bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reductive insertion of sulfur dioxide for the synthesis of trifluoromethyl thiolsulphonates through a one-pot reaction of aniline and trifluoromethanesulfanylamide
Authors: Sheng Jie , Li Yuewen , Qiu Guanyinsheng
Published: October 2016

A bismuth(iii) chloride-mediated three-component reaction of anilines, sulfur dioxide, and trifluoromethanesulfanylamide is reported herein for the efficient synthesis of antifungal trifluoromethyl thiolsulphonates with a good reaction scope.
Narrow-band red-emitting Mn4+-doped hexafluoride phosphors: synthesis, optoelectronic properties, and applications in white light-emitting diodes
Authors: Nguyen Hoang-Duy , Liu Ru-Shi
Published: October 2016

White light-emitting diodes (LEDs), including a blue-chip and yellow-emitting phosphor, are regarded as the new-generation of lighting sources because of their low energy consumption, long lifetime, and environmentally friendliness.
mTORC1 signalling and eIF4E/4E-BP1 translation initiation factor stoichiometry influence recombinant protein productivity from GS-CHOK1 cells
Authors: Jossé Lyne , Xie Jianling , Proud Christopher G. , Smales C. Mark
Published: October 2016

Many protein-based biotherapeutics are produced in cultured Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines. Recent reports have demonstrated that translation of recombinant mRNAs and global control of the translation machinery via mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling are important determinants of the amount and quality of recombinant protein such cells can produce. mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) is a master regulator of cell growth/division, ribosome biogenesis and protein synthesis, but the relationship between mTORC1 signalling, cell growth and proliferation and recombinant protein yields from mammalian cells, and whether this master regulating signalling pathway can be manipulated to enhance cell biomass and recombinant protein production (rPP) are not well explored. We have investigated mTORC1 signalling and activity throughout batch culture of a panel of sister recombinant glutamine synthetase-CHO cell lines expressing different amounts of a model monoclonal IgG4, to evaluate the links between mTORC1 signalling and cell proliferation, autophagy, recombinant protein expression, global protein synthesis and mRNA translation initiation. We find that the expression of the mTORC1 substrate 4E-binding protein 1 (4E-BP1) fluctuates throughout the course of cell culture and, as expected, that the 4E-BP1 phosphorylation profiles change across the culture. Importantly, we find that the eIF4E/4E-BP1 stoichiometry positively correlates with cell productivity. Furthermore, eIF4E amounts appear to be co-regulated with 4E-BP1 amounts. This may reflect a sensing of either change at the mRNA level as opposed to the protein level or the fact that the phosphorylation status, as well as the amount of 4E-BP1 present, is important in the co-regulation of eIF4E and 4E-BP1.
Chaperone families and interactions in metazoa
Authors: Bar-Lavan Yael , Shemesh Netta , Ben-Zvi Anat
Published: October 2016

Quality control is an essential aspect of cellular function, with protein folding quality control being carried out by molecular chaperones, a diverse group of highly conserved proteins that specifically identify misfolded conformations. Molecular chaperones are thus required to support proteins affected by expressed polymorphisms, mutations, intrinsic errors in gene expression, chronic insult or the acute effects of the environment, all of which contribute to a flux of metastable proteins. In this article, we review the four main chaperone families in metazoans, namely Hsp60 (where Hsp is heat-shock protein), Hsp70, Hsp90 and sHsps (small heat-shock proteins), as well as their co-chaperones. Specifically, we consider the structural and functional characteristics of each family and discuss current models that attempt to explain how chaperones recognize and act together to protect or recover aberrant proteins.
Design Considerations for Internet-Delivered Self-Management Programs for Adults With Hearing Impairment
Authors: Preminger Jill E. , Rothpletz Ann M.
Published: October 2016

Purpose

Hearing impairment (HI) is a chronic condition; thus, even with treatment, residual participation restrictions and activity limitations typically remain. Individuals must learn to self-manage their HI. The purpose of this research note is to review components of successful Internet-based self-management programs and to evaluate group auditory rehabilitation (AR) programs with varying content, in order to make recommendations for the design of future Internet-based self-management programs.

Method

Effect sizes for changes in HI-specific quality of life following group AR activities from 4 published studies were calculated to determine if effect size varied systematically as a function of group activities. These findings are described using a self-management framework.

Results

Successful group AR activities include (a) psychosocial activities to promote role management, emotional management, and social support; (b) informational lectures and group discussion to promote education; (c) communication strategy exercises to promote self-efficacy and self-management skills; and (d) the inclusion of a frequent communication partner to promote social support and self-tailoring.

Conclusions

It is recommended that future Internet-based self-management programs focus on the mechanisms of social support and education to promote learning and self-management skills. Future research will determine if these AR activities may be implemented effectively via the Internet.
Hearing Device Manufacturers Call for Interoperability and Standardization of Internet and Audiology
Authors: Laplante-Lévesque Ariane , Abrams Harvey , Bülow Maja , Lunner Thomas , Nelson John , Riis Søren Kamaric , Vanpoucke Filiep
Published: October 2016

Purpose

This article describes the perspectives of hearing device manufacturers regarding the exciting developments that the Internet makes possible. Specifically, it proposes to join forces toward interoperability and standardization of Internet and audiology.

Method

A summary of why such a collaborative effort is required is provided from historical and scientific perspectives. A roadmap toward interoperability and standardization is proposed.

Results

Information and communication technologies improve the flow of health care data and pave the way to better health care. However, hearing-related products, features, and services are notoriously heterogeneous and incompatible with other health care systems (no interoperability). Standardization is the process of developing and implementing technical standards (e.g., Noah hearing database). All parties involved in interoperability and standardization realize mutual gains by making mutually consistent decisions.
De jure
(officially endorsed) standards can be developed in collaboration with large national health care systems as well as spokespeople for hearing care professionals and hearing device users. The roadmap covers mutual collaboration; data privacy, security, and ownership; compliance with current regulations; scalability and modularity; and the scope of interoperability and standards.

Conclusions

We propose to join forces to pave the way to the interoperable Internet and audiology products, features, and services that the world needs.
Have Cochlear Implant, Won't Have to Travel: Introducing Telemedicine to People Using Cochlear Implants
Authors: Cullington Helen , Kitterick Padraig , DeBold Lisa , Weal Mark , Clarke Nicholas , Newberry Eva , Aubert Lisa
Published: October 2016

Purpose

This research note describes a planned project to design, implement, and evaluate remote care for adults using cochlear implants and compare their outcomes with those of individuals following the standard care pathway.

Method

Sixty people with cochlear implants will be recruited and randomized to either the remote care group or a control group. The remote care group will use new tools for 6 months: remote and self-monitoring, self-adjustment of device, and a personalized online support tool. The main outcome measure is patient empowerment, with secondary outcomes of stability in hearing and quality of life, patient and clinician preference, and use of clinic resources.

Conclusion

The clinical trial ends in summer 2016. Remote care may offer a viable method of follow-up for some adults with cochlear implants.
Enhanced X‐ray image segmentation method using prior shape
Authors: Mohammadi Hossein Mahvash , de Guise Jacques A.
Published: October 2016

An enhanced version of a segmentation algorithm applied in X‐ray images using a prior shape and a straightened boundary image (SBI) is proposed. In the SBI method, the boundary of the target object is extracted with a constant width along the prior shape and transformed to a rectangular image in which the edges are straightened. A new minimal path algorithm is proposed and applied to SBI minimising a cost function to select the best path corresponding to the edges of the target object. The cost function is calculated based on all possible paths from each pixel to the beginning of the image while lowering the computational complexity. Comparing with previous methods, the proposed method removes artefacts and provides clearer and smoother edges even when the prior shape is far from the target object. The method is also less sensitive to the initial positioning of the prior shape model.
Comparison of switched‐flux permanent magnet machines with non‐overlapping concentrated winding for open‐winding generator system
Authors: Wang Yu , Deng Zhiquan
Published: October 2016

The open‐winding permanent magnet generator (OWPMG) systems, having the advantages such as high power density, relatively few power switches, high degree of integration and easy to realise power distribution, are suitable for applications like renewable energy power generation systems with multiple power sources. The non‐overlapping concentrated winding switched‐flux permanent magnet (NOWSFPM) machines, having relatively high torque density and big flux‐weakening inductance, are good choices when used in OWPMG systems. The electromagnetic performance of the 6/10 NOWSFPM machine, the 6/7 E‐core NOWSFPM machine, the 6/7 E‐core NOWSFPM machine with pole shoe and the 6/19 multi‐tooth NOWSFPM machine are compared and analysed. Based on the results and according to two defined factors, namely the proportion factor of the power distribution and the speed range, this study mainly focuses on the influence of the flux‐weakening coefficient (ρ) on the capability of the power distribution control. The analysis conclusions are verified by experimental results, indicating that the 6/19 multi‐tooth NOWSFPM machine (ρ ≃ 1) has relatively strong power distribution capability.
Zero potential method measurement error analysis for networked resistive sensor arrays
Authors: Zhang Xuefeng , Ye Xiangdong
Published: October 2016

This study presents the measurement error analysis of two dimensional resistive sensor arrays sharing row and column connections to reduce the interconnections complexity, based on the setting non‐current scanned electrodes zero potential (S‐NCSE‐ZP) method. The authors provide a mathematical model to evaluate the performance of the circuit and optimise its design by calculating the voltage of the electrodes in sensor array. To reveal the effects of the circuit parameters on the performance of the circuit, the authors perform a parametric study on the array size, adjacent elements, and on‐resistance of switches. The theoretical results show that the on‐resistance of switches significantly influences on the performance of the S‐NCSE‐ZP circuit. Moreover, array size and adjacent elements also play an important role in the performance of the circuit. Finally, the authors present an efficient circuit based on the zero potential method, to overcome on the measurement inaccuracy.
Healthcare data safe havens: towards a logical architecture and experiment automation
Authors: Robertson David , Giunchiglia Fausto , Pavis Stephen , Turra Ettore , Bella Gabor , Elliot Elizabeth , Morris Andrew , Atkinson Malcolm , McAllister Gordon , Manataki Areti , Papapanagiotou Petros , Parsons Mark
Published: October 2016

In computing science, much attention has been paid to generic methods for sharing data in secure infrastructures. These sorts of methods and infrastructures are, of course, necessary for sharing healthcare data. The authors are, however, a long way away from being able to realise the potential of medical and healthcare data to support the sorts of extensive, data‐intensive experiments being demanded by precision and stratified medicine. A key architectural problem remaining to be solved is how to maintain control of patient data within the governance of local data jurisdictions, while also allowing these jurisdictions to engage with experiment designs that (because of the need to scale to large population sizes) may require analyses across several jurisdictions. This study provides a snapshot of architectural work underway to provide a clear, effective structure of data safe havens within jurisdictions. It then describes how formally specified experiment designs can be used to enable jurisdictions to work together on experiments that no single jurisdiction could tackle alone. The authors’ current work relates to two jurisdictions (in Scotland and in Italy), but the architecture and methods are general across similar jurisdictions.
Building research and evaluation capacity in population health: the NSW Health approach
Authors: Edwards Barry , Stickney Beth , Milat Andrew , Campbell Danielle , Thackway Sarah
Published: October 2016

Issue addressed

An organisational culture that values and uses research and evaluation (R&E) evidence to inform policy and practice is fundamental to improving health outcomes. The 2016 NSW Government Program Evaluation Guidelines recommend investment in training and development to improve evaluation capacity. The purpose of this paper is to outline the approaches taken by the NSW Ministry of Health to develop R&E capacity and assess these against existing models of practice.

Method

The Ministry of Health's Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence (CEE) takes an evidence‐based approach to building R&E capacity in population health. Strategies are informed by: the NSW Population Health Research Strategy, R&E communities of practice across the Ministry and health Pillar agencies and a review of the published evidence on evaluation capacity building (ECB). An internal survey is conducted biennially to monitor research activity within the Ministry's Population and Public Health Division. One representative from each of the six centres that make up the Division coordinates completion of the survey by relevant staff members for their centre.

Results

The review identified several ECB success factors including: implementing a tailored multifaceted approach; an organisational commitment to R&E; and offering experiential training and ongoing technical support to the workforce. The survey of research activity found that the Division funded a mix of research assets, research funding schemes, research centres and commissioned R&E projects. CEE provides technical advice and support services for staff involved in R&E and in 2015, 22 program evaluations were supported. R&E capacity building also includes a series of guides to assist policy makers, practitioners and researchers to commission, undertake and use policy‐relevant R&E. Staff training includes workshops on critical appraisal, program logic and evaluation methods. From January 2013 to June 2014 divisional staff published 84 peer‐reviewed papers and one book chapter.

Conclusion

A strategic approach to R&E capacity building compares favourably with organisational dimensions of ECB and has facilitated the generation of high quality population health R&E in NSW.

So what?

An evidence‐based multistrategy approach to population health R&E can result in substantial contributions to the population‐health evidence base.
Preliminary evidence of HIV seroconversion among HIV-negative men who have sex with men taking non-prescribed antiretroviral medication for HIV prevention in Miami, Florida, USA
Authors: Buttram Mance E. , Kurtz Steven P.
Published: October 2016

Background
Limited information suggests that men who have sex with men (MSM) are informally obtaining antiretroviral medication (ARVs) and using them for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Methods: Data are drawn from an on-going study examining the use of non-prescribed ARVs for PrEP. To date, 24 qualitative interviews have been conducted with HIV-negative, substance-using MSM living in Miami, Florida, USA. Data are presented from two participants who reported HIV seroconversion while using non-prescribed ARVs for PrEP. Results: Preliminary data indicate that some young MSM: (i) lack awareness of and accurate information about the efficacious use of PrEP; (ii) obtain non-prescribed ARVs from HIV-positive sex partners and use these medications for PrEP in a way that does not provide adequate protection against HIV infection or cohere with established guidelines; and (iii) engage in multiple HIV transmission risk behaviours, including condomless anal sex and injection drug use. Conclusions: The informal, non-prescribed and non-medically supervised use of ARVs for HIV prevention has the potential to undermine the protective benefits of PrEP and leave men unprotected against HIV transmission and at risk for ARV resistance.
Faster prediction of wildfire behaviour by physical models through application of proper orthogonal decomposition
Authors: Guelpa Elisa , Sciacovelli Adriano , Verda Vittorio , Ascoli Davide
Published: October 2016

Physical models of wildfires are of particular interest in fire behaviour research and have applications in firefighting, rescue and evacuation. However, physical models present a challenge as a result of the large computational resources they often require, especially for the analysis of large areas or when multiple scenarios are investigated. The objective of this paper is to explore the opportunity to reduce the computation time requested by physical wildfire models through application of a model order reduction technique, specifically the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) technique. POD is here applied to a simple one-dimensional physical model. The full physical model for illustration of the concept is first tested with experimental data to check its ability to simulate wildfire behaviour; it is then reduced using the POD technique. It is shown that the reduced model is able to simulate fire propagation with only small deviations in results in comparison with the physical model (~6.4% deviation in the rate of spread, ROS) and a drastic reduction (~85%) in computational cost. The results demonstrate the advantages of applying effective reduction techniques to create new generations of fire models based on reduced physical approaches. The potential applicability of POD to more complex models is also discussed.
Effect of Cu addition on microstructure and impact toughness in the simulated coarse-grained heat-affected zone of high-strength low-alloy steels
Authors: Huang G. , Wan X. L. , Wu K. M. , Isayev O. , Hress O. , Rodionova I. , Shirzadi A. A.
Published: October 2016

The effects of Cu content on microstructure and impact toughness in the simulated coarse-grained heat-affected zone (CGHAZ) of high-strength low-alloy steels were investigated. It has been observed that the microstructure in the simulated CGHAZ of Cu-free steel is dominated by a small proportion of acicular ferrite and predominantly bainite with martensite–austenite constituent. Whereas, in the 0.45 and 1.01% Cu-containing steels, the acicular ferrite increased significantly due to the effective nucleation on intragranular inclusions with outer layer of MnS and CuS. The formation of acicular ferrite is attributed to superior high heat-affected zone impact toughness in the 0.45% Cu-containing steel. Furthermore, the increasing martensite–austenite constituent and ε-Cu precipitates in the simulated CGHAZ of 1.01% Cu-containing steel caused degradation in impact toughness.
Surface morphology and passive film composition after pickling and electropolishing
Authors: Lochynski P. , Sikora A. , Szczygiel B.
Published: October 2016

In this work, a novel method of selecting the most favourable electropolishing (EP) conditions is presented as a compromise between the processing time and obtaining the lowest possible roughness value of Sa or Sq (commonly used parameters) as well as the gradual increase of parameters highlighted in this work Ssk and Sku. The results showed that the most appropriate EP charge input should be higher than 1.2 Amin cm−2 and lower than 2.3 Amin cm−2. XPS high-resolution spectra revealed that pickling and EP of the samples results in a decrease of the ratio of the iron oxides amount (at.-%) to the total amount of chromium oxides and hydroxides (at.-%) in the passive film. This ratio gradually decreases reaching the values 1.2, 1.0 and 0.7 for as-received, pickled and electropolished samples, respectively. This result demonstrates iron dissolution of the outer surface layer by pickling and EP.
Enhanced wear resistance by combined ultrasonic impact and electro-spark melting
Authors: Li Y. , Wang D. , Gong B. , Deng C.
Published: October 2016

A novel surface modification method coupling surface melting and ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) was developed to improve the wear resistance of S355 steel. The principle of ultrasonic impact electro-spark melting treatment (UIEMT) was presented, and the microstructure and surface plastic deformation layer were characterised by scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The obtained results revealed that UIEMT has more advantage than the UIT method. For UIEMT sample, fine microstructure with the average grain size of less than 2 μm was obtained, and the hardening layer was about 2.75 times deeper than the UIT one. The microhardness profile and residual compressive stress distribution showed a good correlation with the microstructural transition. In addition, no martensite transformation can be found by XRD. It was concluded that UIEMT can significantly improve the wear resistance without changing the chemical composition of the material.
Recovery of Native Brook Trout Populations Following the Eradication of Nonnative Rainbow Trout in Southern Appalachian Mountains Streams
Authors: Kanno Yoichiro , Kulp Matt A. , Moore Stephen E.
Published: October 2016

Nonnative Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss have displaced native Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis in many southern Appalachian Mountains streams. We monitored the population recovery of Brook Trout following Rainbow Trout eradication at 10 sites in seven allopatric Rainbow Trout streams located in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA. Rainbow Trout were successfully eradicated by electrofishing or Fintrol (also known as antimycin-A), and Brook Trout were reintroduced at low densities (39–156 fish/km) from streams located within the park. Within 2 years after reintroduction, the density and biomass of adult Brook Trout recovered to levels comparable to the prerestoration density and biomass of Rainbow Trout. Spawning in the first autumn after reintroduction was assumed by the presence of young-of-the-year fish in seven out of nine sites surveyed during the following summer. Brook Trout density and biomass 3–5 years after restoration did not significantly differ from those in natural allopatric populations within the park in young-of-the-year fish but were significantly lower in adults. Individual body size of adult and young-of-the-year fish were density dependent after restoration, indicating that Brook Trout populations had recovered to a point that habitat saturation triggered intraspecific competition. We conclude that Rainbow Trout removal has been a viable management technique to restore Brook Trout populations in the park.

Received March 4, 2016; accepted July 17, 2016 Published online October 20, 2016
The decentralization experience in Africa: beyond donor-driven approaches
Authors: Hyden Goran
Published: October 2016

Under the auspices of the international donor community, decentralization has been pursued in the last couple of decades as a global mantra, albeit often with more attention to prescriptive models than political reality. This is particularly the case with Africa where donor-driven approaches have produced few sustainable outcomes because the context-specific situation in these countries has been ignored. This paper argues that the donors, in addition to failing to take the local context into consideration in their interventions, have been inclined to look at decentralization through the lens of a principal–agent model in which institutions have been treated as rules to be learned and adopted. With little to show for itself, this approach is increasingly under criticism in evaluations and research studies alike. The paper argues, in line with other recent studies, that time has come to rethink concepts and practices used to promote local governance in African countries. The political parameters of Official Development Assistance limit what can be achieved to realise the principles of the Paris Declaration and more creative approaches are needed to ensure that local governance in African countries is fostered in a democratic direction.
Agreement domains and targets
Authors: Bond Oliver , Chumakina Marina
Published: October 2016

There are two distinct syntactic agreement domains in Archi, the noun phrase and the clause, each presenting different challenges for an account of the mechanisms underlying their behaviour. Within the noun phrase, modifiers can exhibit the potential for agreement with multiple controllers in different domains. Agreement controllers can also exhibit duplicitous behaviour, with different values of the same feature simultaneously being relevant in two different agreement domains. Within the clause, agreement appears straightforward at first glance, since all possible targets agree with the absolutive argument of their immediate clause. Less simple is the issue of defining a possible target; this depends on the lexical category of the target, its morphological type or sometimes the properties of individual cells in its morphological paradigm.
Agreement in Archi from a minimalist perspective
Authors: Polinsky Maria
Published: October 2016

In Minimalist syntax, clause-level agreement is an asymmetrical connection between two elements linked via a single syntactic process, called Agree. All case and agreement licensing in Archi happens at the level of the verb phrase (vP), not the tensed clause, and agreement serves as evidence of underlying structure, providing surface indications of the functional projections inside the clause. Agreement within the noun phrase in Archi is subject to the principles of concord and cannot be reduced to Agree. While Archi data are best accounted for by separating Agree and the mechanisms of nominal concord, this result does not mean that the unifying approach to verbal and nominal concord should be abandoned. This approach may be applicable in some languages, but not in Archi, where strong language-particular evidence points to the differential approach to agreement in the two domains.
Christ the Bond of Creation
Authors: Grumett David
Published: October 2016

In the medieval world, the eucharistic host was used as a talisman to protect crops and for many other purposes. This was motivated by the justified belief that Christ materially preserves the created order, which was theologically developed by Hilary of Poitiers, Maximus the Confessor, and Martin Luther. From this perspective, matter is not self-sustaining but dependent upon a source of consistency external to it. The idea of Christ as the bond of substance, which follows from this, is developed philosophically by Gottfried Leibniz and Maurice Blondel. The cosmic context for the Eucharist is eloquently expressed in the starry vaults of some medieval churches, and by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. If the world is regarded as being, in some sense, God’s body, this idea needs to have a firm theological foundation.
Flesh, Substance, and Change
Authors: Grumett David
Published: October 2016

From the New Testament onward, the consumption by believers of the eucharistic elements has been viewed as physically assimilating them into the flesh of Christ, with a range of terms used to describe the change in the elements and in their recipients. In the controversies in which Cyril of Alexandria played a key role, eucharistic theology was closely related to doctrinal topics such as the relation of the two natures of Christ. Gregory of Nyssa and other patristic writers employ baking imagery to portray the incorporation of believers into Christ. The doctrine of transubstantiation, which was articulated at the Council of Trent, drew on both scripture and Aristotelian philosophy in order to avoid the idea that, in the Eucharist, Christ’s flesh is carnally consumed. Nevertheless, there is a range of theological understandings of how Christ is materially present in the elements and of how the elements are changed.
Death and Resurrection
Authors: Grumett David
Published: October 2016

From Christian antiquity onward, the host has been seen to embody Christ’s indestructible resurrection life. The giving of the eucharistic host as viaticum to the dying is the most ancient eucharistic practice, apart from the liturgical celebration itself. The host was sometimes buried with the bodies of the dead, and archaeological evidence suggests that most ordinary Christians worshipped in cemeteries. However, graves gradually became assimilated into church buildings, with the altar viewed as the tomb of Christ around which the dead, sometimes in the form of relics, gathered to await their resurrection, which the Eucharist anticipated. In both scripture and liturgy, especially as read and practiced in the Orthodox Churches, Christ is raised by the power of the Spirit. Over recent decades, eucharistic prayers have revived this theology with a range of epicleses.
How Change Happens
Authors: Green Duncan
Published: October 2016

Human society is full of would-be ‘change agents’, a restless mix of campaigners, lobbyists, and officials, both individuals and organizations, set on transforming the world. They want to improve public services, reform laws and regulations, guarantee human rights, get a fairer deal for those on the sharp end, achieve greater recognition for any number of issues, or simply be treated with respect. Striking then, that not many universities have a Department of Change Studies, to which social activists can turn for advice and inspiration. Instead, scholarly discussions of change are fragmented with few conversations crossing disciplinary boundaries, rarely making it onto the radars of those actively seeking change. This book aims to bridge the gap between academia and practice, bringing together the best research from a range of academic disciplines and the evolving practical understanding of activists to explore the topic of social and political change. Drawing on many first-hand examples from the global experience of Oxfam, one of the world’s largest social justice NGOs, as well as insights gleaned from studying and working on international development, it tests ideas and offers the latest thinking on what works to achieve progressive change.
Shifts in Social Norms Often Underpin Change
Authors: Green Duncan
Published: October 2016

This chapter discusses the importance of social norms—the explicit or implicit rules specifying what behaviours are acceptable in society. What people see as normal, desirable, or aberrant determines their sense of right and wrong, and can both drive and hold back the search for social justice. Norms come in all shapes and sizes, whether social, legal, or moral; and they exhibit a subtle contradiction, which they share with institutions like the state or transnational corporations: they are both static and changing. At any given moment, most norms appear fixed; people see them as a ‘given’, a pre-existing, eternal, social reality. With this sense of fixity, norms provide stable standards of conduct to guide the choices of those subject to them. Yet, at the same time, norms are a continuously evolving system. Even law—the most codified, formal subset of norms—is constantly changing.
A Power and Systems Approach to Making Change Happen
Authors: Green Duncan
Published: October 2016

This chapter offers a theoretical sketch of the nature and dynamics of change as portrayed so far in this book. This is a methodology of sorts, which this chapter refers to as a ‘power and systems approach’ (PSA). The PSA is a theory of change, meant to locate a programme, project, or campaign within a wider analysis of how change comes about. There are two ways to use it: by looking backwards, in order to explore past stories of change; and by looking forward, by learning to ‘expect the unexpected’. The PSA suggests characteristics that activists should cultivate in order to flourish in complex systems, like curiosity, humility, self-awareness, and openness to a diversity of viewpoints. It encourages us to nurture a genuine curiosity about the complex interwoven elements that characterize the systems we are trying to influence, without abandoning our desire to take action.
Mass Observation
Authors: Hinton James
Published: October 2016

This chapter places the revival of Mass Observation (from 1981) in the context of the flourishing of ‘history from below’ and oral history from the 1970s and of the late twentieth-century ‘biographical turn’ in the social sciences, which validated methodologies based on ‘the luminosity of single cases’ (as against the representative sample). The social composition of the Mass Observation panel is discussed, and the author’s decision to focus on the generation born before the Second World War is explained. A unique bond of trust was built up between the volunteers and the archive which contributed to the frankness and honesty of their writing. Since much of the volunteers’ writing is autobiographical, the influences shaping memory are considered. Finally, the chapter deals with the need for the biographer to balance empathy with a colder analytical stance.
Housewife
Authors: Hinton James
Published: October 2016

Life story of the wife of a small businessman, well-off but miserable. A neglected child refused the education of which she was clearly capable; a faithful wife serving an ungrateful (and unfaithful) husband who had only married her for her money (compensation following a serious accident) and treated her with contempt; a devoted mother of five children born during the first six years of her marriage and brought up single-handedly with no help from her husband, unable to divorce when the children were off her hands because the family business needed her property to survive. But she refused to see herself as a victim, or to blame her misfortunes on an unjust society. She identified with Thatcher’s anti-socialist politics not just because her lifestyle depended on her husband’s entrepreneurial success, but also because her own life story, as she understood it, exemplified the values of self-reliance that Mrs Thatcher proclaimed.
Teacher
Authors: Hinton James
Published: October 2016

Life story of a teacher in multi-ethnic South London, juggling part-time jobs—from sixth-form sociology to a home for delinquent boys, some of them victims of VIP paedophiles. Her views are a peculiar mix of residual Marxism, contempt for the far left, and radical feminism. Her energy, resilience, and acid wit throw a vivid light on the darker sides of late-twentieth-century London. She sees much of what passed for anti-racism as patriarchy in disguise, supporting Muslim girls in rebellion against their parental culture. She is much more at home in black culture, welcomed as ‘an honorary wog’ in a Saturday supplementary school run by parents of Black British children. Grew up in Belfast. Active in the Voluntary Euthanasia Society. Widow of a Czech concentration camp survivor.
Social Worker
Authors: Hinton James
Published: October 2016

Life story of a woman whose marriage broke down in the 1960s after she discovered, initially from a BBC radio Woman’s Hour programme on the female orgasm, that sex could be fun. As a young woman, a typist at London University, she had encountered an experiment in group work (among medical students) which was to be a life-long influence. Divorced, after several affairs, she encountered New Age humanistic psychology, a discipline which echoed her earlier experience in London. She trained as a social worker, followed a lover (whom she met in a sexuality workshop) to Yorkshire, where she helped to introduce group work into social work, and became an expert in placing difficult adolescents for adoption or fostering. Her involvement with New Age psychology continued, enabling her to write with insight, wit, and surprising openness about her sexuality.
Conclusion
Authors: Hinton James
Published: October 2016

This chapter sumarises the ways in which the preceding biographical essays illustrate the currents and cross-currents of cultural change in Britain during the late twentieth century. Individual stories become of historical interest when they are deployed by historians in support of particular interpretations. In that respect the book represents no more than a beginning. These seven biographical essays are suggestive of the diversity of ways in which, even among members of the same pre-war generation, the changing culture of late-twentieth-century Britain was experienced. The mass observers wrote because they wanted to contribute to the ways in which the history of their times would come to be understood. To the extent that future historians make use of the individual lives presented here, their wishes will have been fulfilled.
Prominence, accent, focus
Authors: Büring Daniel
Published: October 2016

Chapter 1 introduces the core concepts: Local valleys and peaks in the voice’s fundamental frequency are perceived as prosodic prominence, understood as emphasis, and modeled as pitch accents. By hypothesis, there is an unmarked pitch accent pattern for most, if not all, sentences in English, which can be predicted by rules. Likewise, once a constituent is selected as the focus of a sentence, additional rules can predict the effect(s) this will have on the pitch accent pattern of the sentence. While the selection of focus cannot generally be predicted (unless you’re a mind reader), there are certain contexts, such as corrections, and answers to constituent questions, in which focus choice seems entirely deterministic. These can be used to investigate properties of focussing in more detail.
Focus and givenness theories
Authors: Büring Daniel
Published: October 2016

The influential theories of Rooth, Selkirk, and Schwarzschild are presented and compared. While these theories emphasize different aspects of the factors that determine pitch accent placement, and certainly differ in some of their definitions and terminology, they are largely compatible, and often converge on the same predictions. In many respects, Schwarzschild’s theory can be seen as the synthesis of two of Rooth’s proposals and Selkirk’s general strategy of dividing the~work between a theory of (sentential) focussing and (constituent-level) anaphoric deaccenting; once it is realized that being contextually given, as well as being focussed, are limiting cases of being a focus(–background) domain, all the work can be done by a single Rooth-like condition on focus domains, applied to every constituent in a sentence. Lastly, the concept of ‘minimal focussing’, introduced in the previous chapter, receives a formal, transderivational implementation in the form of Schwarzschild’s constraint ‘AvoidF’.
The notion of norm in spoken French
Authors: Detey Sylvain , Lyche Chantal , Racine Isabelle , Schwab Sandra , Gac David Le
Published: October 2016

The chapter starts out with a reminder of the essential distinction between objective, prescriptive, and subjective norms. It goes on to summarize the main historical stages in the emergence of a standard in metropolitan France, its expansion in scope, and the rise of multi-centric norms beyond the Hexagon, illustrated with the vowel inventories typical of Belgian French, Swiss French, Midi French, Central-African French, and Laurentian French. The second half of the chapter shifts from a production-oriented to a perception-oriented approach to the spoken norm, and reports the results of recent studies in French perceptual dialectology, some of which were carried out within the PFC project (Phonology of Contemporary French). It concludes that Reference French(es) do exist, but may vary depending on the communities and the objectives at stake.
French in Orne (Basse-Normandie)
Authors: Buscail Laurie , Lyche Chantal
Published: October 2016

This chapter deals with the phonetic, lexical, and discursive characteristics of a 70-year-old speaker from Domfront, Normandy. In the chosen excerpt, JB, the informant, talks about regional food in Normandy, focusing on the abundant breakfast traditionally eaten by hunters. As in many face-to-face conversations, JB’s speech shows features typical of spoken French, such as hesitations, word fragments, repeated grammatical units, and discourse markers, as well as elliptical utterances and a wide use of the neuter pronoun ça. As far as phonetics and phonology are concerned, JB exhibits typical features of the region, such as a four-nasal vowel system and a lack of opposition between /e/ and /ɛ/ in final open syllables, but, at the same time, JB shows a tendency to phonological levelling, moving towards a more neutral Reference French.
French in Haute-Garonne (Midi-Pyrénées)
Authors: Courdès-Murphy Léa , Durand Jacques , Ratier Corinne , Rossi-Gensane Nathalie
Published: October 2016

This chapter illustrates the variety of French in the Midi-Pyrénées region, more precisely in its capital, Toulouse in the Haute-Garonne department, where the selected male speaker was born in 1942 and still lives. The chapter is based on an informal three-party conversation between the speaker, his sister, and his daughter. What emerges is a well-attested phenomenon in southern France: the main speaker’s pronunciation is a conservative accent méridional while at the same time, lexically as well as syntactically, it exhibits absence of strong regional features.
French in the Central African Republic
Authors: Bordal Guri , Boutin Akissi Béatrice , Beyom Robert
Published: October 2016

This chapter examines a conversation between two colleagues who work in the administration of the University of Bangui. The difficult living conditions in the Central African Republic are the main topic of the conversation. The speakers are multilingual, and their dominant language is Sango, the country’s main lingua franca. Some influences from Sango are attested in the speakers’ pronunciation, particularly in the domain of prosody. The conversation also displays lexical particularities, constructions that are typical of second-language speakers (the generalization of the auxiliary ‘avoir’), features that are attested in other varieties of French in Africa (e.g. the presence of the ‘ne’ of negation), as well as general properties of spontaneous oral discourse, such as overlapping turns and collaborative discourse.
French in Mauritius
Authors: Ledegen Gudrun , Lyche Chantal
Published: October 2016

This chapter analyses a short informal conversation between two female students, both born and raised in Quatre-Bornes, a small town at the centre of the island. They are both bilingual and switch regularly between Creole and French. The main speaker (AD) relates a recent trip to Singapore and Malaysia with her family in an extremely fast-speech rate, devoid however of an undue number of elisions or assimilations. The excerpt includes a wide variety of linguistic traits typical of Mauritius French, most of which can be attributed to Creole influence: absence of determiners, absence of prepositions à and de, a specific use of the preposition à. The phonological system of the speaker is characterized by the presence of four nasal vowels, the weakening of the rhotic in coda position, and the systematic simplification of obstruent + liquid clusters.
Variation in Canada
Authors: Côté Marie-Hélène
Published: October 2016

This chapter addresses aspects of linguistic variation within Laurentian French, as spoken in Trois-Rivières (Quebec), a city of 130 000 inhabitants, almost exclusively French-speaking and in limited contact with English. The analysis is based on the speech of 12 middle class speakers, six men and six women, born between 1931 and 1989 and recorded in five tasks: the reading of a text and of two word lists, a guided conversation, and a free conversation. The chapter analyses ten phonetic, phonological, morphological, and lexical alternations between specifically Laurentian forms and their equivalents in Reference French, using age and gender as relevant factors. These alternations illustrate different effects of standardization (gradual loss of the Laurentian variants), ‘Laurentianization’ (generalization of new Laurentian variants), formality (greater use of standard variants by older speakers who treat the interview situation as more formal), and gender (greater use of standard variants by women).
Variation in Canada
Authors: Canac-Marquis Réjean , Walker Douglas C.
Published: October 2016

This chapter examines representatives of three generations of bilingual speakers in a rural community of western Canada, exploring the effects of long-term exposure to English on the French language, contrasting phonological, morpho-syntactic, and lexical features across generations. Despite the fluent bilingualism of all speakers, our results substantiate the perception that the impact of English on French is greater for the youngest generation. This influence, coupled with the effects of what has been called ‘incomplete learning’ and the consequences of the normal variation in popular speech, illustrate the evolving status of French in a minority context where contact with and assimilation to English are pervasive. Despite this fragility, all speakers in the corpus manifest loyalty to their first language, recognizing its utility and its importance for their identity as Franco-Albertans.
Subsidies and Technical Efficiency in Agriculture: Evidence from European Dairy Farms
Authors: Latruffe Laure , Bravo‐Ureta Boris E. , Carpentier Alain , Desjeux Yann , Moreira Víctor H.
Published: October 2016

The objective of this article is to examine the association between agricultural subsidies and dairy farm technical efficiency in the European Union, and in so doing we make novel contributions to the literature. We include in the analysis nine diverse western European Union (EU) countries over an 18‐year period (1990–2007) encompassing the various Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms enacted since the inception of the EU. Further, we account for input endogeneity using an original method of moments estimator. Our results show that the effect of subsidies on technical efficiency may be positive, null, or negative, depending on the country. The analysis reveals that the introduction of decoupling with the 2003 CAP reform weakens the effect that subsidies have on technical efficiency.