bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Rights of Child Victims and Child Witnesses in Criminal Justice in Viet Nam
Authors: Le Thi Nga
Published: June 2016

Over the last few years, Viet Nam’s economy has developed quickly and changed social values through global integration. The numbers of children who have been victims and witnesses of crime have increased. From the most common points of entry into a criminal case, there should be a set of regulations governing the rights of child victims and child witnesses in all stages of the criminal process and the child welfare system. The article argues that the rights of children as victims and witnesses in criminal cases in Viet Nam still lack the necessary safeguards and are not compatible with international law. Although the criminal justice system of Viet Nam has been improved to protect children’s rights, there are still many challenges to ensure and protect the rights of children when they participate in the criminal justice system as victims and witnesses. To narrow the gap between the international standards and the national legal system in juvenile criminal justice in Viet Nam, this article examines the problems in criminal justice to protect child victims and child witnesses in Viet Nam. The research is based on international standards of juvenile criminal justice and uses comparative and quantitative methods. It discusses how the national criminal justice system can be reformed to prevent child victims and witnesses from being abused.
Auditory and Visual Crossmodal Correspondences With Haptically Perceived Liquid Viscosity
Authors: Asad Jennah , Spiller Mary Jane , Jonas Clare
Published: June 2016

Past research on crossmodal correspondences as they relate to tactile perception has largely been restricted to solid substances. We investigated the role of haptically explored liquid viscosity in crossmodal correspondences with visually presented luminance, saturation, roundedness, size, number and visual elevation, as well as pure-tone pitch and kiki–bouba-type letter strings. In Experiment 1, we presented two tactile and two visual or auditory stimuli simultaneously, and found significant inter-participant agreement () when pairing viscosity with luminance, saturation, roundedness, size, pitch and letter string type. To assess whether these crossmodal correspondences were relative or absolute, another 32 participants were presented, in Experiment 2, with two tactile stimuli but only one visual/auditory stimulus per trial. In this second experiment, we found that high viscosity was paired with low luminance, roundness, low saturation, and the bouba-type letter string, while low viscosity was paired with high pitch. However, the inverse associations (e.g. low viscosity with high luminance, high viscosity with low pitch) were not significant. These findings indicate that viscosity can be added to the list of dimensions that invoke crossmodal correspondences, and that the majority of crossmodal correspondences involving viscosity are absolute rather than relative, since they appear without explicit comparisons along the visual/auditory dimensions we measured.
Coprophilous Agaricales (Agaricomycetes, Basidiomycota) from Brazil
Authors: MELO ROGER FAGNER RIBEIRO , CHIKOWSKI RENATA DOS SANTOS , MILLER ANDREW NICHOLAS , MAIA LEONOR COSTA
Published: June 2016

During a survey of coprophilous fungi along a gradient through different vegetational areas in Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil, twelve species of dung inhabiting mushrooms were reported. Bolbitius demangei, Conocybe siliginea, Coprinellus angulatus, C. marculentus, Coprinopsis cothurnata, C. pseudoradiata, C. vermiculifer and Coprinus foetidellus are new records for Brazil. Descriptions and drawings are provided, along with an identification key to all Agaricales species recorded on dung in Brazil.
Didymocarpus moellerii (Gesneriaceae): a new species from northeastern India
Authors: JOE ALFRED , HAREESH VADAKKOOT SANKARAN , PRASHOB PULPARA , SABU MAMIYIL
Published: June 2016

Didymocarpus moellerii, a new species from northeastern India is described and illustrated with photographs. Information on its ecology is provided as well. The new species is morphologically similar to D. glandulosus and D. tonghaiensis but can be easily distinguished by a combination of characters such as glabrous peduncle, orbicular purple bracts, puberulent anthers, orange-red corolla with white stripes at the throat, longer ovary, bulged ovary apex and cup-like disc.
Garra longchuanensis, a new cyprinid (Teleostei: Cypriniformes) from southern China
Authors: YU QIAN , WANG XUZHENG , XIONG HUAN , HE SHUNPING
Published: June 2016

A new species of the genus Garra is described from the Longchuan Jiang River, a tributary flowing to the Yiluowadi Jiang (Irrawaddy River) basin in Tengchong, Yunnan, South China. Garra longchuanensis is distinct from other Chinese congeners, except for G. qiaojiensis, in having 12 circumpeduncular scales, a well-developed rostral lobe with irregular distributed acanthoid tubercles, a deep groove to form a transverse lobe and a conspicuous, heavily tuberculated quadrate proboscis, and from G. qiaojiensis in having a slightly pointed snout (vs. rounded), a long and slender caudal peduncle (length 17.8–20.6% SL vs. 15.5–17.1%, width 10.9–12.6% SL vs. 11.3–12.6%), pectoral fin with 15–16 (vs. 13) branched rays, pelvic fin with 9 (vs. 8) branched rays, and an anterior position of anus (anus to anal distance 27.2–39.1% of pelvic to anal distance vs. 22.8–28.3%).
Revision of genus Texoreddellia Wygodzinsky, 1973 (Hexapoda, Zygentoma, Nicoletiidae), a prominent element of the cave-adapted fauna of Texas
Authors: ESPINASA LUIS , BARTOLO NICOLE D. , CENTONE DANIELLE M. , HARUTA CHARISSE S. , REDDELL JAMES R.
Published: June 2016

While many cave-adapted organisms tend to be endemic to single locations or restricted to single karstic regions, the troglobitic silverfish insects of genus Texoreddellia can be found in scores of different cave localities that cover a range of nearly 160,000 km2. They are among the most important and common representatives of the cave-adapted fauna of Texas and Coahuila, in northern Mexico. Using morphological and mitochondrial gene sequence data, we have corroborated the presence of at least six different species within the genus and provided species identifications to populations inhabiting 153 different cave locations. Results show that species ranges are larger than previously reported and that ranges tend to greatly overlap with each other. We have also found that different species of Texoreddellia commonly inhabit the same cave in sympatry. Data supports that some species of Texoreddellia can easily disperse through the extensive network of cracks, fissures and smaller cavities near the surface and epikarst.
Two new species of Megistophylla Burmeister (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from Taiwan, with notes on the genus
Authors: LI CHUN-LIN , YANG PING-SHIH , WANG CHUAN-CHAN
Published: June 2016

The genus Megistophylla (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) was first reported from Taiwan with the descriptions and illustrations of two new species, Megistophylla formosana Wang & Li, new species (蓬萊脊頭多鰓金龜) and Megistophylla xitoui Li & Wang, new species (溪頭脊頭多鰓金龜). An annotated checklist and modified key for the species in the genus are provided. The information in checklist for each species includes: literature review, synonymy, distribution, and type locality.
Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) xii sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Rhysodidae: Clinidiini),
a new species from Hainan Island, China
Authors: WANG CHENG-BIN
Published: June 2016

Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) xii sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Rhysodidae: Clinidiini) is described from Hainan Island, China. Important morphological characters of the new species are illustrated. An updated key to nine species of of the R. (T.) singularis species-group is compiled so as to include the new species.
Assessing State-of-the-Art Capabilities for Probing the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: The XPIA Field Campaign
Authors: Lundquist Julie K. , Wilczak James M. , Ashton Ryan , Bianco Laura , Brewer W. Alan , Choukulkar Aditya , Clifton Andrew , Debnath Mithu , Delgado Ruben , Friedrich Katja , Gunter Scott , Hamidi Armita , Iungo Giacomo Valerio , Kaushik Aleya , Kosović Branko , Langan Patrick , Lass Adam , Lavin Evan , Lee Joseph C.-Y. , McCaffrey Katherine L. , Newsom Rob K. , Noone David C. , Oncley Steven P. , Quelet Paul T. , Sandberg Scott P. , Schroeder John L. , Shaw William J. , Sparling Lynn , Martin Clara St. , Pe Alexandra St. , Strobach Edward , Tay Ken , Vanderwende Brian J. , Weickmann Ann , Wolfe Daniel , Worsnop Rochelle
Published: June 2016

To assess current capabilities for measuring flow within the atmospheric boundary layer, including within wind farms, the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored the eXperimental Planetary boundary layer Instrumentation Assessment (XPIA) campaign at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) in spring 2015. Herein, we summarize the XPIA field experiment, highlight novel measurement approaches, and quantify uncertainties associated with these measurement methods. Line-of-sight velocities measured by scanning lidars and radars exhibit close agreement with tower measurements, despite differences in measurement volumes. Virtual towers of wind measurements, from multiple lidars or radars, also agree well with tower and profiling lidar measurements. Estimates of winds over volumes from scanning lidars and radars are in close agreement, enabling the assessment of spatial variability. Strengths of the radar systems used here include high scan rates, large domain coverage, and availability during most precipitation events, but they struggle at times to provide data during periods with limited atmospheric scatterers. In contrast, for the deployment geometry tested here, the lidars have slower scan rates and less range but provide more data during nonprecipitating atmospheric conditions. Microwave radiometers provide temperature profiles with approximately the same uncertainty as radio acoustic sounding systems (RASS). Using a motion platform, we assess motion-compensation algorithms for lidars to be mounted on offshore platforms. Finally, we highlight cases for validation of mesoscale or large-eddy simulations, providing information on accessing the archived dataset. We conclude that modern remote sensing systems provide a generational improvement in observational capabilities, enabling the resolution of finescale processes critical to understanding inhomogeneous boundary layer flows.
Polarimetric Variability of Classic Supercell Storms as a Function of Environment
Authors: Van Den Broeke Matthew S.
Published: June 2016

Classic supercell storms occur in a generally well understood environment characterized by instability and vertical wind shear. Within this broadly favorable environment, large day-to-day variability in environmental parameters may lead to widely varying radar presentation of storms. Of interest here is whether specific storm structures exhibit repeatable characteristics in similar environments and whether radar presentation can be predicted with knowledge of environmental characteristics. Specifically, this paper focuses on (i) updraft characteristics inferred using differential reflectivity ZDR columns, (ii) characteristics of storm-relative inflow inferred using ZDR arcs, and (iii) areal extent and cyclicality of polarimetrically inferred hailfall at low levels. Variability of these radar features is compared among storms in similar environments and among a larger subset of storms across highly varying environments. The similarity of storms in similar and different environments is quantified, and tornadic and nontornadic storms are compared. Associations between inferred updraft, inflow, and hailfall characteristics and environmental variables are discussed. Storm features generally exhibit greater similarity among storms in similar environments than across environments, although exceptions occur. The results indicate that many radar features of classic supercells may be useful to learn about microphysical variability across environments.
Seasonal Responses of Indian Summer Monsoon to Dust Aerosols in the Middle East, India, and China
Authors: Jin Qinjian , Yang Zong-Liang , Wei Jiangfeng
Published: June 2016

The seasonal responses of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) to dust aerosols in local (the Thar Desert) and remote (the Middle East and western China) regions are studied using the WRF Model coupled with online chemistry (WRF-Chem). Ensemble experiments are designed by perturbing model physical and chemical schemes to examine the uncertainties of model parameterizations. Model results show that the dust-induced increase in ISM total rainfall can be attributed to the remote dust in the Middle East, while the contributions from local and remote dust are very limited. Convective rainfall shows a spatially more homogeneous increase than stratiform rainfall, whose responses follow the topography. The magnitude of dust-induced increase in rainfall is comparable to that caused by anthropogenic aerosols. The Middle East dust aerosols tend to enhance the southwesterly monsoon flow, which can transport more water vapor to southern and northern India, while the anthropogenic aerosols tend to enhance the southeasterly monsoon flow, resulting in more water vapor and rainfall over northern India. Both dust and anthropogenic aerosol-induced rainfall responses can be attributed to their heating effect in the mid-to-upper troposphere, which enhances monsoon circulations. The heating effect of dust over the Iranian Plateau seems to play a bigger role than that over the Tibetan Plateau, while the heating of anthropogenic aerosols over the Tibetan Plateau is more important. Moreover, dust aerosols can decrease rainfall over the Arabian Sea through their indirect effect. This study addresses the relative roles of dust and anthropogenic aerosols in altering the ISM rainfall and provides insights into aerosol–ISM interactions.
Enhanced Influences of Tropical Atlantic SST on WNP–NIO Atmosphere–Ocean Coupling since the Early 1980s
Authors: Chang Tao-Chi , Hsu Huang-Hsiung , Hong Chi-Cherng
Published: June 2016

This paper reports a new finding and related mechanism: the forcing effect of the tropical Atlantic (TA) sea surface temperature (SST) on the atmosphere–ocean coupling in the western North Pacific (WNP) and northern Indian Ocean (NIO). Since the early 1980s, the TA SST has increased and, notably, exhibited an enhanced interannual statistical relationship with the WNP subtropical high and NIO SST in boreal summer. Empirical diagnostics reveal the following spatial pattern linking the TA SST and the atmosphere–ocean coupling in the Pacific and Indian Ocean: 1) a cyclonic (anticyclonic) circulation pair straddling the equator over the eastern Pacific, 2) an anticyclonic (cyclonic) circulation pair straddling the equator in the WNP and Indian Ocean, 3) overturning circulation with ascending (descending) and descending (ascending) anomalies over the TA and tropical western Pacific, respectively, and 4) positive (negative) SST anomaly in the TA and NIO.

The characteristics of this pattern are consistent with those of a WNP–NIO coupling pattern identified in a previous study. Empirical diagnostics and numerical simulations indicate that the TA SST serves as a forcing to induce low-level divergence and streamfunction anomalies in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. The latter in turn induces anomalous heat storage in the NIO and enhances the WNP–NIO coupling system, which is an intrinsic pattern engendered by the atmosphere–ocean interaction in the region. Without the remote influence of the TA SST forcing, the WNP–NIO coupling pattern and its impacts on the summer monsoon and TC variability in South Asia, East Asia, and the WNP would be considerably less significant than observed.
Controls on Turbulent Mixing in a Strongly Stratified and Sheared Tidal River Plume
Authors: Jurisa Joseph T. , Nash Jonathan D. , Moum James N. , Kilcher Levi F.
Published: June 2016

Considerable effort has been made to parameterize turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rate ε and mixing in buoyant plumes and stratified shear flows. Here, a parameterization based on Kunze et al. is examined, which estimates ε as the amount of energy contained in an unstable shear layer (Ri < Ric) that must be dissipated to increase the Richardson number Ri = N2/S2 to a critical value Ric within a turbulent decay time scale. Observations from the tidal Columbia River plume are used to quantitatively assess the relevant parameters controlling ε over a range of tidal and river discharge forcings. Observed ε is found to be characterized by Kunze et al.’s form within a factor of 2, while exhibiting slightly decreased skill near Ri = Ric. Observed dissipation rates are compared to estimates from a constant interfacial drag formulation that neglects the direct effects of stratification. This is found to be appropriate in energetic regimes when the bulk-averaged Richardson number Rib is less than Ric/4. However, when Rib > Ric/4, the effects of stratification must be included. Similarly, ε scaled by the bulk velocity and density differences over the plume displays a clear dependence on Rib, decreasing as Rib approaches Ric. The Kunze et al. ε parameterization is modified to form an expression for the nondimensional dissipation rate that is solely a function of Rib, displaying good agreement with the observations. It is suggested that this formulation is broadly applicable for unstable to marginally unstable stratified shear flows.
On the Prediction of Stratospheric Balloon Trajectories: Improving Winds with Mesoscale Simulations
Authors: Jewtoukoff Valérian , Plougonven Riwal , Hertzog Albert , Snyder Chris , Romine Glen
Published: June 2016

Safety compliance issues for operational studies of the atmosphere with balloons require quantifying risks associated with descent and developing strategies to reduce the uncertainties at the location of the touchdown point. Trajectory forecasts are typically computed from weather forecasts produced by an operational center, for example, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. This study uses past experiments to investigate strategies for improving these forecasts. Trajectories for open stratospheric balloon (OSB) short-term flights are computed using mesoscale simulations with the Weather and Research Forecasting (WRF) Model initialized with ECMWF operational forecasts and are assimilated with radio soundings using the Data Assimilation Research Testbed (DART) ensemble Kalman filter, for three case studies during the Strapolété 2009 campaign in Sweden. The results are very variable: in one case, the error in the final simulated position is reduced by 90% relative to the forecast using the ECMWF winds, while in another case the forecast is hardly improved. Nonetheless, they reveal the main source of forecasting error: during the ceiling phase, errors due to unresolved inertia–gravity waves accumulate as the balloon continuously experiences one phase of a wave for a few hours, whereas they essentially average out during the ascent and descent phases, when the balloon rapidly samples through whole wave packets. This sensitivity to wind during the ceiling phase raises issues regarding the feasibility of such forecasts and the observations that would be needed. The ensemble spread is also analyzed, and it is noted that the initial ensemble perturbations should probably be improved in the future for better forecasts.
Optimization of Cloud-Radiation Databases for Passive Microwave Precipitation Retrievals over Ocean
Authors: Seo Eun-Kyoung , Yang Sung-Dae , Grecu Mircea , Ryu Geun-Hyeok , Liu Guosheng , Hristova-Veleva Svetla , Noh Yoo-Jeong , Haddad Ziad , Shin Jinho
Published: June 2016

Using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) observations from storms collected over the oceans surrounding East Asia, during summer, a method of creating physically consistent cloud-radiation databases to support satellite radiometer retrievals is introduced. In this method, vertical profiles of numerical model-simulated cloud and precipitation fields are optimized against TRMM radar and radiometer observations using a hybrid empirical orthogonal function (EOF)–one-dimensional variational (1DVAR) approach.The optimization is based on comparing simulated to observed radar reflectivity profiles and the corresponding passive microwave observations at the frequencies of the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) instrument. To minimize the discrepancies between the actual and the synthetic observations, the simulated cloud and precipitation profiles are optimized by adjusting the contents of the hydrometeors. To reduce the dimension of the hydrometeor content profiles in the optimization, multivariate relations among hydrometeor species are used.

After applying the optimization method to modify the simulated clouds, the optimized cloud-radiation database has a joint distribution of reflectivity and associated brightness temperatures that is considerably closer to that observed by TRMM PR and TMI, especially at 85 GHz. This implies that the EOF–1DVAR approach can generate profiles with realistic distributions of frozen hydrometeors, such as snow and graupel. This approach may be similarly adapted to operate with the variety and capabilities of the passive microwave radiometers that compose the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) constellation. Furthermore, it can be extended to other oceanic regions and seasons.
Mesoscale Hybrid Data Assimilation System based on JMA Nonhydrostatic Model
Authors: Ito Kosuke , Kunii Masaru , Kawabata Takuya , Saito Kazuo , Aonashi Kazumasa , Duc Le
Published: June 2016

This paper discusses the benefits of using a hybrid ensemble Kalman filter and four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) data assimilation (DA) system rather than a 4D-Var system employing the National Meteorological Center (NMC, now known as NCEP) method (4D-Var-Bnmc) to predict severe weather events. An adjoint-based 4D-Var system was employed with a background error covariance matrix [Formula: see text] constructed from the NMC method and perturbations in a local ensemble transform Kalman filter system. The DA systems are based on the Japan Meteorological Agency’s nonhydrostatic model. To reduce the sampling noise, three types of implementation (the spatial localization, spectral localization, and neighboring ensemble approaches) were tested. The assimilation of a pseudosingle observation of sea level pressure located at a tropical cyclone (TC) center yielded analysis increments physically consistent with what is expected of a mature TC in the hybrid systems at the beginning of the assimilation window, whereas analogous experiments performed using the 4D-Var-Bnmc system did not. At the end, the structures of the 4D-Var-based increments became similar to one another, while the analysis increment by the 4D-Var-Bnmc system was broad in the horizontal direction. Realistic DA experiments showed that all of the hybrid systems provided initial conditions that yielded more accurate TC track and intensity forecasts than those achievable by the 4D-Var-Bnmc system. The hybrid systems also yielded some statistically significant improvements in forecasting local heavy rainfall events in terms of fraction skill scores when a 160 km × 160 km window size was used. The overall skills of the hybrid systems were relatively independent of the choice of implementation.
Water for peace? Post-conflict water resource management in Kosovo
Authors: Krampe Florian
Published: June 2016

Water resource management (WRM) has increasingly come to be considered within the realm of peacebuilding. Through investigating the case of water resource management in Kosovo after 1999, this study argues that the international community has treated post-conflict water resource management as a primarily technical issue, to the neglect of its complex political nature. This has impeded the peacebuilding process in three ways. First, it consolidated the physical separation of actors through allowing separate water governance structures. Second, it avoided conflictive issues instead of actively engaging in conflict resolution. Third, it incapacitated locals by placing ownership in the hands of external actors. To redress this tripartite dilemma, this study stresses the need for research that provides deeper theoretical and empirical understanding of the political mechanisms that connect WRM to post-conflict reconstruction efforts.
To Whom Do Prior Offenders Pose a Risk? Victim–Offender Similarity in Police-Reported Violent Crime
Authors: Aaltonen Mikko
Published: June 2016

This study assessed whether the higher risk of victimization among criminally active and socially disadvantaged individuals is related to violent incidents including offenders with criminal backgrounds. The analysis is based on a Finnish general population sample ( N = 69,635) using a 7-year-follow-up of police-reported violent incidents that enabled the measurement of criminal background of the “outside-sample” opposite parties involved in the incidents. The association between socioeconomic/criminal background and victimization grew stronger by the intensity of the criminal background of the offender. The results indicate that the risk posed by prior offenders is disproportionally targeted toward criminally active and disadvantaged individuals.
Investigating Approaches to Estimating Covariate Effects in Growth Mixture Modeling: A Simulation Study
Authors: Li Ming , Harring Jeffrey R.
Published: June 2016

Researchers continue to be interested in efficient, accurate methods of estimating coefficients of covariates in mixture modeling. Including covariates related to the latent class analysis not only may improve the ability of the mixture model to clearly differentiate between subjects but also makes interpretation of latent group membership more meaningful. Very few studies have been conducted that compare the performance of various approaches to estimating covariate effects in mixture modeling, and fewer yet have considered more complicated models such as growth mixture models where the latent class variable is more difficult to identify. A Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to investigate the performance of four estimation approaches: (1) the conventional three-step approach, (2) the one-step maximum likelihood (ML) approach, (3) the pseudo class (PC) approach, and (4) the three-step ML approach in terms of their ability to recover covariate effects in the logistic regression class membership model within a growth mixture modeling framework. Results showed that when class separation was large, the one-step ML approach and the three-step ML approach displayed much less biased covariate effect estimates than either the conventional three-step approach or the PC approach. When class separation was poor, estimation of the relation between the dichotomous covariate and latent class variable was severely affected when the new three-step ML approach was used.
Cognitive Ability Determinants of Elite Pilot Performance
Authors: O'hare David
Published: June 2016

The role of the modern pilot requires a high degree of situational awareness. This involves the ability to search for relevant information, assess opportunities and priorities, and maintain performance under stress. The PC-based WOMBAT™ test has been designed to measure individual aptitude to cope with such demands. In the first experiment performance on the WOMBAT test was compared with performance on a battery of tests of specific underlying abilities. In the second experiment the performance of elite soaring pilots was compared with that of matched pilot and control groups. The results support the theory that the WOMBAT test measures individual ability to maintain situational awareness and that this ability is found in high levels in elite pilots.
A public strategy under construction? Coordination and performance in territorial innovation systems
Authors: Fixari Daniel , Pallez Frédérique
Published: June 2016

For several years now, France has been witnessing the development of territorialised public innovation and economic development policies (cluster policies in particular), conducted by various actors, whether the state or the various local authorities. This has triggered the emergence of complex stakeholder systems in the territories, raising doubts about their coordination and performance. It also begs the question of the convergence of public strategies in these conditions. This conjecture, which ties in specifically with the issues of multi-level governance, is based on an empirical study conducted in three French regions, which set out to characterise the workings of these territorial innovation systems and to propose avenues of improvement. Based on this case, we characterise the sources of the apparent complexity of the system and show that, contrary to the voices that call for a reduction in the number of ‘structures’, over and above the harmonisation of operations, the establishment of new coordination mechanisms has the additional effect of creating spaces and procedures that allow the gradual formulation of a collective strategy for public actors in the territory.

Points for practitioners

This research provides a diagnosis of the difficulties of coordinating various cluster policies that coexist within a regional territory, which can help the practitioners involved with the design of public policies. However, above all, it offers regional government officials possible coordination mechanisms that should enable them to build economic development strategies that are more integrated and informed, without increasing the complexity perceived by the beneficiaries, that is, companies.
Examining the Effects of Scattered Site Supportive Housing on the Social and Economic Integration of Men Who Are Formerly Homeless and Primarily Black/African American
Authors: Palmer Geraldine L.
Published: June 2016

Housing dispersal strategies (scattered sites) have its roots in efforts to construct public housing in more ethnically diverse and affluent communities as a result of the overrepresentation of Blacks/African Americans living in public housing developments with concentrated poverty and racial segregation. Today, the use of scattered site housing is more indicative of nonprofit housing providers seeking to end homelessness. Comparable with the demographics of public housing residents, Blacks/African Americans are severely overrepresented in homeless populations across America. This study examined the impact of scattered site supportive housing, located in an affluent and predominately White/European American community to determine any reductions in social isolation and any levels of improved socio-economic status of men who were formerly homeless and primarily Black/African American. This study used five variables identified from earlier studies thought to influence socio-economic well-being: resident satisfaction, a sense of community, impact on income, neighbor opposition or not-in-my-own backyard (NIMBY) attitudes, and impact of scattered site housing on property values. The results showed that the respondents were, on average, more satisfied with the buildings where they lived than their landlord relations or external neighbors. Furthermore, the study found very little neighbor opposition based on race or class and no negative impact on property values from nearby scattered site developments. Based on these findings, recommendations to continue implementing housing dispersal strategies are offered. In addition, directions for future research are provided.
Lost trophies: Hunting animals and the imperial souvenir in Walton Ford’s Pancha Tantra
Authors: Whittle Matthew
Published: June 2016

This article argues that the work of contemporary American artist Walton Ford stages the paradoxical role that trophy hunting played in both establishing and undermining the strict racial, biological, and ecological hierarchization of colonial environments. American Flamingo (1992) and Lost Trophy (2005), from the 2009 collection Pancha Tantra, foreground how the tradition of nineteenth century naturalist art, characterized by John James Audubon, and popular narratives of trophy hunting expeditions, such as Ernest Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa (1935), are complicit in colonialist domination. In doing so, Ford’s paintings of hunted animals, which adopt many of the tropes popularized by Audubon, point to the Spivakian notion of “epistemic violence” behind an ostensibly innocuous, taxonomic art form. At the same time, the painting Lost Trophy recalls the writings of Joseph Conrad and George Orwell, investing animals with the power to unsettle the assumed superiority of the colonial hunter. My interdisciplinary analysis adopts literary strategies for reading artistic works, allowing for a broader understanding of the growing relationship between postcolonial studies and ecocriticism.
“I’m only a dog!”: The Rwandan genocide, dehumanization, and the graphic novel
Authors: Munslow Ong Jade
Published: June 2016

Graphic novels written in response to the 1994 Rwandan genocide do not confine their depictions of traumatic violence to humans, but extend their coverage to show how the genocide impacted on animals and the environment. Through analysis of the presentation of people and their relationships with other species across a range of graphic narratives, this article shows how animal imagery was used to justify inhumane actions during the genocide, and argues that representations of animals remain central to the recuperation processes in a post-genocide context too. Whilst novels and films that respond to the genocide have been the focus of scholarly work, the graphic novel has yet to receive substantial critical attention. Therefore, this article unlocks the archive of French-, Dutch-, and English-language graphic narratives written in response to the genocide by providing the first in-depth, comparative analysis of their animal representations. It draws on recent methodological approaches derived from philosophy, postcolonial ecocriticism, and postcolonial trauma theory in order to show how human-centred strategies for recovery, and associated symbolic orders that forcefully position the animal outside of human law, continue to engender unequal and potentially violent relationships between humans, and humans and other species. In this way, graphic narratives that gesture towards more equitable relationships between humans, animals, and the environment can be seen to support the processes of recovery and reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda.
The postcolonial child in Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild
Authors: Barnsley Veronica
Published: June 2016

This article offers a consideration of the figure of the child in Benh Zeitlin’s film Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), a vibrant but urgent ecological drama motivated by the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It examines how a film that on its release was praised as an American survival story focused on a feisty young heroine can be more productively understood through a postcolonial lens as a radical vision of world ecology underpinned by a complex critique of childhood, development, and marginality. Exploring how vectors of racial, economic, and environmental relations intersect in the film’s fantastical form, the focus is shifted from survival to the connectivity that the precarious postcolonial child enables amongst actual and mythological animals and between past, present, and future time-worlds. As such, the child de-centres the contemporary notion of the human and the tenets of development, progress, and mastery over nature that hold it in place. By delineating the material coordinates of the film in terms of the capitalist, neo-imperialist world-system and analyzing how its mixing of the real and the fantastic elaborates upon the causes and responses to environmental disaster, the article shows how the postcolonial child provokes new approaches to ecological relations.
Comparative postcolonial ruralities and English heritage: Julian Barnes’s England, England and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss
Authors: Loh Lucienne
Published: June 2016

This article argues for the vastly different ways in which English heritage is celebrated as a legacy of the British Empire in rural spaces located both in England and in India. Comparing Julian Barnes’s satirical novel England, England (1998) with Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss (2006) affords disparate images of English heritage in postimperial Britain and in postcolonial India. Barnes parodies efforts by the English heritage industry, in an age of decline, to revivify English nationalism and to recollect erstwhile imperial glory. In a globalized world, he underscores the desire for nostalgia preoccupied with a mythic English agrarian past, its historical icons, and its social order as anachronistic instead of inspirational. At best, it appears historically ignorant; at worst, he suggests, it serves as a perversion of reality. For Barnes, the English heritage industry is self-indulgent and largely motivated by profit. In contrast, Desai’s novel represents the damage caused by a class structure forged from India’s colonial inheritance and a persistent privileging of English culture and heritage. Desai suggests economic power and social prestige, even in an obscure hill village in India, are articulated through material displays and personal knowledge of English heritage, reflecting the different classes’ uneven access to capital and knowledge. Her novel simultaneously depicts those at the bottom end of India’s class hierarchy who are compelled to acts of desperation in pursuit of better lives.
Non-mourning and ecocritical ethics in Véronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda
Authors: Hemsley Frances
Published: June 2016

In this article I read Véronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana through its embedded account of ecotourism and the environmental space of Rwanda’s Parc National des Volcans. In the context of Rwandan genocide, I make a case for re-grounding mourning through environmental co-ordinates. Considering what I term an “agriculturalisation” of genocide, present both in the implementation of genocide in rural areas and in environmental hermeneutics for genocide, I connect the work of mourning to a de-naturalisation of received landscapes and land orthodoxies. I suggest that The Shadow of Imana presents us with a vernacular mourning ecology for post-genocide Rwanda, in which non-mourning enclaves — spaces where a human conception of mourning does not obtain — animate a mourning for everything else that remains.
When Does the Culturally Dominant Mode of Attention Appear or Disappear? Comparing Patterns of Eye Movement During the Visual Flicker Task Between European Canadians and Japanese
Authors: Masuda Takahiko , Ishii Keiko , Kimura Junko
Published: June 2016

Previous findings in culture and attention reported mixed results. While some studies demonstrated systematic cultural variations in patterns of eye movement, other studies reported that the magnitude of the effects is minor. To further scrutinize when cultural variations in attention are attenuated or enhanced, we conducted a new series of visual flicker tasks while making changes in focal figures more salient than those in the background. European Canadian and Japanese participants searched for a change in a pair of quickly alternating still images. The task consisted of two parts: In the majority of trials, we set a change in part of either the focal object or the background (change trials), while in some trials, a pair of identical images was presented unbeknownst to participants (no-change trials), which resulted in forcing participants to search for a nonexistent change for 1 min. We then measured patterns of eye movement during each type of trial. The results of the change trials indicated that there were no cultural variations in change detection styles, nor were there cultural variations in eye movement patterns except for the total fixation duration, suggesting in general that both groups exhibited similar bottom-up patterns of attention. However, in the no-change trials, there were substantial cultural variations in eye movement patterns: European Canadians substantially attended to the focal figures longer and more frequently than to the backgrounds, whereas Japanese equally allocated their attention to both the focal figures and the backgrounds, suggesting that culturally unique top-down patterns were more evident.
The Evolution of TMD Diagnosis
Authors: Ohrbach R. , Dworkin S.F.
Published: June 2016

This review explores the principles and process associated with the diagnosis of temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). TMD diagnosis has evolved substantially over the past 25 y. Previously, diagnosis focused solely on aberrations in oral structures, largely without empirical evidence. The Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD) were developed on core principles of 1) a dual-axis system reflecting the biopsychosocial model, 2) a clear operationalization for reliability, and 3) the allowance of multiple diagnoses. These principles were retained in the subsequent validation research of the RDC/TMD, and the current diagnostic system—the Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (DC/TMD)—has improved on those principles as well as on diagnostic validity and protocols for assessing the psychosocial domain. Further investigations into etiology and its potential contribution to taxonomy revision are described, particularly within the context of complex disease. The review concludes with an outline of major research areas already underway that will support future revisions of the DC/TMD.
Accurate prediction of cotton ring-spun yarn quality from high-volume instrument and mill processing data
Authors: Yang Shouren , Gordon Stuart
Published: June 2016

The derivation and performance of yarn quality prediction models in a program called Cottonspec is reported. Cottonspec incorporates a large database of fiber and yarn data from commercial spinning mills, a series of regression-based models predicting yarn quality from measured cotton fiber quality parameters and yarn specifications and a user interface. The inclusion of independent variables into prediction equations was dependent on the criteria that their inclusion was statistically significant and that variables had a theoretically direct influence on yarn structure. Yarn data was corrected to allow for twist, yarn count and yarn irregularity before correlation with fiber properties. Differences in yarn testing results between mills could be corrected by a Mill Correction Factor. Adherence to these criteria and the ability to draw on the very large database meant prediction ability of the models was excellent, as demonstrated in a series of cross-validations.
An integrated framework for managing the complex interdependence between infrastructures and the socioeconomic environment: An application in metropolitan Atlanta
Authors: Lu Zhongming , Crittenden John , Southworth Frank , Dunham-Jones Ellen
Published: June 2016

In this study, we introduce an integrated framework for managing the complex interdependence between urban infrastructures and the socioeconomic environment within which it evolves, in pursuit of sustainable and environmentally cleaner urban living. The framework addresses the nature of individual preferences for more sustainable urban infrastructures, and how we can use this knowledge to improve urban form in ways that reduce environmental impacts. Using metropolitan Atlanta as a case study, we developed a survey that focuses on the preferences of Atlanta residents for low-impact development (LID) and transit-oriented development (TOD), with responses collected on the Mechanical Turk crowed-source platform. Using these responses we developed a latent-class residential community choice model for four distinctive classes of respondents that revealed heterogeneous preferences for community amenities. Next, we integrated the results of these individual choices into an agent-based market diffusion model, to predict land-use pattern, and to explore policies that drive greater adoption of more compact development. Finally, we used the results of this data collection and modelling to estimate the carbon emission reduction potentials from more compact development driven by LID and TOD. In the future, we will continuously refine the steps and address the issues including survey sample bias to make the framework more reliable and useful for sustainable urban infrastructure planning, design and implementation.
Scientific Research and Economic Development
Authors: Bhargava Pushpa M.
Published: June 2016

This article is a commentary on Praveen Patel’s article, ‘Research Culture in Indian Universities’, appearing in this issue. Patel’s thesis that knowledge creation through scientific research in our universities is a key to economic development is unexceptionable. However, there are conditions under which the above relationship will hold good. It is also argued that scientific research outside of the university system too should be taken into account in any discussion of the above relationship. Patel calls the United States as the ‘paradigm of knowledge society’. Arguments against this statement are presented. The hierarchy between data, information, knowledge and wisdom is pointed out.
Scientific Innovation and Knowledge Creation Can Drive Social Development: A Chinese Perspective
Authors: Rong Ma
Published: June 2016

The rapid growth of economy in the 20th century is largely due to the accelerative development of scientific achievement and technology. Modern educational system–especially research universities–has played a key role. Today’s world is led by knowledge society. China developed her manufacture sector recently, but the difference in labour productivity between China and the US increased significantly during the same period. Therefore, in order to catch up with progress of western countries, improving their research universities and research culture are great challenges faced by both China and India.
Democracy and Growing Inequalities in India
Authors: Hasan Zoya
Published: June 2016

The success of India’s democracy has evoked widespread interest. It is rightly regarded as a postcolonial success story—a functioning democracy that has held free and fair elections and managed to remain pluralist and inclusive. Indian democracy has offered huge opportunities to confront and address the challenges on the development front through policies and practices evolved in the past six decades. Its numerous achievements notwithstanding, the failure to remove the division between the privileged and the rest is largely responsible for the inability to extend the reach of India’s economic and social development. The persistence of inequalities of various kinds is a major contributory factor in holding back the full potential of democratic politics. What follows is not a comprehensive account or stocktaking of India’s democratic experience and its impact on inequalities and vice versa. This lecture attempts to situate issues of inequality in the wider context of political democracy to explore the interaction between the two processes. It concludes with a brief discussion on the emerging relationship between democracy and inequality in the contemporary moment.