters to be distinguished from half-sisters with a high accuracy. These results contradict the hypothesis of non-heritable recognition cues and suggest that there is more potential for within-colony conflicts in genetically diverse societies than previously thought.