bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Stormy Weather: Cyclones, Harold Innis, and Port Alberni, BC
Authors: Barnes Trevor J , Hayter Roger , Hay Elizabeth
Published: August 2002

This paper uses the work of the Canadian economic historian, Harold Innis, to reflect on the nature of resource economies and the single-industry towns that form their backbone. For Innis resource or staple economies are subject to extreme spatial and temporal disruptions that are both creative and destructive. Single-industry towns are on the front line of both that creativity and that destructiveness. They enjoy rapid growth when a new resource is found, but are equally hastily abandoned when resources run out, or prices fall. Innis used the metaphor of the cyclone to depict this pattern of staples accumulation and consequent crisis. This paper will, first, elaborate on Innis's general cyclonic scheme that joins space, time, and staples production, and second, provide a case study of the forest-industry town of Port Alberni, British Columbia, to exemplify his argument.
Designing Collusion-Proof International Environmental Agreements: Developing Countries and Polluting Firms
Authors: Batabyal Amitrajeet A , Beladi Hamid
Published: August 2002

We analyze the design of international environmental agreements (IEA) for developing countries (DCs) by a supranational governmental authority (SNGA). We focus on the interaction between an asymmetrically informed SNGA, national governments, and polluting firms in DCs. Two scenarios are compared. In the first, the DC government and the SNGA negotiate a ceiling on pollution abatement and then the SNGA offers an incentive-compatible and collusion-proof IEA to the two DC parties. In the second, the DC government manipulates its monitoring device and the SNGA takes this into account when designing the IEA. Our principal conclusions are as follows. First, the contractually specified levels of pollution abatement and the pattern of the weighted marginal costs of abatement differ depending on the form of the DC government's representation. Second, for the most part, the SNGA is able to extract the informational rents from the government and the firm. Third, as compared with contracting with monitoring device manipulation, the SNGA will prefer contracting with a ceiling constraint. Fourth, the pollution ceiling and the budget constraints limit the magnitude of the monetary transfers that the SNGA can offer and the extent of pollution abatement that the SNGA can require. Finally, by explicitly modeling the effects of sovereignty, that is, by disallowing the possibility of monitoring and enforcement and by allowing the possibility of collusion, we show that the SNGA's lack of monitoring and enforcement powers do not preclude it from designing effective collusion-proof IEAs.
Local Citizenship: Welfare Reform Urban/Rural Status, and Exclusion in China
Authors: Smart Alan , Smart Josephine
Published: August 2002

After 1949 China's welfare system developed on the basis of a status division between urban and rural residents. Urban and rural societies were profoundly influenced by the respective organization of their welfare systems, which shared the feature of being fixed to specific places (rural) or enterprises (urban). Reform of core institutions is constrained by path dependency. Knowledge of those constraints, however, can aid efforts to shape new paths. In this paper we examine how institutional legacies of urban – rural status differentiation continue to structure economic and welfare reform. China's reform process has been characterized by an unusual degree of decentralization and local experimentation. As a result, the nature of change is not easily seen by examining only laws and policies related to welfare. Instead, broader changes in the economy and the loosening of controls on mobility have interacted with the locality/enterprise welfare systems to generate diverse local outcomes. After an overview of the welfare institutions and the reform process, we draw on field research in industrializing rural areas in Guangdong to describe a pattern we label ‘local citizenship’ where welfare benefits are elaborated for the locally born while excluding migrants.
Segueways into Cyberspace: Multiple Geographies of the Digital Divide
Authors: Warf Barney
Published: August 2002

Despite stereotypes that cyberspace spells the ‘end of geography’ and promises universal, democratic entree to the electronic highways of the world economy, access to the Internet is highly unevenly distributed both socially and spatially. In this paper I examine the geopolitics of Internet access and its implications. I open by situating electronic communications within contemporary social theory, emphasizing cyberspace as a contested terrain of competing discourses. Second, international discrepancies in access are illustrated, dramatizing the ways in which the Internet enhances the advantages enjoyed by a global elite consisting largely of white, male professionals. Third, I turn to discrepancies in Internet access within the United States, including class, racial, gender, and spatial disparities. I seek to demonstrate that geography still matters; the Internet creates and reflects a distinct spatial structure interlaced with, and often reinforcing, existing relations of wealth and power.
Chief Executive Officers and Nonexecutive Directors: Their Relationships in Small Companies
Authors: Deakins David , O'Neill Eileen , Mileham Patrick
Published: August 2002

This paper provides an analysis of the role of ‘outside’ or nonexecutive directors (NEDs) and their relationship with chief executive officers (CEOs) and entrepreneurs or ‘insiders’ in small growth companies. We discuss research results from a matched sample of forty-six interviews with a core sample of twenty-three companies with matched CEOs and NEDs. Findings are placed in the context of European small and medium-sized enterprises, where great attention has been given to the future development of long-term relationships such as those brought by outside directors in small companies.
Targeted Support for High-Growth Start-ups: Some Policy Issues
Authors: Smallbone David , Baldock Robert , Burgess Steven
Published: August 2002

Launched in 1999/2000, the new high-growth start-up programme is part of a shift in small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) policy in the United Kingdom away from a narrow focus on supporting established businesses with growth potential, to include start-ups and other types of SME. In this context, the authors consider some of the policy issues surrounding the design, development, and implementation of the new programme, with the aid of results from in-depth research in the East Midlands region. After a brief description of the new enhanced support programme for high-growth start-ups, and the policy context in which it was introduced, the authors review the support needs of this type of business and how the new programme might contribute to addressing these. In the final section they consider some of the wider policy issues raised by the programme in terms of the extent to which: first, effective regional models can be developed to encourage widespread participation by appropriate private sector organisations; second, access to appropriate finance, including seedcorn and venture capital, can be increased for high-growth-potential start-ups; third, universities are able to contribute to the generation of new business activity and become integrated into regional business support infrastructures; and fourth, the enhanced support programme is tuned to the needs of the target group and is effectively delivered.
The Role of Intergovernmental Finance in Achieving Diversity and Cohesion: The Case of Spain
Authors: Castells Antoni
Published: August 2002

The democratic Constitution of 1978 established a decentralised state in Spain. Since that year, the Autonomous Communities (the intermediate level of government) have strongly increased their role and currently represent around 25% – 30% of total public expenditure. Therefore, financing autonomous government has become a crucial issue with important financial and political consequences. The present system is based mostly on grants from central government, while tax revenues and fiscal accountability are weak. The financing system can play an important, albeit complementary, role in ensuring cohesion within a decentralised state. On the one hand, it can achieve a certain level of equalisation in providing public services all over the territory. On the other hand, it can allow all regions to obtain an appropriate level of self-government. However, it is important to stress that territorial cohesion requires as a precondition, a political consensus and the acceptance of a common project among the different regions. Financial problems can certainly become political problems, but political problems can rarely be solved through financial measures alone. Therefore, we should not demand of intergovernmental finances what they cannot do.
Street-Level Technocracy in UK Small Business Support: Business Links, Personal Business Advisers, and the Small Business Service
Authors: Mole Kevin
Published: August 2002

The broad focus of this paper is the divergence of implemented policy from intended policy in UK small business support. The Small Business Service (SBS) is the United Kingdom's most recent attempt to provide coherent support for small business. With its structure of local franchisees and multiagency partnerships, the SBS is part of the United Kingdom's Modernising Government agenda, which aims to provide ‘joined-up’ and responsive public services. However, it is not always easy for policymakers to execute new plans in the form in which they were intended. Street-level bureaucracies develop where those who implement complex policies amend them to make them easier to apply in practice. This paper investigates the UK Business Links' Personal Business Adviser (PBA) service. The paper draws on data from a focus group often PBAs and subsequent survey of the 175 PBAs in England and Wales conducted in summer 1998. The experience and tacit knowledge of PBAs provides the expertise for a bespoke support service to small businesses. Business advisers have both technical expertise and closeness to delivery that confers the power to amend small business policy. This tacit knowledge confers powers akin to a ‘street-level technocracy’. Thus, policies that do not carry PBA support, such as targeting, are unlikely to be implemented effectively. A new approach to small business support has been formed from the difficulty in controlling PBAs through performance indicators, which appear to have distorted the intended policy, and the Modernising Government agenda. The new SBS devolves the operation, but not all control, of business advice from the national SBS to local Business Links. PBAs will play a major part in the network mode of governance of the new SBS franchisees.
Recommendations for Negotiated Agreements
Authors: Hansen Kirsten , Johannsen Katja Sander , Larsen Anders
Published: August 2002

Negotiated agreements are relatively new in the field of energy and environmental policies. In order to support the design of future negotiated agreements it is useful to discuss how environmentally effective negotiated agreements can be designed. Based on rational decisionmaking and economic theory, the OECD has put forward eight recommendations for designing pollution abatement schemes through negotiated agreements that set ambitious targets, ensure target achievement, and reach targets in an efficient way. Based on three cases of negotiated agreements regulating industrial energy consumption in Denmark, the Netherlands, and France, the adequacy of the OECD recommendations will be discussed. It is found that the recommendations should pay more attention to the question of efficiency of agreements and to the difficulties in defining unambiguous targets. Apart from these deficiencies it is concluded that the recommendations cover all phases, are soundly based in theory, and give a meaningful evaluation of negotiated agreements.
Property-Rights Regimes over Biological Resources
Authors: Cullet Philippe
Published: August 2002

The increasing economic importance of biological resources and, in particular, knowledge related to these resources, has made the allocation of property rights one of the most contentious issues in the debate concerning biodiversity management at the international level. The author surveys the different property-rights regimes developed to regulate access to and control over biological resources, and the relevant international instruments and institutions. He argues that the overemphasis on private property rights regimes, in particular monopoly intellectual property rights such as patents, has been inimical to the sustainable management of biological resources at local and international levels. He suggests ways to allocate property rights so as to promote forms of biodiversity management that are both socially equitable and environmentally sustainable, and analyses some of the recent developments concerning alternative forms of intellectual-property protection.
Ecological Conflicts and Valuation: Mangroves versus Shrimps in the Late 1990s
Authors: Martinez-Alier Joan
Published: August 2002

Shrimp are harvested in two different ways. They are fished in the sea (sometimes to the cost of turtles) or they are ‘farmed’ in ponds in coastal areas. Such aquaculture is increasing around the world as shrimp become a valuable item of world trade. Mangrove forests are sacrificed for commercial shrimp farming. The author considers the conflict between mangrove conservation and shrimp exports in different countries. Who has title to the mangroves, who wins and who loses in this tragedy of enclosures? Which languages of valuation are used by different actors in order to compare the increase in shrimp exports and the losses in livelihoods and in environmental services? The economic valuation of damages is only one of the possible languages of valuation which are relevant in practice. Who has the power to impose a particular language of valuation?
The ‘Voice’ Approach of Trade Associations: Support for SMEs Accessing a Research Institute
Authors: Izushi Hiro
Published: August 2002

Access to external sources of technical knowledge is one of the keys to staying innovative for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The literature suggests that SMEs with a weak internal R&D capacity do not make much use of institutional sources like research institutes and universities. In this paper I investigate how trade associations can induce member SMEs to use a research institute. The case of a public research institute and SMEs in the textile industry in Kyoto, Japan is examined. Evidence from the case suggests that trade associations facilitate the use of the institute by expressing a collective ‘voice’ to the management of the institute. The effect is evident among active members in the use of services involving a large information gap as to their benefits. I also consider a shortcoming of the collective approach and suggest some measures to be taken on the part of research institutes.
Constructing the Practice of ‘Spatial Planning’: A National Spatial Planning Framework for Wales
Authors: Harris Neil , Hooper Alan , Bishop Kevin
Published: August 2002

The National Assembly for Wales is engaged in the preparation of a national spatial planning framework to provide a context for sustainable development and environmental quality. This paper reports on research undertaken for the Assembly on the preparation of the spatial planning framework and identifies the initial stages in that process. The research itself draws upon a study of policy documents relevant to Wales, a comparative review of strategic spatial planning practices in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe, and the identification of the expectations of stakeholders for the framework. The paper illustrates how the concept of ‘spatial planning’ is being addressed and defined in the process of preparing the framework. The material provides an interesting insight into the emergent practice of spatial planning in the United Kingdom through a case study of Wales with wider relevance for spatial planning activity in Europe.
Deliberation and Inclusion: Vehicles for Increasing Trust in UK Public Governance?
Authors: Bloomfield Dan , Collins Kevin , Fry Charlotte , Munton Richard
Published: August 2002

Arguments in favour of participative democratic practices have been promoted stridently in recent years as trust in existing political institutions has receded. These arguments assume the declining ability of elected members to represent increasingly diverse constituencies in a period of rapid change, and a sense of powerlessness among citizens in the face of distant economic and political forces. There have been few attempts to review the available empirical evidence on whether deliberative and inclusionary processes lead to ‘better’ decisions. For the United Kingdom, evidence is limited, except in the land-use planning field, and we argue that in present circumstances their primary role should be to stimulate wider civil engagement as a means of restoring trust. ‘Better’ decisions will then follow. However, barriers to their acceptance remain, not least in the need to create sufficient incentive for citizens to participate and in the requirement that established economic and political interests devote sufficient resources for them to be effective.
Linking Coalitions to Policy Output: The Case of Local Government in Norway
Authors: Martinussen Pål E , Pettersen Per Arnt
Published: August 2002

The main emphasis in coalition studies has so far been on national coalitions—with the local level being rather overlooked—and in most studies estimating the impact of local politics researchers have used various indicators of the electoral strength of parties as their main political variable. In this analysis we investigate the genuine composition of coalitions in each and every municipality in Norway, describing which parties serve as the majority base for the mayor and the deputy mayor. This approach gives us the opportunity to investigate both the impact of the genuine political office holders, as well as the structural properties of coalitions, on policy output. Using a decomposition of school expenditure suggested by Falch and Ratts0, we are able to ask in what ways money is spent inside the sector, in addition to how much money is spent. The empirical results show that coalitions can be linked to policy output; the preferred spending objects vary both according to the parties forming the coalition and the structural composition of the coalition.
Libraries as Armouries: Daniel Coit Oilman, Geography, and the Uses of a University
Authors: Heyman Richard
Published: August 2002

The author builds on recent work on the history of geographical thought by focusing on the career of American geographer Daniel Coit Oilman, who was the first President of the Johns Hopkins University. It is argued that Oilman's influential work in professionalizing an instrumentalist approach to knowledge production in the new institution of the research university forms an important link between the philosophically oriented geography of Alexander von Humboldt and the geopolitics of Isaiah Bowman. The author extends work in the history of the discipline by showing how geographical knowledge came to be seen in instrumentalist terms not only in the institutional context of geographical societies and European imperial administration-the focus of much of the historical scholarship-but also within the context of an intellectual division of labor that emerged in the second half of the 19th century as the modern research university took shape. It is suggested that a full account of the way in which Humboldt's project was displaced by Oilman's may give us a better understanding of the role that geography might play in moving knowledge production beyond a purely instrumentalist orientation and into more liberatory projects of social justice.
The Shakespearian Globe: Geometry, Optics, Spectacle
Authors: Chamberlain Paul G
Published: August 2002

One of the most significant events that swept through Europe during the Renaissance was a renewed interest in oculocentrism, extending the power of vision, and disseminating it in more visually accessible ways. In this paper the concept of the globe is explored through the work of William Shakespeare by examining its links to geometry, optics, and spectacle in the context of the theatre and the world in which the poet lived. At the outset the globe is examined in relation to Shakespeare's playhouse, which exhibited strong Vitruvian antecedents. The optical manipulation of space is then explored through the use of globes in Shakespeare's literary landscape, illustrating that Elizabethans were not only familiar with these geographical models, but that Shakespeare reinforced these new ways of seeing the world on his audience. Finally, research illustrates that globes were not only in Shakespeare's dramaturgy, but the theatre was also in the world, and the paper explores in detail how spectacle was used by learned Elizabethans to represent the globe to themselves.
Effects of Visual Training on Saccade Control in Dyslexia
Authors: Fischer Burkhart , Hartnegg Klaus
Published: August 2002

This study reports the effects of daily practice of three visual tasks on the saccadic performance of 85 dyslexic children in the age range of 8 to 15 years. The children were selected from among other dyslexics because they showed deficits in their eye-movement control, especially in fixation stability and/or voluntary saccade control. Their eye movements were measured in an overlap prosaccade and a gap antisaccade task before and after the training. The three tasks used for the training included a fixation, a saccade, and a distractor condition. In any of these tasks, the subject had to detect the last orientation of a small pattern which rapidly changed its orientation between up, down, right, and left, before it disappeared after some time. The task was to press one of four keys corresponding to the last orientation. The visual pattern was presented on an LCD display of a small hand-held instrument given to the children for daily use at home. The results indicate that daily practice improved not only the perceptual capacity, but also the voluntary saccade control, within 3 to 8 weeks. After the training, the group of dyslexics was no longer statistically different from the control group.
Local Contrast in Natural Images: Normalisation and Coding Efficiency
Authors: Brady Nuala , Field David J
Published: August 2002

The visual system employs a gain control mechanism in the cortical coding of contrast whereby the response of each cell is normalised by the integrated activity of neighbouring cells. While restricted in space, the normalisation pool is broadly tuned for spatial frequency and orientation, so that a cell's response is adapted by stimuli which fall outside its ‘classical’ receptive field. Various functions have been attributed to divisive gain control: in this paper we consider whether this output nonlinearity serves to increase the information carrying capacity of the neural code. 46 natural scenes were analysed with the use of oriented, frequency-tuned filters whose bandwidths were chosen to match those of mammalian striate cortical cells. The images were logarithmically transformed so that the filters responded to a luminance ratio or contrast. In the first study, the response of each filter was calibrated relative to its response to a grating stimulus, and local image contrast was expressed in terms of the familiar Michelson metric. We found that the distribution of contrasts in natural images is highly kurtotic, peaking at low values and having a long exponential tail. There is considerable variability in local contrast, both within and between images. In the second study we compared the distribution of response activity before and after implementing contrast normalisation, and noted two major changes. Response variability, both within and between scenes, is reduced by normalisation, and the entropy of the response distribution is increased after normalisation, indicating a more efficient transfer of information.
Hearing by Eye: How Much Spatial Degradation can Be Tolerated?
Authors: MacDonald John , Andersen Søren , Bachmann Talis
Published: August 2002

In the McGurk effect (McGurk and MacDonald, 1976 Nature264 746–748), illusory auditory perception is produced if the visual information from lip movements is discrepant from the auditory information from the voice. A study is reported of the tolerance of the effect to varying levels of spatial degradation (videotaped images of a speaker's face were quantised by a mosaic transform). The illusory effect systematically decreased with an increase in the coarseness of the spatial quantisation. However, even with the coarsest level (11.2 pixels/face) the illusion did not completely disappear. In addition, those participants who did not experience the illusion nevertheless showed the effects of auditory–visual interaction in their clarity ratings of the auditory stimulus. It is concluded that auditory – visual interaction in visible speech perception is based on relatively coarse-spatial-scale information.
The Generic Viewpoint Assumption and Bayesian Inference
Authors: Albert Marc K
Published: August 2002

The task of human vision is to reliably infer useful information about the external environment from images formed on the retinae. In general, the inference of scene properties from retinal images is not deductive; it requires knowledge about the external environment. Further, it has been suggested that the environment must be regular in some way in order for any scene properties to be reliably inferred. In particular, Knill and Kersten [1991, in Pattern Recognition by Man and Machine Ed. R J Watt (London: Macmillan)] and Jepson et al [1996, in Bayesian Approaches to Perception Eds D Knill, W Richards (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)] claim that, given an ‘unbiased’ prior probability distribution for the scenes being observed, the generic viewpoint assumption is not probabilistically valid. However, this claim depends upon the use of representation spaces that may not be appropriate for the problems they consider. In fact, it is problematic to define a rigorous criterion for a probability distribution to be considered ‘random’ or ‘regularity-free’ in many natural domains of interest. This problem is closely related to Bertrand's paradox. I propose that, in the case of ‘unbiased’ priors, the reliability of inferences based on the generic viewpoint assumption depends partly on whether or not an observed coincidence in the image involves features known to be on the same object. This proposal is based on important differences between the distributions associated with: (i) a ‘random’ placement of features in 3-D, and (ii) the positions of features on a ‘randomly shaped’ and ‘randomly posed’ 3-D object. Similar considerations arise in the case of inferring 3-D motion from image motion.
Eye-Movement Control in Direction-Coded Visual Search
Authors: Greene Harold H , Rayner Keith
Published: August 2002

Subjects searched for a target among distractors which were arranged randomly or such that each distractor provided information about the relative position of a target. Trials were presented either in a blocked design (so that the subjects knew a priori the contextual information in the display) or in a mixed design. When the distractors provided information about target position, there were (i) shorter manual RTs, (ii) fewer fixations made in search of the target, (iii) longer mean fixation durations, (iv) shorter initial fixation durations, (v) shorter mean gaze shifts, (vi) a smaller area of fixation dispersion, and (vii) a greater percentage of optimally directed saccades. Except for gaze shifts, the results were uninfluenced by whether or not there was a blocked or a mixed presentation. The results of the study suggest that despite noise in the search mechanism, fixation durations were adjusted to process directly the currently fixated element(s).
The Effect of Contrast on Vertical Motion Processing Asymmetries in 11-Week-Old Infants
Authors: Wattam-Bell John
Published: August 2002

Recent forced-choice preferential looking (FPL) experiments with random-dot patterns [Wattam-Bell, 1998 Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science39(4) S885] found evidence for a perceptual asymmetry of vertical-motion processing in young infants: a preference for patterns that move downwards. This asymmetry was in the opposite direction to the asymmetry of vertical optokinetic nystagmus, which was biased towards upwards motion. However, the FPL bias was weak, and the object of present experiments was to explore the possibility that it could be enhanced by reducing stimulus contrast. In experiment 1, contrast thresholds for gratings moving upwards and downwards were compared, and no directional asymmetry at threshold was found. In experiment 2, the effect of contrast on infants' preference between simultaneously displayed upwards-drifting and downwards-drifting gratings was examined. Infants showed no preference at 5% contrast, a marked preference for downwards motion at intermediate contrasts (10% and 20%), and a similar but smaller preference at 40% contrast. These results suggest that the vertical-motion asymmetry is a result of differences in the gains of directionally selective mechanisms for upwards and downwards motion.
Change Blindness in the Absence of a Visual Disruption
Authors: Simons Daniel J , Franconeri Steven L , Reimer Rebecca L
Published: August 2002

Findings from studies of visual memory and change detection have revealed a surprising inability to detect large changes to scenes from one view to the next (‘change blindness’). When some form of disruption is introduced between an original and modified display, observers often fail to notice the change. This disruption can take many forms (eg an eye movement, a flashed blank screen, a blink, a cut in a motion picture, etc) with similar results. In all cases, the changes are sufficiently large that, were they to occur instantaneously, they would consistently be detected. Prior research on change blindness was predicated on the assumption that, in the absence of a visual disruption, the signal caused by the change would draw attention, leading to detection. In two experiments, we demonstrate that change blindness can occur even in the absence of a visual disruption. In one experiment, subjects actually detected more changes with a disruption than without one. When changes are sufficiently gradual, the visible change signal does not seem to draw attention, and large changes can go undetected. The findings are discussed in the context of metacognitive beliefs about change detection and the strategic decisions those beliefs entail.
Raised Visual Detection Thresholds Depend on the Level of Complexity of Cognitive Foveal Loading
Authors: Plainis Sotiris , Murray Ian J , Chauhan Kamlesh
Published: August 2002

The objective of the study was to measure the interactions between visual thresholds for a simple light (the secondary task) presented peripherally and a simultaneously performed cognitive task (the primary task) presented foveally.

The primary task was highly visible but varied according to its cognitive complexity. Interactions between the tasks were determined by measuring detection thresholds for the peripheral task and accuracy of performance of the foveal task. Effects were measured for 5, 10, 20, and 30 deg eccentricity of the peripherally presented light and for three levels of cognitive complexity. Mesopic conditions (0.5 lx) were used.

As expected, the concurrent presentation of the foveal cognitive task reduced peripheral sensitivity. Moreover, performance of the foveal task was adversely affected when conducting the peripheral task. Performance on both tasks was reduced as the level of complexity of the cognitive task increased. There were qualitative differences in task interactions between the central 10 deg and at greater eccentricities. Within 10 deg there was a disproportionate effect of eccentricity, previously interpreted as the ‘tunnel-vision’ model of visual field narrowing. Interactions outside 10 deg were less affected by eccentricity. These results are discussed in terms of the known neurophysiological characteristics of the primary visual pathway.
Effects of Voluntary Attention on Structured Afterimages
Authors: Lou Liang
Published: August 2002

The effect of voluntary attention on afterimage fragmentation was explored in two experiments. The afterimage, in the form of a 30°-tilted star of David, was generated after prolonged steady fixation in the first experiment, and with a brief and intense flash in the second experiment. Subjects were instructed to select various target shapes in the afterimage for attention and, at the same time, observe what was visible or invisible. Verbal reports and manual responses to afterimage changes were analyzed. Attended shapes were found to disappear from awareness faster than unattended ones (experiment 1), and complementary shapes were found to predominate visual awareness when one of the pair was selected for attention (experiment 2). Voluntary attention was also found to affect closure (filling-in of enclosed regions) and smoothing of line figures in afterimages.
The Role of Cognitive Factors in the Rod-and-Frame Effect
Authors: Cian Corinne , Raphel Christian , Barraud Pierre Alain
Published: August 2002

We compared the contribution and the effectiveness of modulating the orientation perception of two types of visual information: the visual frame and the visual polarity of objects. In experiment 1, we examined the effect of a square frame, a mouse, an elephant, and a map of France on the apparent vertical. In the upright position, despite the presence of tilted individual component features, the visual objects had no illusory visual tilt effects. When tilted, these objects had a substantial effect on the direction that appeared to be vertical. However, rod-setting errors were smaller in the inducing objects than when observed with the frame display. In the second experiment, the results of experiment 1 were replicated with a meaningful circular contour—a porthole and a clock. The presence of the external circular contour did not abolish the illusion on the apparent vertical. Moreover, in experiment 3, a clock whose numbers were displaced and not tilted—to avoid the possible tilt influence of visual cues—was also able to deflect the subjective visual vertical. This finding suggests that through top–down processing shapes can act as a framework which serves as a reference influencing the perceived orientation of the inner objects.
Pursuit Compensation during Self-Motion
Authors: Crowell James A , Andersen Richard A
Published: August 2002

The pattern of motion in the retinal image during self-motion contains information about the person's movement. Pursuit eye movements perturb the pattern of retinal-image motion, complicating the problem of self-motion perception. A question of considerable current interest is the relative importance of retinal and extra-retinal signals in compensating for these effects of pursuit on the retinal image. We addressed this question by examining the effect of prior motion stimuli on self-motion judgments during pursuit. Observers viewed 300 ms random-dot displays simulating forward self-motion during pursuit to the right or to the left; at the end of each display a probe appeared and observers judged whether they would pass left or right of it. The display was preceded by a 300 ms dot pattern that was either stationary or moved in the same direction as, or opposite to, the eye movement. This prior motion stimulus had a large effect on self-motion judgments when the simulated scene was a frontoparallel wall (experiment 1), but not when it was a three-dimensional (3-D) scene (experiment 2). Corresponding simulated-pursuit conditions controlled for purely retinal motion aftereffects, implying that the effect in experiment 1 is mediated by an interaction between retinal and extra-retinal signals. In experiment 3, we examined self-motion judgments with respect to a 3-D scene with mixtures of real and simulated pursuit. When real and simulated pursuits were in opposite directions, performance was determined by the total amount of pursuit-related retinal motion, consistent with an extra-retinal ‘trigger’ signal that facilitates the action of a retinally based pursuit-compensation mechanism. However, results of experiment 1 without a prior motion stimulus imply that extra-retinal signals are more informative when retinal information is lacking. We conclude that the relative importance of retinal and extra-retinal signals for pursuit compensation varies with the informativeness of the retinal motion pattern, at least for short durations. Our results provide partial explanations for a number of findings in the literature on perception of self-motion and motion in the frontal plane.
Studies on Plagiochila subgenus Metaplagiochila (Plagiochilaceae, Hepaticae)
Authors: So M. L.
Published: August 2002

Plagiochila bantamensis (Reinw., Blume & Nees)
Mont., P. blepharophora (Nees) Lindenb.,
P. chauvinianaMont.,
P. clavatosaccata Steph.,
P. integrilobula Schiffn.,
P. johannis-winkleri Herzog,
P. kurziiSteph., P. pacificaMitt.,
P. sandei Dozy ex Sande Lac.,
P. stephaniiSchiffn. and
P. vitiensis Mitt. are included in the subgenus
Metaplagiochila.
Plagiochila pacifica Mitt. is redescribed and
illustrated. A lectotype is designated for P. tahitensis
Steph. The following six species names are synonymised:
Plagiochila densifolia Sande Lac.
(=P. bantamensis),
Plagiochila hebridensis Steph.
(=P. vitiensisMitt.),
Plagiochila meijeri Inoue
(=P. kurziiSteph.),
Plagiochila nadeaudiana Steph. ex Dugas
(=P. vitiensis Mitt.),
P. parkinsonii Steph.
(=P. sandei) and
P. robinsonii Steph.
(=P. sandei).
Plagiochila obscura Colenso belonging to sect.
Tayloriae Carl of subgenus
Plagiochila, is removed from the synonymy of
P. pacifica.
Plagiochila longistipulaSteph. and
P. savezianaSteph. are exluded from the subgenus. A key
to the eleven species in the subgenus Metaplagiochila
worldwide is provided.
A review of the Glycine clandestina species complex (Fabaceae: Phaseolae) reveals two new species
Authors: Pfeil B. E. , Tindale M. D. , Craven L. A.
Published: August 2002

Digitate-leaved specimens of the genus Glycine from
across southern Australia that have been determined as
G. clandestina J.C.Wendl. encompass a wide range of
morphological variation. Re-evaluation of this material has resulted in the
conclusion that three species should be recognised. The original concept of
G. clandestina (digitate-leaved plants with long, c.
nine-seeded pods) can be applied only to plants from Queensland, New South
Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. Two new species,
G. peratosa B.E.Pfeil & Tindale and
G. rubiginosa Tindale & B.E.Pfeil, are described
from Western Australia and South Australia, respectively. Variation in
G. clandestina s.s. is discussed in relation to contact
zones with three other closely related species.
Morphological variation in Leptorhynchos squamatus (Gnaphalieae: Asteraceae)
Authors: Flann Christina , Ladiges Pauline Y. , Walsh Neville G.
Published: August 2002

A study of morphological variation in Leptorhynchos squamatus (Labill.) Less. across its range in south-eastern Australia was undertaken to test the hypothesis that L. squamatus includes two taxa. Phenetic pattern analyses of both field-collected and herbarium specimens on the basis of morphology confirmed two major groups. Bract, cypsela, pappus bristle and leaf characters were particularly important in separating the two groups. The taxa are separated by altitude differences with one being a low-altitude plant found in many habitats and the other being a high-altitude taxon that is a major component of alpine meadows. Lowland plants have dark bract tips, fewer and wider pappus bristles than alpine plants, papillae on the cypselas and more linear leaves. A somewhat intermediate population from the Major Mitchell Plateau in the Grampians shows some alpine and some lowland characters but is included in the lowland taxon. Seeds from five populations (two alpine, two lowland and Major Mitchell) were germinated and plants grown for 18 weeks
under four controlled sets of environmental conditions. The experiment showed that leaf size and some other characters are affected by environmental conditions, but that there are underlying genetic differences between the lowland and alpine forms. Leptorhynchos squamatus subsp. alpinus Flann is described here to accommodate the highland taxon.
Figs, wasps and species concepts: a re-evaluation of the infraspecific taxa of Ficus macrophylla (Moraceae: Urostigma sect. Malvanthera)
Authors: Dixon Dale J.
Published: August 2002

Ficus macrophylla Desf. ex Pers. is redescribed with two
forms, F. macrophylla f.
macrophylla and F. macrophylla f.
columnaris (C.Moore) D.J.Dixon. Morphological data as
well as reproductive data was used to assess the criteria for infraspecific
concepts of the taxa associated with F. macrophylla.
Knowledge of the pollinator wasp associated with each population of
F. macrophylla has permitted a much finer resolution of
the relationships between taxa. The pollinator wasp of both forms of
F. macrophylla is
Pleistodontes froggatti Mayr. A key to the forms, notes,
distribution maps and conservation status is provided.
Effect of Ion-Exchange Adsorption on the Protein Profiles of White Wines
Authors: Sarmento M. R. , Oliveiraz J. C. , Slatner M. , Boulton R. B.
Published: August 2002

The protein profiles of two different wines of Austrian and Portuguese origin, characterized by HPLC fractionation, were compared before and after ion-exchange adsorption of the wine proteins. Conventionally used sodium bentonite and three alternative nonswelling commercial resins were used. Profile similarity was assessed in terms of the Euclidean distance of all protein peak areas for two samples, and of the average of the differences between each protein peak percentile area between two samples. In general, the differences between profiles for the same material increased with the amount of wine adsorbed, showing that some protein fractions were more easily adsorbed than others. Differences between the adsorption with bentonite or with the alternative adsorbents were not statistically significant, with the exception of one adsorbent in one of the wines, where protein removal was more extensive.
Braided Inflatable Tubular Structure Technology in Crash Safety
Authors: Mowry Greg , Head Andrew
Published: August 2002

Most innovations may account for the use of non-conventional tools in current situations or the use of current tools in non-conventional situations. This paper describes the relationship of braided structure technology to the implementation of air bags in crash safety technology.

The first introduction of the Inflatable Tubular Structure (ITS®) to the crash safety community was in March 1995. Then, in early 1997, (ITS®) was implemented in the automotive industry as a side-impacted head protection device. In several real-world side-impact crashes of vehicles equipped with the ITS, it reportedly “saved the lives of the vehicle passengers.”

The same principle of the ITS in side-impact head protection devices has been extended to several other restraint devices, as well as new environments. This paper briefly describes design parameters of braid technology and various applications of braid structures for the development of inflatable restraints for enhanced vehicle occupant protection.
Quasi-Steady Herschel-Bulkley Analysis of Electroand Magneto-Rheological Flow Mode Dampers
Authors: Lee Dug-Young , Wereley Norman M.
Published: August 2002

Electrorheological (ER) and magnetorheological (MR) fluid-based dampers are typically analyzed using Bingham-plastic shear flow analysis under quasi-steady fully developed flow conditions. An alternative perspective, supported by measurements reported in the literature, is to allow for post-yield shear thinning and shear thickening. A Herschel-Bulkley constitutive shear flow relationship can be used to account for such post-yield shear thinning or thickening behavior. Depending on the value of the flow behavior index number, varying degrees of post-yield shear thickening or thinning behavior can be analyzed. A nominal ER bypass damper is considered. Damping forces are analyzed by approximating the annular geometry of the ER/MR valve by parallel plates. The impact of the flow behavior index on the shear stress vs. shear rate behavior and velocity profile are also examined numerically as a function of applied electric field. Analytical damping predictions are compared using the nonlinear Bingham-plastic and Herschel-Bulkley analyses.
Free Damped Vibrations of Sandwich Shells of Revolution
Authors: Korjakin Aleksandr , Rikards Rolands , Altenbach Holm , Chate Andris
Published: August 2002

Using a zig-zag model the free damped vibrations of sandwich shells of revolution are investigated. As special cases the vibration analysis under consideration of damping of cylindrical, conical and spherical sandwich shells is performed. A specific sandwich shell finite element with 54 degrees of freedom is employed. Starting from the energy method the damping model is developed. Numerical examples for the free vibration analysis with damping based on the proposed finite element approach are discussed. Results for sandwich shells show a satisfactory agreement with various reference solutions.
LOW TEMPERATURE PROPERTIES OF THE BLUME–EMERY–GRIFFITHS (BEG) MODEL IN THE REGION WITH AN INFINITE NUMBER OF GROUND STATE CONFIGURATIONS
Authors: BRAGA GASTÃO A. , LIMA PAULO C. , O'CARROLL MICHAEL L.
Published: August 2002

For the low temperature Blume–Emery–Griffiths Zd, d ≥2, lattice model taking site spin values 0, +1, -1 we construct, using a polymer expansion, two pure states in the parameter region [Formula: see text] where there are an infinite number of configurations with minimal energy. Each state is invariant under translation by two lattice spacings and the two states are related by a unit translation. Using analyticity techniques we show that the truncated n-point function decays exponentially with an n-independent lower bound on the decay rate. For the truncated two-point function, we find the exact exponential decay rate in the limit β→∞.
GRAPHICAL METHODS FOR DETERMINING/ESTIMATING OPTIMAL REPAIR-LIMIT REPLACEMENT POLICIES
Authors: DOHI TADASHI , TAKEITA KENTARO , OSAKI SHUNJI
Published: August 2002

In this paper, we consider two kinds of repair-limit replacement models and develop the corresponding graphical methods to estimate the optimal repair-time limits which minimize the expected costs per unit time in the steady state. Then, both the total time on test statistics and the Lorenz statistics play important roles to develop nonparametric estimators of the optimal repair-time limits. Numerical examples are devoted to illustrate asymptotic properties of nonparametric estimators for the optimal repair-limit policies.
CONSERVATIVE TREATMENT OF INTRA-ARTICULAR FRACTURES OF THE DISTAL RADIUS — FACTORS AFFECTING FUNCTIONAL OUTCOME
Authors: Leung Frankie , Ozkan Mustafa , Chow Shew Ping
Published: August 2002

One hundred and eleven intra-articular fractures of the distal radius in young adults that were conservatively treated were studied. At two years, 80% of fractures were rated as excellent or good by the modified Green and O'Brien scoring system. The rate of re-displacement within casts was 28%. Sixty five per cent of re-displaced fractures were treated with surgical fixation. Those re-displaced fractures treated with repeated manipulation had only 33% excellent or good result. Moreover, their initial alignment could not be preserved. Axial compression (>2 mm) and dorsal angulation (>15°) were directly related to worse functional outcome and diminished range of motion.