bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Danish Party Cohesion Cycle
Authors: Skjæveland Asbjørn
Published: March 2003

The aim is to analyze short‐term fluctuations in Danish parliamentary party cohesion on the backdrop of an American electoral pattern in party cohesion. A Danish cycle is documented: party cohesion in relation to voting behavior is especially high just after an election, then it drops to rise again as election time approaches. A rational choice re‐election model predicts the rise in party cohesion, but an obligation actualization model predicts the full cycle. Elections actualize Danish MPs’ moral obligation to their party. Where American party cohesion drops in an election year, Danish party cohesion rises when an election approaches. This may be explained by different preferences in the American and Danish electorates: Danish voters value party cohesion per se, American voters do not.
Government Formation in the Nordic Countries: The Electoral Connection
Authors: Mattila Mikko , Raunio Tapio
Published: March 2003

Government formation is guided by several principles, such as majority, plurality and electoral principles. According to the electoral principle, parties that increase their share of seats in the elections should form the government, parties that lose seats joining the opposition. We analyse the fulfilment of this principle in the five Nordic countries. In Denmark, Finland and Iceland the majority of governments contained parties that both won and lost in elections, whereas in Sweden nearly half of the governments included only parties that lost seats. Only in Iceland and Denmark does election success translate to an increased probability of a government place in an increasing way. In Norway and particularly in Sweden big losers have better chances of being in government than big winners. Party system attributes are not related to the fulfilment of the electoral principle. To shift our analysis to individual parties, prime ministers come more likely from parties that are big winners. Winning does not explain the probability of becoming a coalition partner. If a party wants to be in government it is more important to avoid losing seats than to be an actual winner. Coalition partners are more likely to be mid–sized parties, a finding probably explained by the desire of the formateur party to maximise its policy influence in the government.
The Formation and Development of New Zealand English: Interaction of Gender‐Related Variation and Linguistic Change
Authors: Woods Nicola J.
Published: March 2003

This research assesses the relative roles played by men and women in the development of New Zealand English. Real‐time evidence on the development of NZ English over the past fifty years is provided by comparison of speakers recorded in 1948 and their present day descendants recorded recently. Elements of two vowel shifts are studied, and particular attention is paid to the vowel variables in words such as MOUTH, TRAP and DRESS. Results indicate that women lead in changes which are new and dynamic, but lag behind men in the use of variables representing older changes. While these results mirror patterns of gender‐related variation observed in other contexts, explanations in terms of prestige which are often assumed to account for this pattern of variation are found to be inadequate in the New Zealand case. Rather, a hypothesis in terms of dialect contact, and specifically women’s preferred discourse strategies in contact situations, is used to explain the process and progress of linguistic change in NZ English.
New‐dialect formation and Southern Hemisphere English: The New Zealand short front vowels
Authors: Trudgill Peter , Gordon Elizabeth , Lewis Gillian
Published: March 2003

There are two conflicting hypotheses concerning the nature of the New Zealand English short vowel system. One is that this system is conservative and that it is distinguished from the system of English English by changes which have taken place in the latter. The other hypothesis is that New Zealand English is, on the contrary, innovative, and that it is English English which has remained conservative. Drawing on hitherto unavailable data and on recent empirical studies in New Zealand, this paper concludes that both of these hypotheses are to a certain extent wrong and to a certain extent correct.
Men’s Identities and Sociolinguistic Variation: The Case of Fraternity Men
Authors: Kiesling Scott Fabius
Published: March 2003

The variation patterns of the variable (ING) in an American college fraternity are explained by analyzing individual men’s contextualized discourse. While most of the fraternity men predictably use a lower rate of the ‘vernacular’ variant in weekly meetings, several men use a higher rate. I argue that all of the men index alignment roles associated with power, but that these alignment roles are powerful in different, specifiable ways. Qualitative discourse analysis shows that the men with high rates of the vernacular variant use (ING) to index working‐class cultural models and confrontational stances, as part of identity displays based on physical, rather than structural, power. Thus, the variable has several potential abstract social meanings, but specific interactional meanings can only be constructed in contextualized practice.
Subjective and Objective Parameters Determining ‘Salience’ in Long‐term Dialect Accommodation
Authors: Auer Peter , Barden Birgit , Grosskopf Beate
Published: March 2003

In this article, we will present empirical results of a longitudinal study on long‐term dialect accommodation in a German dialect setting. An important model of explaining which linguistic structures undergo such convergence and which do not makes use of the notion of ‘salience’. Dialect features which are perceived by the speakers as ‘salient’ are taken up and given up more easily and faster than those which are perceived as ‘less salient’. The notion of salience has a tradition which goes back to the 1920s. We will discuss this research tradition, apply the criteria for salience that played a role in it to our results, and discuss the question of whether perceived (subjective) salience can be explained in objective (structural‐phono logical or phonetic) terms.
What is a ‘Handbook of Sociolinguistics’?
Authors: Grimshaw Allen
Published: March 2003

Florian Coulmas (ed.). The Handbook of Sociolinguistics (Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics, 4). Oxford: Blackwell. 1997. x + 532 pp.Cloth (0–631–19339–1) £70.00.
Women Behaving Badly: Female Speakers Backstage
Authors: Coates Jennifer
Published: March 2003

In this paper I explore women’s (and girls’) self‐presentation in contexts where they seem most relaxed, most off‐record, drawing on Goffman’s concept of ‘backstage’. In particular, I shall focus on those aspects of women’s backstage performance of self which do not fit prevailing norms of femininity, in other words, women’s performances of ‘not‐nice’ selves, as well as reports of – and fantasies about – behaving ‘badly’. The analysis will draw on a corpus of spontaneous conversation involving girl and women friends. It will be argued that the backstage talk possible only with close friends provides women with an arena where norms can be subverted and challenged and alternative selves explored. But it also needs to be acknowledged that in an important sense such talk helps to maintain the heteropatriarchal order, by providing an outlet for the frustrations of frontstage performance.
The telling or the tale? Narratives and gender in adolescent friendship networks
Authors: Cheshire Jenny
Published: March 2003

The paper analyses the narratives told between adolescent friends, recorded in single‐sex friendship groups with a fieldworker. It confirms the importance of narratives in the construction of friendship and, specifically, in the interpretation of past experience according to peer group norms. The link between the self and others is different in the narratives told by the male friends and the female friends. The boys establish a sense of group identity through the joint activity of ‘telling’, whilst for the girls the links are between individual selves, constructed through their tales. Key figures in the friendship groups take the lead in demonstrating how events are interpreted. The same speaker uses styles that could be labelled ‘competitive’ and styles that could be labelled ‘cooperative’, depending on the interactional context.
Reflections on scholarship and linguistic rights: A rejoinder to Jan Blommaert
Authors: Skutnabb‐Kangas Tove , Phillipson Robert , Kontra Mikloás
Published: March 2003

The attachment that many peoples have to their language is clear from the fact that it often becomes a symbol of their very existence (see, e.g. Fishman 1997). This is what makes this field interdisciplinary and vital for human rights but difficult to limit to traditional empirical research. There are elements of identity, access issues, and questions of ownership. (Michael Clyne, personal communication)
LANGUAGE, experience and history: ‘What happened’ in World War II
Authors: Schiffrin Deborah
Published: March 2003

Sociolinguistics can contribute to our understanding of history by showing how language helps to develop and maintain a sense of a communal past. This paper focuses on the referring terms for the World War II experiences of European Jews and of Japanese Americans, as evinced through various sources of public discourse (newspapers, library cataloguing systems, book titles). The analysis of linguistic form and function combines with discussion of the social and cultural history of Holocaust awareness in the U.S. to show how the word Holocaust (as a referring term for the experience of European Jews) became part of an American lexicon. A comparison of this stable term with the variety of nouns and verbal expressions used to index the Japanese American experience allows us to more fully consider how language helps to create and preserve collective memory.
Metaphors we discriminate by: Naturalized themes in Austrian newspaper articles about asylum seekers
Authors: El Refaie Elisabeth
Published: March 2003

With specific reference to the use of metaphor in Austrian newspaper reports on the arrival of Kurdish asylum seekers in Italy in January 1998, this study suggests ways in which cognitive metaphor theory can be given a stronger socio‐political dimension. The dominant metaphors portray the asylum seekers as water, as criminals, or as an invading army. The repeated use of these themes in relatively fixed lexical and syntactic forms and across all the newspapers seems to indicate that they have become accepted as the ‘natural’ way of describing the situation. It will be argued that the ‘naturalization’ of particular metaphors can contribute to a blurring of the boundaries between the literal and the non‐literal.
Unexpected but authentic use of an ethnically–marked dialect
Authors: Sweetland Julie
Published: March 2003

Recent work on language crossing in the U.S. has examined the temporary appropriation of African American Vernacular English by white youth in an effort to participate in the current popularity and prestige of hip–hop culture, or in order to highlight racial boundaries. While such verbal behavior probably encompasses most white use of AAVE, it is not the only way in which whites (or other non–blacks) can use the variety. This paper presents a case study of the language of a 23 year old white female who makes consistent use of many distinctive linguistic features associated with AAVE. I argue that the interaction of ideologies of race, class, localness and language allow her to be considered an ingroup member despite her biographical race. This suggests that there is a tension between academic linguistic theory and actual speaker practice in assigning authenticity to individuals, and I conclude that language ideologies and other forms of qualitative evidence should be taken into account by sociolinguists looking at the link between language and race.
Linguists and other animals
Authors: Blackwell Sue
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed in this article:

Joan Dunayer, Animal Equality: Language and Liberation
Estimating Quality‐adjusted Price Changes: Method and Application to VCRs
Authors: Ioannidis Christos , Silver Mick , Webb Bruce
Published: March 2003

This paper uses scanner data to generate estimates of quality‐adjusted price changes for video‐recorders. We use hedonic regressions to derive estimates of the changing worth of each quality component. These are then applied to weighted changes in the mix of quality attributes of products to derive estimates of quality‐adjusted price (QAP) changes. The data source used is electronic‐point‐of‐sale (EPOS) scanner data that are available for a wide range of goods. This study provides an example of how such methods can be more widely applied. The estimates of QAP changes correspond to constant‐utility, (hedonic) cost‐of‐living indexes defined in economic theory as the ratio of expenditure functions at constant utility allowing for changing prices and characteristics of goods. This method is proposed as an improvement on the existing direct method, which takes its estimates directly from the coefficients associated with ‘time dummies’ in a hedonic regression. We finally undertake a matching process, akin to that used by statistical offices, and compare the results. Direct comparisons with RPI estimates and these hedonic approaches are not easy since the approaches use quite different data sets. Our replication of a procedure akin to that used for the RPI on the scanner data set provides insights into sources of potential bias.
Inward Investment and Technical Progress in the United Kingdom Manufacturing Sector
Authors: Hubert Florence , Pain Nigel
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the impact of direct investment by foreign‐owned companies on technical progress and hence labour productivity in the UK manufacturing sector. Using an industry‐level panel data set we find that foreign‐owned firms have a significant positive effect on the level of technical efficiency in domestic firms. There is evidence of significant intra‐industry and inter‐industry spillovers from inward investment. These findings remain robust even when other factors such as imports and domestic R&D expenditures are allowed for. Inward investment appears to be a much more important source of technical progress than foreign trade.
How Monetary Policy can have Permanent Real Effects with Only Temporary Nominal Rigidity
Authors: McDonald Ian M. , Scully Hugh
Published: March 2003

A macroeconomic model is developed in which the psychological concept of loss aversion is incorporated into workers’ preferences. The impact of monetary policy in the presence of loss aversion depends on the specification of the reference wage. The plausible specification that a worker’s reference wage is the real wage she was paid in the previous period is considered in detail. Specifying the reference wage in this way, we show that an unanticipated change in monetary policy has a permanent, real effect when short term labour contracts are written in nominal wages.
Management Buyouts and Firm–Level Productivity: Evidence from a Panel of UK Manufacturing Firms
Authors: Ames Kevin
Published: March 2003

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the productivity effects of UK management buyouts (MBOs) over the period 1986–1997. It is the first study to use an augmented production function approach in order to determine and quantify: the Hicks–neutral productivity, the marginal productivity of labour, and the marginal productivity of capital effects of MBOs. The main findings are consistent with MBOs providing incentive and control systems that lead to improved firm–level productivity in the post–buyout organisation via reduced agency costs, debt bonding, and monitoring by buyout specialists.
Environmental Resources, Population and Sustainability: Evidence From Zimbabwe
Authors: Lado Cleophas
Published: March 2003

This paper examines four issues central to the relationships between environmental resources, population and sustainability in Zimbabwe. First, the conceptualisation of population‐resource interrelationships and sustainability. Second, the legal basis of land use practices and origins of land use conflict within and between Zimbabwe’s main population groups. Third, the demographic threats to sustainable resource development and the impact of the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) on rural and urban communities. Fourth, the dynamics of population change and environmental resource use constraints including resettlement and land redistribution or reform programmes. It is concluded that the relationships between environmental degradation and population pressure are complex. Sustainable environmental resource use to supply basic livelihoods can be achieved if appropriate technical expertise or backup is provided to the population. Developing and implementing sustainable resource development strategies in Zimbabwe requires attention to socio‐economic and political challenges.
Soils and Land use on Lithologically Diverse Ophiolitic Alluvia on the Coastal Plain of Palawan, Philippines
Authors: Baillie I .C. , Inciong N. B. , Evangelista P. M.
Published: March 2003

The soils on the southeastern coastal plain of Palawan, Philippines are developed on alluvium derived from various lithologies of the Palawan Ophiolitic Complex. There is little lateral mixing of the alluvium. The soil pattern is interpreted as the result of increasing weathering and leaching with age on deposits of different lithological origins. In the ultramafic catchment the younger soils are infertile due to several unfavourable characteristics, including high contents of heavy metals and Mg, deficiencies of P and micro‐nutrients, and impermeability. These soils improve with increased weathering and leaching, and the older soils have better physical and Mg characteristics. In felsic alluvia the reverse is found, and the soils on younger deposits are the most fertile, while the older soils have unfavourable combinations of subsoil compaction, acidity and dominance by aluminium. These patterns are reflected in the current land use, with areas of sparse settlement and cultivation on the less fertile soils on younger ultramafic and older felsic alluvia. These areas have been avoided or abandoned, rather than overlooked, by farmers and cannot be considered as “empty lands”. Their sustainable development will require careful management. Most of the more fertile land is already cultivated.
A Landscape Ecology Approach to Assessing Development Impacts in the Tropics: A Geothermal Energy Example in Hawaii
Authors: Griffith Jerry A. , Trettin Carl C. , O’Neill Robert V.
Published: March 2003

Geographic information systems (GIS) are increasingly being used in environmental impact assessments (EIA) because GIS is useful for analysing spatial impacts of various development scenarios. Spatially representing these impacts provides another tool for landscape ecology in environmental and geographical investigations by facilitating analysis of the effects of landscape pattern on ecological processes and examining change over time. Landscape ecological principles are applied in this study to a hypothetical geothermal development project on the Island of Hawaii. Some common landscape pattern metrics were used to analyse dispersed versus condensed development scenarios and their effect on landscape pattern. Indices of fragmentation and patch shape did not appreciably change with additional development. The amount of forest to open edge, however, greatly increased with the dispersed development scenario. In addition, landscape metrics showed that a human disturbance had a greater simplifying effect on patch shape and also increased fragmentation than a natural disturbance. The use of these landscape pattern metrics can advance the methodology of applying GIS to EIA.
Children's Use and Knowledge of Display Rules for Anger Following Hypothetical Vignettes versus Following Live Peer Interaction
Authors: Parker Elizabeth H. , Hubbard Julie A. , Ramsden Sally R. , Relyea Nicole , Dearing Karen F. , Smithmyer Catherine M. , Schimmel Kelly D.
Published: March 2003

Our primary goal was to examine the correspondence between children’s self‐reported use and knowledge of display rules for anger following hypothetical vignettes versus following live peer interactions. Our secondary goal was to investigate whether children’s self‐reported experience and self‐reported expression of anger were related their observed anger expression, considered an observational measure of use of display rules for anger. Participants were 274 second‐grade children. Children were first interviewed about their use and knowledge of display rules for anger in game‐playing situations depicted through hypothetical vignettes. Several months later, children interacted with a confederate in standardized games designed to simulate the vignettes and answered the same questions about display rules. Children’s responses were moderately related across the two contexts. However, following the live interactions, compared to the hypothetical vignettes, children reported feeling less anger, expressing less anger, intending to hide their anger more, and dissembling their anger more. In addition, there were differences in the quality and quantity of strategies for hiding anger that children generated across the two contexts. Observations of anger expression were not related to self‐reports of either the experience or expression of anger.
The Changed Welfare Paradigm: The Individualization of The Social
Authors: Ferge Zsuzsa
Published: March 2003

The first part of this paper offers a cumulative review of the changes in global objectives and operating principles and their global consequences, characteristic of the shift from the ideal type of the modern welfare state to the neo‐liberal or post‐modern paradigm. The paper then spells out some of the implications of this shift for social security in the “transition countries” of Central and Eastern Europe. The tendencies (from marketization to the spread of means‐testing) are similar to those in the West; but they are much more marked and there is much less political and popular resistance to these changes. One of the crucial ingredients of the shift is the undermining of the age‐old solidarity between generations, a trend also strongly recommended by the supranational agencies. The “catch”, or the “paradox of democracy” is that, for all the lack of resistance, people do not seem to approve of the rapid withdrawal of the state and the loss of their existential securities.
Care of Empowerment? A Disability Rights Perspective
Authors: Morris Jenny
Published: March 2003

This paper challenges the notion of “care”, arguing that people who need support in their daily lives have been constructed as “dependent people”. Instead, the author argues, if we want to empower people we must learn from the Independent Living Movement, from the people who struggled against segregation and insisted that access to personal assistance over which they have control is a civil rights issue. The paper takes issue with Clare Ungerson's perspective on the new direct payments legislation. This legislation is an important stage in the achievements of a civil rights movement and social researchers have a moral responsibility to collaborate with this movement in any work which they develop on issues which are not of mere academic interest but which concern people's rights to choice and control in their lives.
Juggling and Dealing: The Creative Work of Care Package Purchasing
Authors: Leat Diana , Perkins Elizabeth
Published: March 2003

In conventional diagrams of the new service delivery process, assessment of need is linked to purchase by a single line or arrow; the implication is that purchase follows more or less logically and directly from assessment. This paper focuses on the complex creative work that goes on in the "space" between assessment of need and purchase of service, and the changing influences on that work. "Purchase" is deconstructed to reveal the complex processes and calculations involved, and the ways in which budgets "free" resources and markets influence the final outcome. The paper describes the effects on care package construction and purchase of changing policies, budget arrangements and financial limits; it goes on to outline the difficulties and complications in using information on unit costs in purchasing. Unit costs are only part of a complex equation in which prices are negotiated and total cost juggled in the context of budgets, financial limits, real accessibility and balanced by quality considerations. It is suggested that talk of "playing shops" and use of "off‐the‐shelf" services underestimates the complexity of care package construction and purchase. Micro‐purchase of care services has more in common with dealing and juggling than with lifting standardized, packaged, pre‐priced goods off shelves in Sainsbury’s.
Culture: The Missing Variable in Understanding Social Policy?
Authors: Baldock John
Published: March 2003

This paper questions the intuitive assumption that twentieth‐century public welfare states have reflected the wider culture in which they operate. It is argued that the postwar welfare state was a “modernist” project designed to change mass culture. As a result, social policy analysis has tended to ignore the wider culture as both a source and context for welfare. At the beginning of the twenty‐first century new patterns of risk and postmodern cultural formations are supporting eclectic policy‐making which is more in tune with cultural majorities. This signals the end of the systematic welfare state.
Patenting Our Food Future: Intellectual Property Rights and the Global Food System
Authors: Tansey Geoff
Published: March 2003

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) underpin the new knowledge economy and their ownership and control affects the distribution of wealth and power. This paper explores the changing international IPRs regime and its possible impact on the food system, in particular through their connection with biotechnology and marketing. It outlines how IPRs have been extended into agriculture globally through the Agreement on the Trade–Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ( TRIPS) at the World Trade Organization ( WTO) and the other related international agreements. It identifies two problems. One is with the way the global rules are made—which is unbalanced with too few of the interested parties taking part in the process. The other is with whether the rules themselves are appropriate in food and agriculture. Their possible impact, especially patents, on increasingly proprietary, agricultural research and development is discussed as well as the possible effects on seed provision of the requirement for some form of IPRs protection to be available for plant varieties in all WTO members, sooner or later. Possible options for rethinking the rules to make them more appropriate for food and agriculture are discussed, as well as effects on market structure and the environment. Brief mention is made of other IPRs—trademarks, trade secrets and geographical indications—upon the way business in the food system is carried out. The paper concludes that this complex subject area is worthy of much more scrutiny because of the potential impact of these esoteric and complex rules.
Food Aid in Complex Emergencies: Lessons from Sudan
Authors: Ojaba Elizabeth , Leonardo Anne Itto , Leonardo Margaret Itto
Published: March 2003

The term “complex emergency” was coined by the UN to imply a phenomenon characterized by a combination of causes (conflicts, war, famine, displacement) requiring a combination of responses (military, peacekeeping, relief ). The “complexity” refers to the “multi–mandate” nature of the response as well as the multi–causal nature of the emergency. Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), the UN humanitarian assistance programme in Sudan, has been described as history’s largest humanitarian intervention in an active civil war, providing a model for the international community in what can be achieved in complex political emergencies. The paper reviews how humanitarian aid was used in Sudan, and the potential for that usage contributing to development. The political dimension of decisions taken and implemented by donors, the United Nations and non–governmental organizations is explored.
The Sustainable Use of Resources on a Global Scale
Authors: Huby Meg
Published: March 2003

The need to reconcile social and environmental goals for sustainable development still poses problems for policy makers in the richer parts of the world. Using the examples of domestic water and energy, this paper argues that the problems are reflected, and often magnifed, in developing countries. They arise largely from conflicts between the short‐term need to alleviate poverty and longer‐term objectives for environmental sustainability. The dual nature of water and energy as both social and economic goods raises questions about the most appropriate forms of provision and allocation of the utilities. It is in no one’s long‐term interest for developing countries to repeat the environmentally damaging mistakes of the industrialized world. But an equitable distribution of the short‐term costs attached to a more environmentally responsible use of resources demands new ways of thinking about global social justice.
The Institutionalization of Dutch‐German Cross‐Boundary Nature Policy
Authors: De Jong Diana , Van Tatenhove Jan
Published: March 2003

This paper focuses on cross‐border nature conservation policy in the Gelderse Poort, a region in the Dutch‐German frontier area. An institutional analysis is combined with an analysis of strategic conduct in order to study the enabling and constraining factors of cross‐border nature policy. In the analysis of strategic conduct, policy making in the Gelderse Poort was examined as a process of negotiation between actors, with different constructions of nature and different resources at their disposal. In the institutional analysis, the accent was placed on enabling and constraining factors for cross‐border policy making in the Gelderse Poort as a result of the institutionalization of nature conservation policy in the Netherlands and Germany. This kind of analysis may contribute to a better understanding of cross‐border policy making processes in the European context.
Why Paternalism Survives: Globalization, Democratization and Labour on South African Wine Farms
Authors: Ewert Joachim , Hamman Johann
Published: March 2003

Neither deregulation, access to international markets, labour and tenure legislation nor the transition to democracy have fundamentally changed the paternalist labour regime on South African wine farms. Power relations remain visibly unequal, i.e. in most cases the farmer still determines, unilaterally, working rules, wages and housing conditions. Worker’ ignorance and passivity and a lack of union resources combine to leave the power of the farmer virtually unchallenged. Nevertheless, legislation has set limits to the length of the working day and created a considerable measure of social security for farm workers. It has reduced worker’ vulnerability and begun effectively to protect them against unfair dismissals, summary evictions and other kinds of arbitrary action on the part of the farmer. Imperfect as law enforcement may be, workers’ newly found protection is almost totally due to the determination on the part of the South African state to put an end to super‐exploitation on the farm. In this respect it differs markedly from many a government in the non‐metropolitan parts of the world who have uncritically embraced neo‐liberalism in the name of competitiveness and globalization.
The Politicization of Livestock: Rare Breeds and Countryside Conservation
Authors: Evans Nicholas , Yarwood Richard
Published: March 2003

Despite a recent emphasis on conflicts in rural areas, differences between members of the farming community over issues such as conservation remain to be fully explored. Focusing upon rare breeds of domestic farm animals, this paper investigates the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (rbst)and discusses its importance in the politicization of livestock.Actor network theory is used to provide a framework to analyse the development of rbst .Two phases of operation are evident, representing a shift from emergency measures towards a proactive strategy for livestock breed conservation. In both periods, there are ‘moments’ of problematization, interessement, enrolement and mobilization which establish the rbst as a powerful actor at the centre of a rare breeds network. Such has been the influence of the Trust that remarkably little conflict over the conservation of rare breeds has arisen. Rbst appeals to both farmers and conservationists,but success through increasing animal numbers and a lack of political effectiveness are found to be forces undermining its position of power in the network. Further questions are raised about the manipulation of animals to support political objectives.
Chewing Gum in the United States and Mexico: The Everyday and the Iconic
Authors: Redclift Michael
Published: March 2003

Chewing gum is a good example of a commodity whose ‘value’ is not confined to the sphere of economics. Gum became one of the first products to employ mass advertising and marketing expertise, even in the first decades of the twentieth century. Later chewing gum became associated with all things ‘American’, and was used as a way of promoting ‘American values’, in sport, entertainment and even politics. Chewing gum assumed iconic status in the United States at a time when its sourcing and raw material (chicle) was largely unknown (or hidden) in Mexico, the chief supplier. The paper argues that consumption can, and often does, acquire primacy within production/consumption circuits, when its use becomes seen as both necessary and inevitable. Products like chewing gum also point to complex cultural relationships, that can extend beyond national boundaries, and illustrate the way in which political economy is supported by fashion and taste.
A phenomenology of fear: Merleau‐Ponty and agoraphobic life‐worlds: This paper is dedicated to Jim Davidson, 1965–2000
Authors: Davidson Joyce
Published: March 2003

This paper explores the nature of agoraphobic sufferers’ fears of social spaces drawing on Merleau‐Ponty’s dual conceptions of ‘lived’ and ‘objective’ space. Merleau‐Ponty’s phenomenological approach highlights both the mediating role of sensations in acquiring a sense of identity and the importance of recognising the social (as opposed to the merely individual) construction of lived space. I argue that an approach capable of theorising agoraphobic ‘being‐in‐the‐world’ requires just such recognition of the effect that other people have on the space that they occupy. The potential relevance of this approach for sufferers from agoraphobia is explored through a case study.
How did the cookie crumble? identifying fragmentation procedures
Authors: Neuts M. F. , Rauschenberg D. E. , Li Jian‐Min
Published: March 2003

By computer experimentation, we examine how different methods of randomly partitioning the interval [0,1] can be identified from the resulting fragments. We explore some descriptive statistics whose empirical densities appear to distinguish well between the various methods. These are combined into scores used in guessing the fragmentation method used. The proposed methodology appears to have wider educational and research interest.
Blackjack in Holland Casino's: basic, optimal and winning strategies
Authors: Van Der Genugten B. B.
Published: March 2003

This paper considers the card game Blackjack according to the rules of Holland Casino's in the Netherlands. Expected gains of strategies are derived with simulation and also with analytic tools. New efficiency concepts based on the gains of the basic and the optimal strategy are introduced. A general method for approximating expected gains for strategies based on card counting systems is developed. In particular it is shown how Thorp's Ten Count system and the High‐Low system should be used in order to get positive expected gains. This implies that in Holland Casino's it is possible to beat the dealer in practice.
Kantorovich inequalities and efficiency comparisons for several classes of estimators in linear models
Authors: Liu S. , Neudecker H.
Published: March 2003

New matrix, determinant and trace versions of the Kantorovich inequality (KI) involving two positive definite matrices are presented. Some of these are used to study the efficiencies of minimum‐distance (MD) estimators, generalized method‐of‐moments (GMM) estimators and several estimators specific to longitudinal or panel‐data analysis. They are also used to give upper bounds for the determinant and trace of the asymptotic variance matrix of a weighted least‐squares (WLS) estimator in the generalized linear model.
Stepwise Bayes distributional inference for a finite population
Authors: Roussanov B. V.
Published: March 2003

Stepwise Bayes arguments can be used to derive various decision rules. Admissibility of such rules follows if additional conditions are satisfied. We show that in complete generality almost admissibility is in place. A uniform distribution example is used to demonstrate how stepwise Bayes arguments can be used when the support of the observation distribution depends on the unknown parameter. We then discuss distributional inference and show that weighted Polya posterior distributions provide admissible distributional inference for finite population problems when strictly proper loss functions are used.
Distance Association Models for the Analysis of Repeated Transition Frequency Tables
Authors: De Rooij Mark
Published: March 2003

The present paper is concerned with the analysis of repeated transition frequency tables, for example, occupational mobility data measured in different cohorts. The association present in such a table will be modeled by a distance in Euclidean space. A large distance corresponds to a small association; a small distance corresponds to a large association. A more direct interpretation is that more transitions occur between categories that are close together in a social space. It is assumed that the same social structure (space) exists for the different slices (cohorts/time points) of a table, but that the dimensions of this space are weighted for the different slices, i.e., for each slice the dimensions are stretched or squeezed. We will propose a model, discuss an algorithm to obtain maximum likelihood estimates and apply the model to an empirical data set.
How To Assign Probabilities If You Must
Authors: Albers C. J. , Schaafsma W.
Published: March 2003

Empirical evidence can sometimes be incorporated in a probabilistic analysis by conditioning with respect to the observations. Usually, the underlying probability distribution and also the conditional distribution are not completely known. The assignment of probabilities will then require a compromise. The making of such a compromise goes beyond mathematical theory: a statistical discussion is needed. It depends on the context whether the result of such discussion is almost compelling, reasonable, or not really agreeable. This is illustrated by means of a simple example from the area of predictive distributional inference.
Test of Bernoulli success probability in inverse sampling for nearer alternatives using adaptive allocation
Authors: Bandyopadhyay Uttam , Biswas Atanu
Published: March 2003

This paper provides a test procedure for the problem of testing Bernoulli success probability in the case of costly trials when an inverse sampling is carried out. The proposed test is based on a two population adaptive sampling scheme used in clinical trials. Some exact and asymptotic results related to the test are studied. The proposed procedure is applicable where the alternatives are not too far from the null hypothetical value.
Computing the covariance of two Brownian area integrals
Authors: Wellner J. A. , Smythe R. T.
Published: March 2003

We compute the expected product of two correlated Brownian area integrals, a problem that arises in the analysis of a popular sorting algorithm. Along the way we find three different formulas for the expectation of the product of the absolute values of two standard normal random variables with correlation θ. These two formulas are found: (a) via conditioning and the non‐central chi‐square distribution; (b) via Mehler’s formula; (c) by representing the correlated normal random variables in terms of independent normal’s and integration using polar coordinates.
An improved empirical Bayes test for positive exponential families
Authors: Liang Tachen
Published: March 2003

We exhibit an empirical Bayes test δ*n for a decision problem using a linear error loss in a class of positive exponential families. This empirical Bayes test δ*n possesses the asymptotic optimality, and its associated regret converges to zero with rate n−1(ln n)6 This rate of convergence improves the previous results in the literature in the sense that a faster rate of convergence is achieved under much weaker conditions. Examples are presented to illustrate the performance of the empirical Bayes test δ*n
Overt and covert dependencies in Albanian
Authors: Turano Giuseppina
Published: March 2003

In Albanian a K‐word can be used as an interrogative, as a polarity item (PI) and, in combination with certain particles, as a quantifier. I propose an analysis of these elements as variables in the sense of Heim (1982). In order to receive an interrogative reading, a K‐word must obligatorily move to a Focus phrase projection. Overt movement is due to the presence of a (strong) Focus feature on the K‐word. In the absence of such a feature, a K‐word remains in situ and can only be interpreted as a PI. The set of possible binders that license PI includes the negation, question operators, conditional complementizers, modal verbs and modal particles. The properties of PIs are satisfied by covert dependency formation. This dependency does not involve abstract movement but rather a binding relation. More precisely, polarity items and their operators form a head‐to‐head dependency sensitive to strong and weak islands.
Multiwavelets: Regularity, Orthogonality, and Symmetry via Two–Scale Similarity Transform
Authors: Strela Vasily
Published: March 2003

An important object in wavelet theory is the scaling functionφ(t), satisfying a dilation equationφ(t)=∑Ckφ(2t−k). Properties of a scaling function are closely related to the properties of the symbol or maskP(ω)=∑Cke−iωk. The approximation order provided by φ(t) is the number of zeros of P(ω) at ω=π, or in other words the number of factors (1+e−iω) in P(ω). In the case of multiwaveletsP(ω) becomes a matrix trigonometric polynomial. The factors (1+e−iω) are replaced by a matrix factorization of P(ω), which defines the approximation order of the multiscaling function. This matrix factorization is based on the two‐scale similarity transform (TST). In this article we study properties of the TST and show how it is connected with the theory of multiwavelets. This approach leads us to new results on regularity, symmetry, and orthogonality of multiscaling functions and opens an easy way to their construction.
Symmetry Analysis of Abel's Equation
Authors: Schwarz Fritz
Published: March 2003

A solution algorithm for Abel's equation and some generalizations based on a nontrivial Lie symmetry of a particular kind, i.e., so‐called structure‐preserving symmetry, is described. For the existence of such a symmetry a criterion in terms of the coefficients of the so‐called rational normal form of the given equation is derived. If it is affirmative, solving Abel's equation is reduced to a well‐defined integration problem. It is shown that almost all known ad hoc methods for obtaining closed form solutions are consequences of this type of symmetry. Possible extensions of this scheme to more general classes of first‐order ordinary differential equations are pointed out.
A Ray Approximation to a PdE that Arises in the Study of Tandem Queues
Authors: Knessl Charles , Tier Charles
Published: March 2003

We use singular perturbation methods to analyze a diffusion equation that arose in studying two tandem queues. Denoting by p(n1, n2) the probability that there are n1 customers in the first queue and n2 customers in the second queue, we obtain the approximation p(n1, n2)∼ɛ2P(X, Y)=ɛ2P(ɛn1, ɛn2), where ɛ is a small parameter. The diffusion approximation P satisfies an elliptic PDE with a nondiagonal diffusion matrix and boundary conditions that involve both normal and tangential derivatives. We analyze the boundary value problem using the ray method of geometrical optics and other singular perturbation techniques. This yields the asymptotic behavior of P(X, Y) for X and/or Y large.
Two‐layer Gravity Currents with Topography
Authors: Montgomery P. J. , Moodie T. B.
Published: March 2003

Two‐dimensional and time‐dependent gravity currents involving the initial release of a fixed volume of heavy fluid over a gradually sloping bottom and underlying a layer of lighter fluid are considered. The equations which describe the resulting two‐layer flow are derived from the Navier–Stokes equations for a constant density, inviscid, nonrotating fluid, neglecting kinematic viscosity, surface tension, and entrainment between the layers. A new addition to the theory is introduced in the form of a forcing term in the lower layer horizontal momentum equation which is incorporated to produce the characteristic structure typical of such gravity currents in the laboratory. This delaying term is restricted to the front of the gravity current, and as such is shown to be valid under conventional shallow‐water scaling assumptions. The hyperbolic character of the equations of motion is shown, a simple numerical test for hyperbolicity is derived from theoretical considerations, and these results are related to the stability Froude number of the flow. Well‐posedness of the initial boundary value problem is proven via localization of the equations, and the discussion is extended to a two‐point boundary value problem with examples of steady‐state and traveling wave solutions given for a bottom surface of constant slope. Numerical results are obtained by using a recently developed finite‐difference relaxation scheme for conservation laws, sufficiently modified herein to include spatial variability and forcing terms, which approximates the material interface at the front of the lower fluid layer as a shock. The effects of slope and the delaying force are investigated numerically to determine their theoretical importance, and the range of expected values is compared to published experimental results. Some calculations for the temporal evolution of the flow are produced that display the phenomenon of rear wall separation for nonzero slopes.
Analysis of Nonlinear Resonance in Conservation Laws with Point Sources and Well‐Balanced Scheme
Authors: Noussair Ahmed
Published: March 2003

The purpose of this paper is to study the wave behavior of the hyperbolic conservation law with concatenation of point sources: for i∈I some finite index set, and where δ( ) is the Dirac measure. Special features of this problem are the discontinuities that appear along the t‐axis at the point sources x=xi+1/2. Resonance occurs when the speed of the nonlinear wave is close to zero. In addition to classical shock waves, the equation exhibits overcompressive and undercompressive waves. The Riemann problem “with resonance” is solved, and we show global existence via the Glimm scheme. Analytical understanding is used to design a well‐balanced numerical scheme, of the Godunov type, which preserves the balance between the sources terms and the fluxes terms. Some numerical tests are reported.
Geometric Optics Approach to First‐Passage Distributions: Caustic Boundaries and Exponentially Small Eigenvalues
Authors: Knessl Charles
Published: March 2003

We develop singular perturbation methods for computing the first passage time distribution for one‐dimensional diffusion processes. Detailed results are given for an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process, and the method is sketched for more general problems. For some parameter values, we find the presence of caustic boundaries; whereas, for other parameter values, there are exponentially small eigenvalues. We use the ray method of geometric optics and asymptotic matching.