bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Monetary Policy, Loan Liquidation, and Industrial Conflict: The Federal Reserve and the Open Market Operations of 1932
Authors: Epstein Gerald , Ferguson Thomas
Published: September 2009

Early in 1932 the Federal Reserve System made a serious attempt to reverse the “Great Contraction” throught expansionary open market operations, but abandoned it a few months later. In this paper we offer an interpretation of the episode that throws new light on the Fed's behavior during the Depression. Key are the attitude of private bankers, Britain's abandonment of the gold standard, and the brief open market campaign. To protect bank profits the Fed abandoned the program which set the stage for the complete financial collapse of the United States in early 1933.
Supply-Side Shocks: The Case of Australian Gold
Authors: Maddock Rodney , McLean Ian
Published: September 2009

A literature has developed recently to analyze the disruptive effects on small, open economies of a sudden change in the value of their natural resources. The paper looks to that literature to explain the effect on the Australian colonies of the discovery of substantial gold deposits in the 1850s. The price and quantity adjustments predicted by the model are found to be well supported by the historical experience with one important exception. Immigration played a far greater role in the Australian case than has been suggested in the theoretical literature. The model does, however, allow for a compact description of the confusing decade in Australian history and explains a number of previously unconnected phenomena.
The Timing and Pattern of Technological Development in English Agriculture, 1611–1850
Authors: Sullivan Richard J.
Published: September 2009

A chronology of invention in farming is given, based on patent data, for England between 1611 and 1850. The chronology is explained using market analysis. Technological constraints determined the timing of some inventions, most notably for fertilizers. Relative input costs explain the early development of the seed drill and the threshing machine. Inventive output also depended on the market for food. The overall level of patents issued was related to the level of population and to changing food prices.The output market for food was influencing invention through of population growth on the advance of farming technology.
Jointly but Severally: Arab-Jewish Dualism and Economic Growth in Mandatory Palestine
Authors: Metzer Jacob , Kaplan Oded
Published: September 2009

Newly estimated national accounting data for the Arab community are utilized to provide a comparative economic profile of the Arab and Jewish sectors in mandatory Palestine's dual economy. It is shown that the Arab economy grew substantially, but at a much slower rate than the Jewish economy. Productivity advance, however, seems to have made a significantly larger relative contribution to Arab growth. General and specific dualistic features of Arab-Jewish trade and their growth promoting effects are also explored, suggesting that the political conflict between the two communities played only a minor role in shaping their economic interrelationship and performance.
The Political Economy of the Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex in the United States
Authors: Baack Ben , Ray Edward
Published: September 2009

Despite the attention given by scholars to the military-industrial complex few studies have attempted to pinpoint and explain its origin. In this paper we argue that the coalescing of business, military, and political interest groups in support of a military build-up in the United States during peacetime occurred in the years between the Civil War and World War I. It was during this period that we observe the roots of institutional arrangements between the military and industry for the purpose of large-scale weapons acquisitions.
The Origins of the Federal Budget
Authors: Rockoff Hugh
Published: September 2009

The federal budget, a long-sought goal of fiscal reformers, became a reality with the passage of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921. This paper is concerned with one of the key expectations of the reformers, that the adoption of a formal budget would produce better estimates of federal revenues and expenditures. The conclusion is that there is little evidence of a dramatic improvement that could be attributed to the reform, although there is some evidence that the quality of the estimates improved over the long run. The paper then discusses the reasons for and implications of this finding.
Economic Decline in the English Industrial Revolution: The Gloucester Wool Trade, 1800–1840
Authors: Urdank Albion M.
Published: September 2009

This study questions the concept of entrepreneurial failure, traditionally invoked to account for the demise of the Gloucestershire wool trade in the Industrial Revolution. Gloucester clothiers used steam power selectively because of the high cost of coal but on a more regular basis and at greater capacity than scholars have commonly admitted. Excess capacity due to overcapitalization accounted for the failure of mills with large engines; underutilization of steam accounted for the failure of mills with small engines. Both types of failure sprang from rational and entrepreneurial choices, and not from an unwillingness to innovate.
The Resolution of the Labor-Scarcity Paradox
Authors: James John A. , Skinner Jonathan S.
Published: September 2009

Many distinguished foreign visitors to the United States in the 1850s commented on the advanced states of mechanization in manufacturing. But why, at the same time, were interest rates higher and the aggregate manufacturing capital stock lower in American than in Britain? We resolve this paradox by noting that British engineers were most impressed by only those industries which relied on skilled workers. Using production parameters estimated from 1849 census data, we develop a computable general equilibrium model of the American and British economies which reconciles the apparently contradictory evidence.
The Profitability of Serfdom: A Reply
Authors: Domar Evsey D. , Machina Mark J.
Published: September 2009

In discussing Catherine II's proficiency in the Russian language, the historian Kliuchevaskii remarked that “she could make four mistakes in spelling a Russian word consisting of three letters.” According to Peter Toumanoff, we have performed a similar feat by making no fewer than five major mistakes in a single paper.
Crowding Out during Britain's Industrial Revolution
Authors: Black Robert A. , Gilmore Claire G.
Published: September 2009

Contrary to earlier assertions, the historical data for Britain do confirm a (lagged) crowding-out effect during the Industrial Revolution. Heavy government borrowing after 1793 for the wars with France raised interest rates. These results are confirmed with nominal-interest-rate equations rather than with real-rate equations, which impose restrictive assumptions about the adjustment of nominal rates to inflation expectations. We see no reason to abandon the neoclassical, factor- allocation model of saving and investment in favor of a theory asserting that firms accumulate capital for investment independently of household saving decisions.
The Revolution of Ideas: Widespread Patenting and Invention During the English Industrial Revolution
Authors: Sullivan Richard J.
Published: September 2009

Sectors of the English economy recognized as technological leaders have records of accelerated patent activity soon after 1760. But the patent record also reveals considerable inventive activity during the same period in industries not normally associated with advancing technology. It is therefore unlikely that there was a “leading technological sector.” The widespread increase in patenting is consistent with macroeconomic causes of accelerated invention.
The Democratization of Invention During Early Industrialization: Evidence from the United States, 1790–1846
Authors: Sokoloff Kenneth L. , Khan B. Zorina
Published: September 2009

The skills and knowledge necessary for patentable invention during early American industrialization were widely dispersed among the general population. This endowment permitted a rather elastic supply of patentable ideas over the relevant range as the expansion of markets induced more individuals to invent and innovate.Although a broadening of the ranks of patentees was primarily responsible for the initial acceleration of patenting, the importance of patentees with greater long-term investments in inventive activity increased during later stages of development.
Agency Problems in Early Chartered Companies: The Case of the Hudson’s Bay Company
Authors: Carlos Ann M. , Nicholas Stephen
Published: September 2009

The problem of controlling overseas managers confronts all multilocational firms. Historians have argued that because of the extreme time lags in communication, chartered companies were unable to control managerial behavior. We argue that not only did the Hudson’s Bay Company understand the agency problem but also put into operation strategies designed to attenuate opportunistic behavior. The company used employment contracts and control systems and established a social structure compatible with the company’s aims.
A Tale of Two Currencies: British and French Finance During the Napoleonic Wars
Authors: Bordo Michael D. , White Eugene N.
Published: September 2009

The record of British and French finance during the Napoleonic wars presents the striking picture of a financially strong nation abandoning the gold standard, borrowing heavily, and generating inflation, while a financially weaker country followed more “orthodox” policies. This paradoxical behavior is explained by Britain's strong credibility that allowed more flexible policies, while France's poor reputation forced reliance on taxation.
Intra-Industry Heterogeneity and the Great Depression: The American Motor Vehicles Industry, 1929–1935
Authors: Bresnahan Timothy F. , Raff Daniel M. G.
Published: September 2009

Reliance on a “representative firm” approach in studying industrial behavior during the Great Depression obscures economically interesting patterns. A newly discovered data source lets us form and study an establishment-level panel dataset on the motor vehicles industry, one of the largest in 1929. Substantial intraindustry heterogeneity led to large composition effects in employment, output, and productivity: the large number of plants that shut down were unlike the continuing ones. Oddly, output does not seem to have shifted among continuing producers to the relatively low-cost ones. Reconciling these should illuminate links between industrial organization and macroeconomics.
The Effciency of Southern Tenant Plantations, 1900–1945
Authors: Virts Nancy
Published: September 2009

The continued importance of tenant plantations in some areas of the South since the Civil War suggests that there was some advantage to large-scale agriculture. One source of economies of scale was in the marketing of high-quality cotton.
Economic Opportunity on the urban frontier: nativity, work, and wealth in early chicago
Authors: Galenson David W.
Published: September 2009

This article uses evidence drawn from the manuscripts of the 1850 and 1860 federal censuses to investigate the correlates of the wealth of adult males in Chicago. The analysis reveals rapidly increasing wealth with age, a substantial positive effect on wealth of duration of residence in the city, and an absence of any significant impact of nativity on wealth when controlling occupation. Mean wealth rose from well below the national average in 1850 to a level far above the national average in 1860. Together these results suggest that early Chicago was a place of exceptional economic opportunity for settlers.
Razorbacks, Ticky Cows, and the Closing of the Georgia Open Range: The Dynamics of Institutional Change Uncovered
Authors: Kantor Shawn Everett
Published: September 2009

This article attempts to explain why the adoption of potentially productive institutions is delayed and why inefficient ones persist by exploring the dynamics of institutional change in a particular historical case—the closing of the Georgia open range in the late nineteenth century. A closed range policy would have generated net benefits for specific regions of Georgia, but distributional conflicts, coupled with high transaction costs, made a voluntary agreement to do that unattainable. The article describes the Georgia legislature's important role in facilitating the adoption of a policy that led to more rapid agricultural development in the postbellum period.
Family Income, Mortality, and Fertility on the Eve of the Demographic Transition: A Case Study of Rosny-Sous-Bois
Authors: Weir David R.
Published: September 2009

This article combines uniquely detailed household-level tax assessments with reconstituted family histories for an eighteenth-century agricultural village near Paris. The tax records reveal substantial diversity in income among taxpayers despite the exemptions given privileged landowners. High-income households had significantly lower levels of infant and adult mortality, earlier age at marriage of the wife, and slightly lower rates of emigration by their surviving children. Marital fertility was high at all income levels. These classic Malthusian patterns were found at the household level more than a generation after the last great subsistence crises and resulted in a much higher local rate of replacement for the better-off families.
Where Is There Consensus Among American Economic Historians? The Results of a Survey on Forty Propositions
Authors: Whaples Robert
Published: September 2009

This article examines where consensus does and does not exist among American economic historians by analyzing the results of a questionnaire mailed to 178 randomly selected members of the Economic History Association. The questions address many of the important debates in American economic history. The answers show consensus on a number of issues, but substantial disagreement in many areas—including the causes of the Great Depression and the aftermath of emancipation. They also expose some areas of disagreement between historians and economists.
Federal Personal Income Tax Policy in the 1920s
Authors: Smiley Gene , Keehn Richard H.
Published: September 2009

During the 1920s, federal personal income tax rates, which had been dramatically increased during World War I, were sharply reduced. These tax rate cuts have often been cited as an example of a successful supply-side policy, but they have also been criticized as policies designed primarily to benefit the wealthy. We argue that a primary motive for the tax cuts of the 1920s was the desire to reduce the tax avoidance by wealthier individuals that occurred as a result of the previous tax rate increases and that the tax cuts enacted did reduce tax avoidance.
Did High Wages or High Interest Rates Bring Down the Weimar Republic? A Cointegration Model of Investment in Germany, 1925–1930
Authors: Voth Hans-Joachim
Published: September 2009

This article offers a new interpretation of the low level of investment in Germany during the interwar period. Earlier contributions attributed the slow expansion of capital stock either to excessive wages due to state intervention and unionization or to the high cost of capital. These hypotheses are tested by estimating a cointegration model of investment. Counterfactual simulations demonstrate that lower wages would have lowered investment still further and that high interest rates acted as the main brake on investment during the second half of the 1920s.
Mechanization and Work in the American Shoe Industry: Lynn, Massachusetts, 1852–1883
Authors: Mulligan William H.
Published: September 2009

Between 1852 and 1883 the nature and organization of work in the American shoe industry changed due to the introduction of machinery and the factory system. For generations before 1852 shoes had been made by hand in small workshops organized through a putting out system. Each artisan possessed the skill and tools to make an entire shoe by hand, and work was intertwined with family life. With the introduction of machinery, making a shoe was divided into many distinct tasks, each performed by a different worker, and work was moved into a factory where it came under closer supervision.
Egalitarianism, Inequality, and Age: The Rural North in 1860
Authors: Atack Jeremy , Bateman Fred
Published: September 2009

Little is known about the distribution of wealth in the allegedly egalitarian society of the rural North on the eve of the Civil War. This paper investigates the role of the age structure of the heads of household and a life-cycle pattern of accumulation in determining the wealth distribution within that society and among the various groups that comprised it. The results suggest a need for caution in making cross-group or inter-temporal comparisons in wealth distributions without taking account of such factors.
Land Equalization and Factor Scarcities: Holding Size and the Burden of Impositions in Imperial Central Russia and the Late Ottoman Levant
Authors: Firestone Ya'akov
Published: September 2009

The origin of the land-equalizing community, the most important system of tenure in the nineteenth-century Levant, has never been explained. The evidence of language and the dynamics of factor relationships concur with the historical record: there was no scarcity of land. On the basis of a systematic comparison with the land-equalizing commune in Russia, the answer to the puzzle looms as the need to equalize a heavy burden of impositions. Indeed, villages whoselocation or political strength helped them resist taxation did not equalize holdings.Equalization was an adaptation to external demands, not a static vestigialinstitution.
Economic Causes of Late-Nineteenth Century Agrarian Unrest:New Evidence
Authors: McGuire Robert A.
Published: September 2009

Several economic historians have suggested that economic instability in American agriculture was a primary cause of agrarian discontent during the late nineteenth century. This paper, in providing a rigorous analysis of the issue, presents estimates of economic instability in agriculture and evidence on the location and intensity of agrarian unrest for 14 northern states from 1866 to 1909. I statistically test for a relationship between the two. The results strongly suggest that late-nineteenth century agrarian unrest was directly related to a state's degree ofeconomic instability. This conclusion holds for the entire last third of the century and for several subperiods.
The Labor of Older Americans: Retirement of Men On and Off the Job, 1870–1937
Authors: Ransom Roger L. , Sutch Richard
Published: September 2009

Labor force participation rates for American men sixty and over are estimated for the period 1870 through 1937. They suggest a higher frequency of retirement and quite different trends in the incidence of retirement than have usually been supposed. Evidence is also presented to establish that many older industrial workers changed to less renumerative and less demanding occupations late in their working life. This “on-the-job retirement” may have made the transition from employment to full retirement less sudden than today.
Repudiations and Confiscations by the Medieval State
Authors: Veitch John M.
Published: September 2009

Loan repudiations and property confiscations were common between medieval kings and individuals. Traditional accounts of these confiscations focus on factors affecting the kings, ignoring the motivations of the victims. This deficiency may be remedied by considering the problems faced on both sides of any agreement between a king and a group of citizens. A model is presented which explains the timing and the form of repudiations and confiscations without resorting to an assumption of irrationality by either party. It is general enough to address a persistent problem in the property rights view of government: How can an individual protect himself from abuses by his protector?
Slavery and Emancipation in Comparative Perspective: A Look at Some Recent Debates
Authors: Engerman Stanley L.
Published: September 2009

This paper examines several recent arguments about the role of slavery in the settling of the New World, the viability of slavery as an economic institution in the nineteenth century, and the causes and consequences of slave emancipation in the Americas. Comparisons are made between the analysis of slavery and that of other labor institutions, such as serfdom and free labor.
The Reliability of Historical Macroeconomic Data for Comparing Cyclical Stability
Authors: Weir David R.
Published: September 2009

The question at issue is whether estimates of GNP and unemployment before 1930 exaggerate cyclical volatility enough to produce a false impression of increasing economic stability over the twentieth century. Based on research to be reported in detail at a later date, the answer is no. The range of possible exaggerations is small relative to the observed change.
Firm Size and Industrial Structure in the United States During the Nineteenth Century
Authors: Atack Jeremy
Published: September 2009

This paper investigates the impact of the emergence of large-scale enterprises on industrial structure in America in the mid-nineteenth century and concludes that their impact was ambiguous. In cottons and irons, average scale increased dramatically, but inequality in the size distribution of plants declined and economic concentration showed no clear trend. In other industries, changes in average scale were much smaller and inequality increased, but again there was no clear trend in concentration.
Consumer Behavior in the Nineteenth Century and Ontario Workers, 1885–1889
Authors: Dick Trevor J. O.
Published: September 2009

Cross-section data on expenditure patterns and time-series data on nominal national income and the characteristics of the consuming population are combined to yield aggregate expenditure and household budget share estimates for Canadians from 1870 to 1914. Recently developed econometric techniques are used to produce the new time series. Unlike older estimates that give relatively stable budget shares, the new series break at 1900. This finding has significant implications for the debate over Canadian real income changes in the period, a debate prolonged by problems of converting nominal into real income and of estimating real consumption directly.
Technology, Transaction Costs, and the Transition to Factory Production in the British Silk Industry, 1700–1870
Authors: Jones S. R. H.
Published: September 2009

Scholars still disagree about why nineteenth-century Britain adopted the factory system. Traditional historians emphasize the scale requirements of new technology; radical economists stress the possibilities that factory production held for worker exploitation; other economists and economic historians argue that the factory system was preferred because of its superior transaction-cost properties. This paper tests these competing hypotheses by examining the technological and organizational developments in the British silk industry. It concludes that in this Industry technological factors were primarily responsible for the adoption of the factory system.
Firm Size and Economic Backwardness: A New Look at the French Industrialization Debate
Authors: Nye John Vincent
Published: September 2009

This article challenges the traditional view of French industry—that small, inefficient family firms retarded France's economic growth—by examining data for the French textile and flour milling industries taken from the industry census of 1861–1865. The evidence suggests that the average size of French firms suited the economic and technological conditions of the day. The industries studied exhibit constant returns to scale over a wide output range. France would not seem likely to have gained much from larger firms. This is consistent with revisionist contentions that French industry was as rational as that of other nations.
Origins of Labor Policy in the Russian Coal and Steel Industry, 1874–1900
Authors: McCaffray Susan P.
Published: September 2009

In the southern Russian coal and steel region between 1874 and 1900, labor policy was outlined by the Russian managers of predominantly foreign firms through the Association of Southern Coal and Steel Producers. This policy was shaped by chronic labor shortage, by the strained relations between industry and local government, and by managers' sensitivity to their position as spokesmen for foreign interests. The posture southern managers developed was that of welfare capitalism. Considerable expenditure on wages and welfare, however, did not establish labor peace.
Recent advances in development of materials for laser target
Authors: Moreau L. , Levassort C. , Blondel B. , De Nonancourt C. , Croix C. , Thibonnet J. , Balland-Longeau A.
Published: September 2009

Nearly ten years ago, a research program concerning materials and technologies was defined to develop the very complex cryogenic target for obtaining the combustion of a deuterium-tritium mixture by inertial confinement fusion in the laser megajoule facility. The CEA target fabrication project includes research and development on various organic polymers and materials for the cryogenic laser megajoule target assembly as well as for other targets that can be useful for the fusion program (pre and post-ignition). Recent advances have been accomplished concerning the development of specific organic materials for the fabrication of targets components, including the synthesis of polymers for the laser megajoule microshells and metal-doped organic foams for the elaboration of doped-foam microshells or for the micromachining of components.
Ramp wave loading experiments driven by heavy ion beams: A feasibility study
Authors: Grinenko A. , Gericke D.O. , Varentsov D.
Published: September 2009

A new design for heavy-ion beam driven ramp wave loading experiments is suggested and analyzed. The proposed setup utilizes the long stopping ranges and the variable focal spot geometry of the high-energy uranium beams available at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung and Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research accelerator centers in Darmstadt, Germany. The release wave created by ion beams can be utilized to create a planar ramp loading of various samples. In such experiments, the predicted high pressure amplitudes (up to 10 Mbar) and short timescales of compression (<10 ns) will allow to test the time-dependent material deformation at unprecedented extreme conditions.
DYSOXYLUM MIDDLETONIANUM (MELIACEAE), A DISTINCTIVE NEW SPECIES FROM THE SOUTHERN FOLD MOUNTAINS OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Authors: Takeuchi W.
Published: September 2009

Dysoxylum middletonianum Takeuchi (Meliaceae) is described from previously unexplored habitats in the Southern Fold Mountains of Papua New Guinea. The new plant is the smallest Dysoxylum in eastern Malesia and one of only two species with whip infructescences.
ARABIA'S LAST FORESTS UNDER THREAT II: REMAINING FRAGMENTS OF UNIQUE VALLEY FOREST IN SOUTHWEST ARABIA
Authors: Hall M. , Scholte P. , Al-Khulaidi A. W. , Miller A. G. , Al-Qadasi A. H. , Al-Farhan A. , Al-Abbasi T. M.
Published: September 2009

Over the last three decades, vegetation surveys in southwest Arabia have documented the existence of a small number of valley forest patches. A well-known area is in Wadi Rijaf, Jabal Bura, a protected area which has recently been surveyed by the current authors. The other valley forest sites in southwest Arabia have not been surveyed for over 15 years. This paper presents a descriptive study of five of these important valley forest localities. To provide an assessment of conservation value, field studies recorded the extent, quality and composition of the vegetation and the presence of regionally rare species. The significance of these remaining patches of Arabian forest, and the immediate threats to their survival, are also discussed.
French exchange rate management in the 1920s
Authors: Blancheton Bertrand , Maveyraud Samuel
Published: September 2009

This article challenges the conventional view of the existence of a pure floating regime in France during the mid 1920s. Our study, based on the archives of the Bank of France and the French Ministry of Finance, as well as a thorough examination of the exchange rates (FRF/USD) and (FRF/GBP) during the 1920s, reveals that the French authorities did intervene on several occasions. From these first direct actions, as well as some other abortive attempts, several lessons can be drawn about the effectiveness of interventions on a ‘modern’ exchange rate market.
Assessing the impact of frame semantics on textual entailment
Authors: BURCHARDT ALJOSCHA , PENNACCHIOTTI MARCO , THATER STEFAN , PINKAL MANFRED
Published: September 2009

In this article, we underpin the intuition that frame semantic information is a useful resource for modelling textual entailment. To this end, we provide a manual frame semantic annotation for the test set used in the second recognizing textual entailment (RTE) challenge – the FrameNet-annotated textual entailment (FATE) corpus – and discuss experiments we conducted on this basis. In particular, our experiments show that the frame semantic lexicon provided by the Berkeley FrameNet project provides surprisingly good coverage for the task at hand. We identify issues of automatic semantic analysis components, as well as insufficient modelling of the information provided by frame semantic analysis as reasons for ambivalent results of current systems based on frame semantics.
Extracting paraphrase patterns from bilingual parallel corpora
Authors: ZHAO SHIQI , WANG HAIFENG , LIU TING , LI SHENG
Published: September 2009

Paraphrase patterns are semantically equivalent patterns, which are useful in both paraphrase recognition and generation. This paper presents a pivot approach for extracting paraphrase patterns from bilingual parallel corpora, whereby the paraphrase patterns in English are extracted using the patterns in another language as pivots. We make use of log-linear models for computing the paraphrase likelihood between pattern pairs and exploit feature functions based on maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), lexical weighting (LW), and monolingual word alignment (MWA). Using the presented method, we extract more than 1 million pairs of paraphrase patterns from about 2 million pairs of bilingual parallel sentences. The precision of the extracted paraphrase patterns is above 78%. Experimental results show that the presented method significantly outperforms a well-known method called discovery of inference rules from text (DIRT). Additionally, the log-linear model with the proposed feature functions are effective. The extracted paraphrase patterns are fully analyzed. Especially, we found that the extracted paraphrase patterns can be classified into five types, which are useful in multiple natural language processing (NLP) applications.
Characterizing the Two- and Three-Dimensional Resolution of an Improved Aberration-Corrected STEM
Authors: Lupini A.R. , Borisevich A.Y. , Idrobo J.C. , Christen H.M. , Biegalski M. , Pennycook S.J.
Published: September 2009

The successful development of third-order aberration correctors in transmission electron microscopy has seen aberration-corrected electron microscopes evolve from specialist projects, custom built at a small number of sites to common instruments in many modern laboratories. Here we describe some initial results illustrating the two- and three-dimensional (3D) performance of an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope with a prototype improved aberration corrector designed to also minimize fifth-order aberrations and a new, higher brightness gun. We show that atomic columns separated by 0.63 Å can be resolved and demonstrate detection of single dopant atoms with 3D sensitivity.
Deformation and evolution of solar wind discontinuities through their interactions with the Earth's bow shock
Authors: Keika K. , Nakamura R. , Baumjohann W. , Angelopoulos V. , Kabin K. , Glassmeier K. H. , Sibeck D. G. , Magnes W. , Auster H. U. , Fornaçon K. H. , McFadden J. P. , Carlson C. W. , Lucek E. A. , Carr C. M. , Dandouras I. , Rankin R.
Published: September 2009

The present study examines the interaction of solar wind discontinuities with the Earth's bow shock, using multipoint observations in the magnetosheath by Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During Substorms (THEMIS), Cluster, and Double Star TC1. We focus on the deformation and evolution of two discontinuities observed on 21 June 2007, one of which involves a density increase and a magnetic field decrease, while the other is accompanied by a density decrease and a magnetic field increase. In the magnetosheath, the discontinuities are deformed into a concave shape; that is, the normal is inclined toward dusk (dawn) on the dawnside (duskside). The density‐increase (‐decrease) discontinuity is being compressed (expanded) as it propagates in the magnetosheath. We conclude that the compression (expansion) is due to antisunward (sunward) motion of the bow shock which is initiated or enhanced by the impact of the discontinuity on the bow shock. The steepening of Bz reversal followed by an overshoot of the total magnetic field, which appears at the trailing edge of the density‐decrease discontinuity, is also discussed.
MR Derived Volumetric Flow Rate Waveforms at Locations within the Common Carotid, Internal Carotid, and Basilar Arteries
Authors: Gwilliam Matthew N , Hoggard Nigel , Capener David , Singh Pankaj , Marzo Alberto , Verma Prashant K , Wilkinson Iain D
Published: September 2009

The volumetric flow rate (VFR) waveform over the cardiac cycle in the cerebral vasculature is a significant factor in many studies, which involve cerebrovascular function. Perhaps contrary to expectation, the literature in this area is sparse and the characteristics of blood flow waveforms are ill defined. A better understanding of the variation of blood flow rate and pulsatility may aid our knowledge of risk factors involved in diseases and conditions, such as stroke, arteriovenous malformation, or aneurysm rupture. This study sought to characterise the blood flow waveform over the cardiac cycle at levels within the carotid artery and basilar artery (BA) in a normal cohort. The study cohort consisted of 22 subjects (recruitment age: 20 to 40 years) with no history of vascular disease (median age=26 years, interquartile range=25 to 32 years). Two-dimensional quantitative phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging was performed on each subject at nine anatomic locations within the carotid artery and BA. Significant differences in pulsatility were present within the carotid tree. Archetypal VFR waveforms were established for this group at the nine locations. A normal individual's VFR waveform at a location within the carotid tree can be estimated by taking the group's archetypal waveform for that location, and scaling by the individual's average flow rate.
Loss of Erk3 function in mice leads to intrauterine growth restriction, pulmonary immaturity, and neonatal lethality
Authors: Klinger Sonia , Turgeon Benjamin , Lévesque Kim , Wood Geoffrey A. , Aagaard-Tillery Kjersti M. , Meloche Sylvain
Published: September 2009

Extracellular signal-regulated kinase 3 (Erk3) is an atypical member of the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase family. No function has yet been ascribed to this MAP kinase. Here we show that targeted disruption of the
Mapk6
gene (encoding Erk3) leads to intrauterine growth restriction, associated with marked pulmonary hypoplasia, and early neonatal death during the first day of life. Around 40% of Erk3
−/−
neonates die within minutes after birth from acute respiratory failure. Erk3-deficient mice have normal lung-branching morphogenesis, but show delayed lung maturation characterized by decreased sacculation, atelectasis, and defective type II pneumocyte differentiation. Interestingly, in utero administration of glucocorticoid promoted fetal lung maturity and rescued differentiation of type II cells, but failed to alter the neonatal lethality. We observed that loss of Erk3 retards intrauterine growth, as reflected by a marked reduction in fetal lung, heart, and liver weights, and by low body weight at birth. Importantly, we found that insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-2 levels are decreased in the serum of Erk3-deficient mice. Our findings reveal a critical role for Erk3 in the establishment of fetal growth potential and pulmonary function in the mouse.
Using Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) to describe the development of coherence in interpreting trainees
Authors: Peng Gracie
Published: September 2009

Making global sense has long been seen as one of the most important criteria for judging the success of a given interpretation. For consecutive in particular, special emphasis is placed on the coherence and structure of the rendition. This study addresses the question of how to investigate coherence in interpreting and observe its development in trainees. We propose Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST), as a framework for exploring how coherence is realised in interpretations produced by professional as well as trainee interpreters. A corpus of 66 consecutive interpretations, by eight novice and three professional interpreters, of three Chinese and three English speeches, was transcribed, segmented into functional units, and mapped into a tree-like RST description. The analyses and results reveal that novices tend to focus on local cohesion while professionals tend to emphasise the global structure of the discourse. This difference can usefully be addressed in training.
Classes d’objets et recherche sur le web
Authors: Buvet Pierre-André , Foucou Pierre-Yves
Published: September 2009

Summary

We use the Web as a corpus to validate and extend linguistic descriptions of lexical classes, that are homogeneous from a semantic point of view. We put the emphasis, here, on a 10000-noun class : þprofessionþ.
Grammaires de levée d’ambiguïtés entre noms et adjectifs
Authors: Carvalho Paula
Published: September 2009

Summary

Most of lexical ambiguity caused by homography can only be resolved by the syntactic analysis of the structures where the homographs appear. Thus, in order to resolve ambiguity caused by the homography between nouns and adjectives, we constructed for Portuguese formal grammars that describe noun phrase structures with adjectives. The formal properties of about 2,000 adjectives have been studied and, according to their behavior, they have been integrated in different classes and sub-classes. The syntactic and distributional properties of those adjectives were coded and associated to the corresponding entries of the Portuguese electronic dictionary DELAS. Furthermore, a library of more than one hundred local grammars for resolving ambiguity was constructed. Those grammars are represented internally by finite transducers that, in combination with the dictionary information, are applied by INTEX to the disambiguation of noun phrases. Some results of disambiguation are briefly discussed and exemplified.
Le dictionnaire électronique des noms composés en grec moderne
Authors: Kyriacopoulou Tita , Mrabti Safia , Yannacopoulou Anastasia
Published: September 2009

Summary

Automatic natural language processing systems require dictionaries of compound words in order to recognize these words when analyzing text automatically. This article presents the electronic dictionary of compound words in Modern Greek. This morphological dictionary contains around 28þ000 entries associated with a flexional code and filters. The flexional codes are used to describe flexional vectors, the presence of variants or accent displacements. The filters are used to describe the inflection of the words (simple or compound), meaning the cases or genders allowed in order to obtain every possible form of the word. This study is part of the work carried out jointly by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Marne-la-Vallée University with a view to developing a complete and formalized description of the Greek language.
Verbes supports sans peine
Authors: Mel’čuk Igor
Published: September 2009

The paper is aimed at defining the concepts needed in the discussion of so-called ‘support (≈ light) verbs’ and presenting a way of describing them in the lexicon in terms of Lexical Functions [= LFs]. It develops the following six points :

1. A genuine support verb is semantically empty (or ‘emptied’ in the context of its keyword).

2. There are just three types of ‘pure’ support verbs — Oper, Func, and Labor — distinguished according to the syntactic role fulfilled by their keyword.

3. Two sorts of meanings are often combined with support verbs : phasic meanings (‘begin,’ ‘stop,’ ‘continue’) and causative meanings (‘cause’) ; such a meaning plus a support verb form a complex LF.

4. There exist other sorts of meanings (especially, intensification) that can bear on the predicative noun but are expressed together with the support verb : they form, with the latter, a configuration of LFs.

5. A family of semantically full collocational verbs show the same syntactic behavior as support verbs : these are called realization verbs.

6. Using support verbs and their encoding in terms of LFs, it is possible to construct a universal Deep-Syntactic paraphrasing system. Several examples of DSynt-paraphrasing rules are given.

The discussion is carried out based on French.
Handling conjunctions in named entities
Authors: Mazur Pawel , Dale Robert
Published: September 2009

Although the literature contains reports of very high accuracy figures for the recognition of named entities in text, there are still some named entity phenomena that remain problematic for existing text processing systems. One of these is the ambiguity of conjunctions in candidate named entity strings, an all-too-prevalent problem in corporate and legal documents. In this paper, we distinguish four uses of the conjunction in these strings, and explore the use of a supervised machine learning approach to conjunction disambiguation trained on a very limited set of ‘name internal’ features that avoids the need for expensive lexical or semantic resources. We achieve 84% correctly classified examples using k-fold evaluation on a data set of 600 instances. We argue that further improvements are likely to require the use of wider domain knowledge and name external features.
Complex named entities in Spanish texts
Authors: Galicia-Haro Sofía N. , Gelbukh Alexander
Published: September 2009

We present a linguistic analysis of Named Entities in Spanish texts. Our work is focused on the determination of the structure of complex proper names: names with coordinated constituents, names with prepositional phrases and names formed by several content words initialized by a capital letter. We present the analysis of circa 49,000 examples obtained from Mexican newspapers. We detailed their structure and give some notions about the context surrounding them. Since named entities belong to open class of words they are being created daily, so the challenge for a named entity recognizer is to precisely determine the boundaries of new entity names in any text and to analyze thoroughly their components for deep semantic analysis. Knowing their general classes of structure it should be possible to derive useful heuristics or a specific grammar for natural language processing applications.
A note on the semantic and morphological properties of proper names in the Prolex project
Authors: Vitas Duško , Krstev Cvetana , Maurel Denis
Published: September 2009

In this paper we present a linguistic approach to the analysis of proper names. The basic assumption of our approach is that proper names are linguistic units of text that should be treated using the same methods that are applied to text in its totality. We illustrate the inflectional and derivational properties of simple and multi-word proper names on the example of Serbian, and describe how these properties have been formalized in order to develop e-dictionaries of the DELA type. In order to support multi-lingual applications we have developed a model of a multilingual relational dictionary of proper names based on an ontology, as well as an actual database. Finally, we outline how the developed dictionaries and database can be used in real monolingual and multi-lingual applications, such as information extraction.
La comparative relative X que ce que P et son homonyme en français
Authors: Piot Mireille
Published: September 2009

The aim of this paper “La comparative relative X que ce que P et son homonyme en français : contextes d’apparition et emploi en corpus” is an analysis of the so-called relativized phrasal comparative construction X que ce que P, in French vs. frequently used in another romance languages. In fact, this sequence is identical to an another and useful sequence found in the sentential comparative construction, which nature and conditions of use are to be defined firstly. We after compare the relativized phrasal comparative construction properties with the properties of the sentential comparative construction and secondily with the exclamative French construction ce que P ! whose form, degree reading, and some syntactic and semantic features are similar.
Les modifieurs de déclencheurs dans les systèmes corrélatifs
Authors: Kuyumcuyan Annie
Published: September 2009

In French, in some equative et comparative constructions, can be found, before the adverb of degree (or sometimes after it), an element which modifies this adverb, e.g. bien, beaucoup, d’autant… The present investigation is concerned with this modifier, which is analyzed and classified.
Controlling Use of Antimicrobial Agents
Authors: Herwaldt Loreen A. , Duncan Robert A.
Published: September 2009

Physicians and hospitals must curtail the excessive use of antimicrobial agents to limit the emergence and spread of multiply resistant organisms. This article describes how to organize an antimicrobial control program and provides options for hospitals working with a range of resources.
Statistical Quality Control Methods in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, Part I Introduction and Basic Theory
Authors: Benneyan James C.
Published: September 2009

This article is the first in a two-part series discussing and illustrating the application of statistical process control (SPC) to processes often examined by hospital epidemiologists. The basic philosophical and theoretical foundations of statistical quality control and their relation to epidemiology are emphasized in order to expand mutual understanding and cross-fertilization between these two disciplines. Part I provides an overview of quality engineering and SPC, illustrates common types of control charts, and provides references for further information or statistical formulae. Part II discusses statistical properties of control charts, issues of chart design and optimal control limit widths, alternate possible SPC approaches to infection control, some common misunderstandings, and more advanced issues. The focus of both articles is mostly non-mathematical, emphasizing important concepts and practical examples rather than academic theory and exhaustive calculations