bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Rise of the Regional State in Economic Governance: ‘Partnerships for Prosperity’ Or New Scales of State Power?
Authors: Jones Martin
Published: August 2002

In recent debates on the regulation and governance of contemporary capitalism and its territorial form, there is an emerging consensus that successful economic development is contingent on a movement away from the nation-state and policy interventions at the national scale toward subnational institutional frameworks and supports. In effect, both an ‘institutional turn’ and a ‘scalar turn’ appear to be occurring, through which the heterogeneity of economic growth may be explored. The author scrutinises these claims by examining what is becoming known as ‘new regionalist’ orthodoxy in economic development. This orthodoxy is particularly powerful because its concerns for resolving economic and democratic deficit by harnessing the regional scale are supported by academics, politicians, and policymakers alike. Focusing on England's Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), a radical initiative in regional economic governance, the author argues for a need to rethink the nation-state and the processes through which its intervention is being scaled. RDAs have been given a remit to enhance economic and social development, but rather than their providing decentralised ‘partnerships for prosperity’, a number of contradictions and tensions are revealed. These indicate that England's own brand of new regionalism is heavily steered by political fiat and central government dictate. To inform new regionalist debates, the author consequently argues that a new (regional) scale of state power is emerging and RDAs are forming part of a political strategy aimed at rescaling, instead of resolving, an economic and democratic deficit. The author concludes by calling for a closer engagement in political – economic geography between state theory, crisis theory, and the scaling of state power and suggests a need to formulate a fourth-cut theory of crisis.
From Theory to Implementation: An Analysis of the Appalachian Regional Commission's Growth Center Policy
Authors: Wood Lawrence E
Published: August 2002

In the 1960s and early 1970s growth center policies were included in the regional policies of countries throughout much of the world. However, by the mid-1970s, many academics and government agencies believed that growth center policies were not successful in encouraging regional development, and since that time growth center theory has remained, in general, poorly regarded. In the 1960s, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) implemented a growth center policy. Though much has been written about the ARC, there is little research on the Commission's experience in implementing its growth center policy. The author uses historical documentation from the ARC to assess the Commission's growth center policy, particularly in the context of growth center theory. He then utilizes ARC expenditure data to determine the extent to which the ARC was able to implement what is best termed a ‘modified growth center strategy’. It is concluded that the ARC did not implement a policy that was particularly akin to growth center policy as presented in the theoretical literature; however, it is also concluded that the ARC did implement a modified version of a growth center strategy with some success.
Social and Geographic Inequities in the Residential Property Tax: A Review and Case Study
Authors: Harris Richard , Lehman Michael
Published: August 2002

Although the fact is not widely acknowledged by urban scholars, because of the way that it is administered the property tax helps to shape the social geography of metropolitan areas. Research by public finance specialists has shown that cheap housing is often overassessed, and that variations in assessment ratios (the ratio of assessed to market values) usually favour the suburbs. Sales prices and assessment data from the Hamilton, Ontario, metropolitan area for 1976, 1996, and 1999 confirm these patterns and show that they are persistent. In addition, cross-tabulations by market value and location show that geographical variations in assessment ratios are caused by the inequitable treatment of inexpensive property, not vice versa. A 1998 reassessment made the situation worse. The main difficulty in reducing tax inequities is political, not technical.
Participatory Local Governance and Transport Planning
Authors: Bickerstaff Karen , Walker Gordon
Published: August 2002

In this paper we evaluate the experience of public participation in local transport planning in the United Kingdom. In the context of a new emphasis on participation in central government policy rhetoric and planning guidance, we examine the rationales, methods, and outcomes of recent public participation initiatives. Through drawing on a questionnaire survey distributed to all English highway authorities and a content analysis of provisional local transport policy documents, we explore not only the extent of activity and innovation in public participation, but identify and reflect upon the failures of current practice and the barriers which constrain further development. We conclude that, although examples of at least partial success in developing carefully conceptualised, inclusive, and meaningful participation programmes can be identified, most have been grounded in political expediency. Motivations for seeking public involvement have been instrumental in nature rather than drawing on wider substantive and normative arguments. It is suggested that issues relating to both the supply of opportunities and the level of demand have a role to play in understanding and potentially resolving current barriers to involvement. However, we also stress the need to step back from this dualistic analytical framework and instead to consider the significance of the broader political context and motivations for public participation. It is concluded that future developments in public participation will need to move beyond innovation in terms of technique alone, increasingly to engage with issues relating to the purpose of participation, the management of process and outcomes, and structural conditions which influence individual decisions about ‘taking part’.
The Structural Funds and Additionality in Wales: Devolution and Multilevel Governance
Authors: Bristow Gillian , Blewitt Nigel
Published: August 2002

Studies examining the additionality of Structural Funds in UK regions have emphasised the dominant ‘gatekeeping’ role played by central government. This has been explained by the ‘global’ interpretation of additionality adopted by UK central government, coupled with the absence of a strong tier of regional government. Based on preparations for an Objective 1 programme in Wales, in this paper we critically evaluate the progress made by the devolved National Assembly for Wales in challenging the central government interpretation of additionality. This suggests that, in the context of devolution, matters surrounding Structural Fund finances will become more fiercely contested, exposing significant tensions between processes of decentralisation and centralisation within the UK polity.
Is Regular Work at Fixed Places Fading Away? The Development of ICT-Based and Travel-Based Modes of Work in Sweden
Authors: Vilhelmson Bertil , Thulin Eva
Published: August 2002

Information and communication technologies (ICT) may increase people's freedom to decide when, where, and how they wish to work and travel. With the aid of data from national surveys on the use of ICT by the Swedish population, our objective is to investigate the overall spread of ICT-based modes of work such as telework, mobile work, and teleconferences in an emerging informational society. The concepts of home-based, commuting-based, and mobile work form a starting point. The numbers and proportions of teleworkers are estimated using different criteria regarding the role of ICT. The current diffusion of telework is at a low and constant level, although general access to computers and telecommunication equipment is widespread, high, and increasing. Gender, type of profession, type of employment, and possession of a driver's license influence group-level differences between those who do telework and those who do not. Income and computer access are the dominating factors of influence at the individual level. In the main finding we contrast expectations of a rapid replacement of travel-based modes of work by ICT-based modes. An activity-based framework for a better understanding of the acceptance of ICT-based activities and their effects on the employment–travel landscape is outlined.
A General Framework for Estimation and Inference of Geographically Weighted Regression Models: 2. Spatial Association and Model Specification Tests
Authors: Páez Antonio , Uchida Takashi , Miyamoto Kazuaki
Published: August 2002

Spatial association effects, perhaps the most important concern in the analysis of spatial data, have been amply studied from a global perspective in the exploratory and modeling domains, and more recently also from a local perspective in the realm of exploratory data analysis. In a local modeling framework, however, the issue of how to detect and model spatial association by using geographically weighted regression (GWR) remains largely unresolved. In this paper we exploit a recent development that casts GWR as a model of locational heterogeneity, to formulate a general model of spatial effects that includes as special cases GWR with a spatially lagged objective variable and GWR with spatial error autocorrelation. The approach also permits the derivation of formal tests against several forms of model misspecification, including locational heterogeneity in global models, and spatial error autocorrelation in GWR models. Application of these results is exemplified with a case study.
Leaving Home for College and Gaining Independence
Authors: Mulder Clara H , Clark William A V
Published: August 2002

As more and more young US adults attend college it has become an increasingly important filter in the process of becoming an independent household. Now for a large number of young adults living in the USA, living away at college is a first step in the process of gaining residential and economic independence. We analyze leaving home to go to college, the choice between returning home and becoming independent after living away at college, and the influence of experience with living away at college on becoming an independent household. We use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and multilevel event-history and logistic-regression models to show that the likelihood of leaving home for college is positively affected by the father's education and the parental income. Unlike in previous research, we find evidence for the ‘feathered-nest’ hypothesis, in that the likelihood of returning home increases with parental income.
Disentangling the Interaction of Migration, Mobility, and Labor-Force Participation
Authors: Clark William A V , Withers Suzanne Davies
Published: August 2002

The authors examine the impact of mobility on the labor-force status of two-earner households in the United States, in a longitudinal context. There has recently been a resurgence of interest within industry and academia in the impact of family migration on the labor-force status of women, and on dual-earner families in general. Much of the research in this field has documented the disruptive effects of migration on the labor-force status of women, particularly with respect to unemployment, under-employment, and interrupted careers. However, there is another body of research that has challenged the disruption assumption with findings that many women benefit from family migration. The conflicting results persist when the modeling procedures account for the selectivity of migrants. Missing from the literature is a comparison of the impact of mobility on the labor-force status of men as well as women at varying geographical scales. The authors have used a new methodology to extend previous work on the impact of family migration by directly comparing the labor-force status of dual-earner households who migrate long distances, with that of households who move within the same labor market, and with that of households who remain residentially stable. The authors have used data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to show conclusively that, although there are disruptive effects, these are relatively short lived for most households. In addition, the results suggest that average changes mask very large variations in what happens to husbands and wives who relocate. This study emphasizes the dynamic nature of wives' labor-force participation relative to their husbands' immediately before and after a move, a finding that has not been established by other work on migration and labor-force participation.
Explaining Intraurban Variations of Commuting by Job Proximity and Workers' Characteristics
Authors: Wang Fahui
Published: August 2002

Based on the Census for Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) 1990, in this paper I will attempt to explain intraurban variations of commuting time and distance in Columbus, OH. Whereas commuting times are directly available from the CTPP, commuting distances are recovered by GIS network techniques as the shortest-time distances through the urban road network. Explanations of commuting are first attempted by measures of job proximity such as distances from employment centers and a gravity-based index accounting for job competition among workers. The influence of employment centers on commuting sheds new light on polycentric urban models. The variation of commuting distance is well explained by the gravity-based job proximity index. That is to say, how far people commute is explainable to a large extent by urban land use. However, how much time people spend on commuting is complicated by their socioeconomic status, which affects their choice of commuting modes. Finally the research demonstrates the promise of explaining commuting times by workers' characteristics such as percentage of black workers, female labor participation ratio, percentage of multiple-worker households, home-ownership status, educational attainment, and wage rate. In the analyses, spatially lagged dependent variables are introduced to control for the effect of spatial autocorrelation.
The Emergence of the Representation of Style in Design
Authors: Ding Lan , Gero John S
Published: August 2002

In this paper we present an evolutionary approach to the emergence of the representation of style in design. We explore issues involved in the interpretation of style, the emergence of the representation of style, and a computational process for emerging the representation of style. An evolutionary process model based on genetic engineering for style representation emergence is developed and demonstrated. Examples from its computational implementation are presented.
Button Design for Weighted Map Overlays
Authors: Xiang Wei-Ning , Salmon Francis W
Published: August 2002

Buttons or tabs are function keys on a computer screen that are designed to facilitate users' direct manipulations. One increasingly popular application of the button technique in a GIS environment is weighted map overlays for land suitability assessment. Here, buttons are coded with weighting values to indicate maps' importance to their associations. There are, however, a number of flaws in the existing button designs that can affect the quality of land-suitability assessment. In this paper, we first examine two common problems of redundancy and underrepresentation in button design, and then present a button system that is free from these problems.
The Gulf of Maine Environmental Information Exchange: Participation, Observation, Conversation
Authors: Schroeder Paul C , Boudreau Paul R , Brehme Chris E W , Boyce Andrew M , Evans Alison J , Rahmani Aviva
Published: August 2002

In this paper we describe an attempt to create an inclusive and participatory information sharing network across a large geographic region, the Gulf of Maine. This network aims to contribute to the health of the region's human and natural environments through facilitating partnerships among individuals and organizations that are already working toward this goal. Initiated at a time when cooperation, public learning, and information sharing increasingly depend on digital information technologies, this effort represents a turn away from earlier attempts to create centralized data sharing systems toward a more people-centered and project-centered approach. After introducing the Gulf of Maine Environmental Information Exchange and its region, particular projects will be described, along with the on-line technologies that are being applied including those related to digital mapping. A description of the purposes of the Information Exchange follows, with details about a network organization which is being shaped based on principles that have emerged through participant interactions. Public participation GIS and the community-based fisheries management movement are presented as examples of participatory governance that have contributed to discussions within the Information Exchange. We conclude with a summary of the accomplishments of this network building process and the challenges its participants recognize at this time.
Gated Communities in South Africa—Experiences from Johannesburg
Authors: Jürgens Ulrich , Gnad Martin
Published: August 2002

In the course of a broad liberalisation and globalisation of South African society, the transformation of the apartheid city to the postapartheid city has contributed to an increase in crime as well as a feeling of insecurity among the people. Urban blight has changed a lot of the inner cities into ‘no-go areas’ for blacks and whites. For personal protection, since the end of the 1980s (the phase of the abolition of apartheid laws) living areas have been created in the suburbs whose uniqueness and exclusiveness are defined by the amount of safety measures. These are called gated or walled communities, or security villages, and their population structure combines social and racial segregation. The authors made a complete survey of two housing areas in northern Johannesburg in 1999. The traditional wish of South African families for a big estate and a home of their own has been replaced by the wish to live in town houses, cluster housing, and sectional title flats with shared use of swimming pools or tennis courts.
Age-Segregated and Gated Retirement Communities in the Third Age: The Differential Contribution of Place — Community to Self-Actualization
Authors: Townshend Ivan J
Published: August 2002

The author focuses on the role of place-based community both in in-situ aging and in age-segregated (often gated and walled) retirement villages within cities as a potential contributor towards self-actualization. Elderly individuals in a case study in Calgary, Alberta, were measured on the short index of self actualization and a series of multivariate ‘structures’ of place — community associated with behavioral, cognitive, and affective features of community derived from a principal components analysis of community indicator variables. Self-actualization tendencies were not found to differ by residential context. Multiple regression models showed a similar overall contribution of all community structures to self-actualization in the different residential contexts, but different sets of community structures were identified as unique and significant predictors of self-actualization in the two residential settings. This differential impact may signal that a variety of forms and structures of person–environment congruence amongst the elderly yield similar psychological outcomes.
The Territorial Redistributive Power of the EU Budget: Empirical Evidence at National and Regional Levels
Authors: Espasa Marta
Published: August 2002

The author's purpose is to estimate the redistributive power of the European Union budget among the European countries and regions. The analysis is focused on the main items of revenue, expenditure, and net fiscal balance. First, the income elasticity of the European Union revenues, expenditures, and fiscal balance are estimated in order to examine the degree to which these instruments are progressive. Second, the impact of these instruments in the regional and national income is analysed with the objective of evaluating the capacity to reduce differences in per capita income levels.
Ownership of Environmental Values and Opportunity Costs
Authors: Lovett Jon C
Published: August 2002

Conservationists have recently used the concept of opportunity costs to calculate potential costs of conserving key sites with high environmental values. However, the validity of this approach can be questioned. The author briefly reviews property rights and decisionmaking on matters involving environmental values. Two examples are discussed: nature conservation, and the planting of genetically modified crops. The examples are considered in relation to existence values, citizens' preferences, problems associated with aggregating social preferences, and the observation that there are costs associated with exercising rights. The problems of the use of opportunity costs as a means of compensation for lost rights to environmental values are those of (1) who should determine the values; (2) whether payments should be made as compensation or as fines; and (3) who should receive the payments. These problems raise issues of equity, particularly as poor people often have claims to rights over areas with high environmental values. In conclusion, the roles of equity and sovereignty in the distribution of entitlements are emphasised and the difficulty of taking a policy decision to use market mechanisms for conserving biodiversity is discussed.
Articulation: Brightness, Apparent Illumination, and Contrast Ratios
Authors: Schirillo James A , Shevell Steven K
Published: August 2002

Luminance edges in the environment can be due to regions that differ in reflectance or in illumination. In three experiments, we varied the spatial organization of 10 achromatic (simulated) surfaces so that some arrangements were consistent with an ecologically valid and parsimonious interpretation of 5 surfaces under two different illuminants. A constant contrast-ratio along a luminance edge in the scene allows this interpretation. The brightness of patches in this condition was compared to their brightness with minimally different spatial arrangements that fail to maintain the constant contrast-ratio criterion. When the spatial arrangement of the 10 surfaces included a luminance edge satisfying the constant contrast-ratio criterion, brightness changed systematically, compared to arrangements without such a luminance edge. We account for the results by positing that a luminance edge with a constant contrast-ratio segments the scene into regions of lower and higher illumination, with the same effect as a difference in real physical illumination: all else equal, a given surface appears brighter under higher than under lower illumination.
Efficient Search for Size Targets on a Background Texture Gradient: Is Detection Guided by Discontinuities in the Retinal-Size Gradient of Items?
Authors: Found Andrew , Müller Hermann J , College Birkbeck
Published: August 2002

Six visual search experiments were carried out to investigate the processing of size information in early vision. The apparent size of display items was manipulated independently of their retinal size by placing items on a textured surface which altered the perceived distance in depth of the items. Overall, these experiments demonstrate that a target item differing from non-target items in terms of apparent size can be detected efficiently. However, the pattern of results indicates that, rather than deriving apparent-size information, target detection is guided by discontinuities in the ‘retinal-size gradient’ of items, in particular between items at the same ‘depth’. Although the arrangement of items on the texture surface strongly influenced search, this was largely due to the retinal size of items and the retinal separation between items. The implications of these experiments for the nature of the pre-attentive representation of size are discussed.
Are Average and Symmetric Faces Attractive to Infants? Discrimination and Looking Preferences
Authors: Rhodes Gillian , Geddes Keren , Jeffery Linda , Dziurawiec Suzanne , Clark Alison
Published: August 2002

Young infants prefer to look at faces that adults find attractive, suggesting a biological basis for some face preferences. However, the basis for infant preferences is not known. Adults find average and symmetric faces attractive. We examined whether 5–8-month-old infants discriminate between different levels of averageness and symmetry in faces, and whether they prefer to look at faces with higher levels of these traits. Each infant saw 24 pairs of female faces. Each pair consisted of two versions of the same face differing either in averageness (12 pairs) or symmetry (12 pairs). Data from the mothers confirmed that adults preferred the more average and more symmetric versions in each pair. The infants were sensitive to differences in both averageness and symmetry, but showed no looking preference for the more average or more symmetric versions. On the contrary, longest looks were significantly longer for the less average versions, and both longest looks and first looks were marginally longer for the less symmetric versions. Mean looking times were also longer for the less average and less symmetric versions, but those differences were not significant. We suggest that the infant looking behaviour may reflect a novelty preference rather than an aesthetic preference.
Visual Feature Binding in Early Infancy
Authors: Taga Gentaro , Ikejiri Tomohiro , Tachibana Tatsushi , Shimojo Shinsuke , Soeda Atsuhiro , Takeuchi Keiko , Konishi Yukuo
Published: August 2002

How does the developing brain of the human infant solve the feature-binding problem when visual stimuli consisting of multiple colored objects are presented? A habituation–dishabituation procedure revealed that 1-month-old infants have the ability to discriminate changes in the conjunction of a familiar shape and color in two objects. However, this good earlier performance was followed by poorer performance at 2 months of age. The performance improved again at 3 months of age. Detailed analysis of the oculomotor behaviors revealed that the age of 2 months was a period of drastic transition when the tendency to stay with the fixated objects disappeared and repetitive saccades between the two objects emerged. Our findings suggest that the ability to perceive conjunctions of features is available to infants very early, that the perceptual/neural basis at 1 and at 3 months of age may be fundamentally different, and that feature integration by vigorous eye movements or selective attention may be the key functional difference between the age groups.
Evidence for Transliminality from a Subliminal Card-Guessing Task
Authors: Crawley Susan E , French Christopher C , Yesson Steven A
Published: August 2002

In this experiment we sought to provide evidence for transliminality from a test of subliminal perception that was disguised as a computerised ESP card-guessing task. It was predicted that highly transliminal individuals would outperform those with low levels of transliminality when given subliminal primes or ‘clues’ to the correct choice of card, but not when no primes were given. In line with the prediction, higher levels of transliminality were found to be associated with a greater number of correct selections of the target card on the primed trials, but not on the unprimed trials. In addition, a positive correlation was obtained between transliminality and detection accuracy, suggesting that higher levels of transliminality are associated with a greater sensitivity to visual stimulation. The results are discussed with reference to the possibility that transliminality might offer an alternative explanation for some ostensibly psychic perceptual experiences if subliminally acquired material is wrongly attributed to psychic sources.
Experiments on the Role of Painted Cues in Hughes's Reverspectives
Authors: Papathomas Thomas V
Published: August 2002

The English artist Patrick Hughes has created an extraordinary class of painted artpieces, most commonly referred to as ‘reverspectives’. They consist of truncated pyramids and prisms with their smaller faces closer to the viewer, in such a way as to allow a realistic scene to be painted on them. The works of art contain rich perspective and other painted cues that conspire to elicit an illusory depth percept that is the reverse of the physical depth arrangement. This reverse depth is obtained under a wide range of viewing conditions, and competes with the veridical depth percept in a classical bistable paradigm that was found to exhibit a high degree of hysteresis. Under the illusory depth percept, reverspectives appear to move vividly as the viewer moves in front of them. This paper reports two experiments that were designed to assess the effectiveness of the painted cues in eliciting the illusory depth percept by using three different measures for the strength of the illusion. As expected, the illusion was favored by monocular viewing and large viewing distances. The results from these two experiments are in close agreement with each other, and they indicate that the painted cues are powerful in influencing the ultimate percept.
How Context Influences Predominance during Binocular Rivalry
Authors: Sobel Kenith V , Blake Randolph
Published: August 2002

Variations in the predominance of an object engaged in binocular rivalry may arise from variations in the durations of dominance phases, suppression phases, or both. Earlier work has shown that the predominance of a binocular rival target is enhanced if that target fits well—via common color, orientation, or motion—with its surrounding objects. In the present experiments, the global context outside of the region of rivalry was changed during rivalry, to learn whether contextual information alters the ability to detect changes in a suppressed target itself. Results indicate that context will maintain the dominance of a rival target, but will not encourage a suppressed target to escape from suppression. Evidently, the fate of the suppressed stimulus is determined by neural events distinct from those responsible for global organization during dominance. To reconcile diverse findings concerning rivalry, it may be important to distinguish between processes responsible for selection of one eye's input for dominance from processes responsible for the implementation and maintenance of suppression.
Scintillating Lustre and Brightness Induced by Radial Lines
Authors: Pinna Baingio , Spillmann Lothar , Ehrenstein Walter H
Published: August 2002

Gray disks inserted into the central gaps of an Ehrenstein pattern appear to lighten up and scintillate with each movement of the eye or stimulus pattern. We call this phenomenon scintillating lustre. Both phenomena—illusory brightness and scintillating lustre—depend on the presence of the radial inducing lines converging onto the gaps. Without the radii the gray disks appear matte. Using parametric stimulus variation, we show that the strength of scintillating lustre covaries with line-induced brightness enhancement when the length, width, number, and contrast of the radial lines, as well as the size of the gaps in the Ehrenstein figure, are varied. Following the proposal by Anstis (2000, Vision Research40 2551–2556), we suggest that lustre results from a competition between the ON and OFF visual pathways. Whereas Helmholtz's binocular gloss is elicited by stereoscopically fused incremental and decremental stimuli, the present study demonstrates that lustre can also arise from the interaction between line-induced brightness (illusory increment) and a dark gray disk (physical decrement).
Spatial Stimulus Cue Information Supplying Auditory Saltation
Authors: Phillips Dennis P , Hall Susan E , Boehnke Susan E , Rutherford Leanna E D
Published: August 2002

Auditory saltation is a misperception of the spatial location of repetitive, transient stimuli. It arises when clicks at one location are followed in perfect temporal cadence by identical clicks at a second location. This report describes two psychophysical experiments designed to examine the sensitivity of auditory saltation to different stimulus cues for auditory spatial perception. Experiment 1 was a dichotic study in which six different six-click train stimuli were used to generate the saltation effect. Clicks lateralised by using interaural time differences and clicks lateralised by using interaural level differences produced equivalent saltation effects, confirming an earlier finding. Switching the stimulus cue from an interaural time difference to an interaural level difference (or the reverse) in mid train was inconsequential to the saltation illusion. Experiment 2 was a free-field study in which subjects rated the illusory motion generated by clicks emitted from two sound sources symmetrically disposed around the interaural axis, ie on the same cone of confusion in the auditory hemifield opposite one ear. Stimuli in such positions produce spatial location judgments that are based more heavily on monaural spectral information than on binaural computations. The free-field stimuli produced robust saltation. The data from both experiments are consistent with the view that auditory saltation can emerge from spatial processing, irrespective of the stimulus cue information used to determine click laterality or location.
A Feature-Segmentation Model of Short-Term Visual Memory
Authors: Sakai Koji , Inui Toshio
Published: August 2002

A feature-segmentation model of short-term visual memory (STVM) for contours is proposed. Memory of the first stimulus is maintained until the second stimulus is observed. Three processes interact to determine the relationship between stimulus and response: feature encoding, memory, and decision. Basic assumptions of the model are twofold: (i) the STVM system divides a contour into convex parts at regions of concavity; and (ii) the value of each convex part represented in STVM is an independent Gaussian random variable. Simulation showed that the five-parameter fits give a good account of the effects of the four experimental variables. The model provides evidence that: (i) contours are successfully encoded within 0.5 s exposure, regardless of pattern complexity; (ii) memory noise increases as a linear function of retention interval; (iii) the capacity of STVM, defined by pattern complexity (the degree that a pattern can be handled for several seconds with little loss), is about 4 convex parts; and (iv) the confusability contributing to the decision process is a primary factor in deteriorating recognition of complex figures. It is concluded that visually presented patterns can be retained in STVM with considerable precision for prolonged periods of time, though some loss of precision is inevitable.
Water relations of temperate mistletoes on various hosts
Authors: Strong Graham L. , Bannister Peter
Published: August 2002

The daily field water relations and gas exchange of the temperate mistletoes
Ileostylus micranthus (Hook.f.) Tiegh. and
Tupeia antarctica Cham. et Schlecht. on various hosts
were examined seasonally in Dunedin, New Zealand during 1996–1998.
Mistletoes commonly have higher transpiration rates (E)
than their hosts, and this is generally cited as the reason why mistletoes
develop lower water potentials (ψ) than their hosts. The mistletoe-host
pairs that we examined showed no significant overall differences in
E and stomatal conductance (g),
and we used them to test the hypothesis that lowered ψ in mistletoes
result from higher E. Despite the lack of differences in
E and g, osmotic potentials,
predawn and daily minimum ψ (ψmin) were
significantly more negative in mistletoes, although differences between host
and mistletoe ψ were less on hosts with low osmotic potentials and ψ.
Mistletoes maintained lower ψ than their hosts both when unshaded and
under artificial shading, had lower ψ than hosts at equal
E, but had shoot hydraulic resistances similar to that
of their hosts. E and ψ of hosts and mistletoes
tended to be coordinated only in summer, when hosts were most water-stressed.
Mistletoes maintained higher relative water contents at turgor loss,
symplastic water contents, and bulk moduli of elasticity (ε) than their
hosts. We conclude that the lower ψ in these temperate mistletoes are a
consequence of greater mistletoe E only when host ψ
are low, but are otherwise maintained by greater succulence and higher ε
than in their hosts.
Identification of proteins regulated by cross-talk between drought and hormone pathways in Arabidopsis wild-type and auxin-insensitive mutants, axr1 and axr2
Authors: Bianchi Michele Wolfe , Damerval Catherine , Vartanian Nicole
Published: August 2002

Ten proteins differentially regulated by progressive drought stress in
Arabidopsis Columbia wild-type,
axr1-3 and axr2-1auxin-insensitive
mutants, were identified from internal amino acid microsequencing. These
proteins fell into two categories: (i) stress-related proteins, known to be
induced by rapid water stress via abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent or
-independent pathways [late embryogenesis abundant (LEA)-like and heat
shock cognate (HS) 70, respectively], or in response to pathogens or
oxidative stress [β-1,3 glucanase (BG), annexin] and (ii)
metabolic enzymes [glutamine synthetase (GS), fructokinase (Frk),
caffeoyl-CoA-3-O-methyltransferase (CCoAOMT)]. The
differential behaviour of these proteins highlighted a role for AXR2
and/or AXR1 in the regulation of their abundance during drought
adaptation. In particular, reduced induction of RD29B, GS and annexin, and
overexpression of BG2 were observed specifically in the
axr1-3 mutant, which is dramatically affected in several
ABA-dependent drought adaptive responses, such as drought rhizogenesis.
Altogether these results indicate cross-talk between auxin- and ABA-signalling
in Arabidopsis drought responses.
The Application of Polarization Modulation Method to Investigate the Optical Homogeneity of Polymer Films
Authors: Shindo Y. , Kani K. , Horinaka J. , Kuroda R. , Harada T.
Published: August 2002

A new use of commercial CD spectrometers is proposed for investigating the optical homogeneity of polymer films, in other words, for determining whether polymer films have uniform one layer structure or whether they are inhomogeneous with a multi-layer structure. The Mueller matrix approach was intensively used for the theoretical back-up of this method and for analyzing the data obtained on Congored dyed polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films.
Control and Response Characteristics of a Magneto-Rheological Fluid Damper for Passenger Vehicles
Authors: Lee Hwan-Soo , Choi Seung-Bok
Published: August 2002

This paper presents control characteristics of a full-car suspension featuring a semi-active magnetorheological (MR) fluid damper. A cylindrical MR damper is devised and its field-dependent damping force is evaluated with respect to the piston velocity. After verifying that the damping force can be continuously controlled by the intensity of the magnetic field, the MR damper is applied to a full-car model. The governing equations of motions, which include vertical, pitch, and roll motions are derived and incorporated with the skyhook controller. Control characteristics of the full-car suspension installed with the proposed MR damper are evaluated through hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS), and presented in both time and frequency domains.
Preliminary Study on the Interaction of Water Mist with Pool Fires
Authors: Xishi Wang , Guangxuan Liao , Bin Yao , Weicheng Fan , Xiaoping Wu
Published: August 2002

In this paper, some preliminary measurements and observations were conducted to investigate the interaction of water mist with pool fires. The fire source is a small-scale circular stainless steel pan with heptane, ethanol and kerosene as fuel. Water mist was generated by a downward-directed pressure nozzle that was positioned on a square steel plate 300 mm over the fuel sample and was operated at pressures of 0.5 MPa. The water mist characteristics were determined by a LDV/APV system. The radiation spectra of the flames were measured by a monochromator and the radiant heat flux was obtained by a thermogage before and after application of water mist. Thermography was used to visualize the thermal field of the flame. The experimental results show that the interaction mechanisms of kerosene flame are different from those of ethanol and heptane.
Pharmacy College Application Service
Authors: Ross Elisabeth J.
Published: August 2002

The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) is developing a centralized application service for U.S. colleges and schools of pharmacy. The Pharmacy College Application Service, known as PharmCAS, will allow applicants to use a single application and one set of materials to apply to multiple Pharm.D. programs. The purpose of PharmCAS is to benefit AACP member institutions, applicants, and the AACP office in terms of facilitation of the admissions process, student recruitment, and data collection. Other health professions’ education associations have established centralized application services with proven success.
A New Method to Reduce Cure-Induced Stresses in Thermoset Polymer Composites, Part I: Test Method
Authors: Madhukar Madhu S. , Genidy Mohamed S. , Russell John D.
Published: August 2002

The inhomogeneous structure of polymeric composites causes internal stresses to develop due to matrix volume changes during processing. The volume changes occur during cure and during cooldown after the cure is completed. Most of the previous studies on residual stresses concentrated on stress development during cooldown. In this study, a new test method was used to monitor fiber stresses that develop during cure in single fiber model composites. The method was used to study the effect of changing the cure cycle on curing induced fiber stresses. It was seen that changing the cure cycle changes the resulting stress significantly. Also, it was shown that the cure-induced stresses and their contribution to final residual stresses vary for different resins. A cure cycle with almost zero cure-induced stresses is demonstrated. The new cycle was found to satisfy the cure requirements such as glass transition temperature and cure cycle duration.
Dynamic Impact and Fracture Behaviour of Carbon Fiber Reinforced 7075 Aluminum Metal Matrix Composite
Authors: Lee Woei-Shyan , Sue Wu-Chung
Published: August 2002

The aim of this work is to study the effect of strain rate and fiber volume fraction on the dynamic impact of response and fracture behaviour of carbon fiber reinforced 7075 Al metal matrix composite under room temperature. Cylindrical specimens containing 5-15 V f% carbon fiber were deformed at strain rates ranging from 10−1s−1 to 3.5 x 103s−1 by means of a Saginomiya 100 metal forming machine and a compressive split-Hopkinson bar. Fracture phenomena and variation of microstructure were investigated using optical and scanning electron microscopy. The resulting data indicate that impact response of the tested composite is affected both by applied strain rate and fiber volume fraction, resulting in variations of work hardening rate, strain rate sensitivity and activation volume. The deformed microstructure at both low and high strain rates displayed extensive unstable plastic flow of Al matrix associated with catastrophic fiber fragmentation. Fiber breakage is dominated mostly by shearing and tension, and a relatively shorter fiber fragment length is found at high rate conditions. Fracture behaviour and the damage process of the tested composite depend quite strongly on the strain rate.
LIGHT AFFINE LOGIC AS A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE: A FIRST CONTRIBUTION
Authors: ROVERSI LUCA
Published: August 2002

This work is about an experimental paradigmatic functional language for programming with P-TIME functions. The language is designed from Intuitionistic Light Affine Logic. It can be typed automatically by a type inference algorithm that deduces polymorphic types à la ML.
BUNDLE GERBES APPLIED TO QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
Authors: CAREY ALAN L. , MICKELSSON JOUKO , MURRAY MICHAEL K.
Published: August 2002

This paper reviews recent work on a new geometric object called a bundle gerbe and discusses some new examples arising in quantum field theory. One application is to an Atiyah–Patodi–Singer index theory construction of the bundle of fermionic Fock spaces parameterized by vector potentials in odd space dimensions and a proof that this leads in a simple manner to the known Schwinger terms (Mickelsson–Faddeev cocycle) for the gauge group action. This gives an explicit computation of the Dixmier–Douady class of the associated bundle gerbe. The method also works in other cases of fermions in external fields (external gravitational field, for example) provided that the APS theorem can be applied; however, we have worked out the details only in the case of vector potentials. Another example, in which the bundle gerbe curvature plays a role, arises from the WZW model on Riemann surfaces. A further example is the "existence of string structures" question. We conclude by showing how global Hamiltonian anomalies fit within this framework.
THE DENSITY OF STATES AND THE SPECTRAL SHIFT DENSITY OF RANDOM SCHRÖDINGER OPERATORS
Authors: KOSTRYKIN VADIM , SCHRADER ROBERT
Published: August 2002

In this article we continue our analysis of Schrödinger operators with a random potential using scattering theory. In particular the theory of Krein's spectral shift function leads to an alternative construction of the density of states in arbitrary dimensions. For arbitrary dimension we show existence of the spectral shift density, which is defined as the bulk limit of the spectral shift function per unit interaction volume. This density equals the difference of the density of states for the free and the interaction theory. This extends the results previously obtained by the authors in one dimension. Also we consider the case where the interaction is concentrated near a hyperplane.
$\bar{X}$ CONTROL CHART FOR SKEWED POPULATIONS USING A SCALED WEIGHTED VARIANCE METHOD
Authors: CASTAGLIOLA PHILIPPE
Published: August 2002

This paper proposes a new [Formula: see text] control chart devoted to the monitoring of skewed populations. This control chart, called the Scaled Weighted Variance[Formula: see text] control chart (SWV [Formula: see text] for short), is an improvement of the Weighted Variance [Formula: see text] control chart proposed by Choobineh and Ballard in 1987. In this paper we derive the control limits of the SWV [Formula: see text] control chart and give an illustrative example. Comparisons in terms of type I error and ARL are performed in the case of a lognormal, gamma and Weibull population.
Analgesic effects of peripherally administered opioids in clinical models of acute and chronic inflammation
Authors: Dionne Raymond A. , Lepinski Allen M. , Gordon Sharon M. , Jaber Louay , Brahim Jaime S. , Hargreaves Kenneth M.
Published: August 2002

A series of double‐blind, placebo‐controlled clinical trials demonstrated that low doses of morphine (0.4, 1.2, and 3.6 mg) administered into the intraligamentary space of a chronically inflamed hyperalgesic tooth produced a dose‐related naloxone‐reversible analgesia. This analgesic effect is mediated by a local mechanism in the inflamed tissue, because subcutaneous administration of a 1.2 mg dose of morphine failed to elicit an analgesic response. In contrast, submucosal administration of 1.2 mg morphine or 50 μg fentanyl to the site of extraction of an impacted third molar after the onset of acute pain failed to elicit an analgesic response despite demonstration of a sensitive bioassay. These data indicate that peripheral opioid analgesia can be evoked in a model of chronic, but not acute, inflammatory pain, suggesting a temporal dependent mechanism needed for the expression of peripheral opiate analgesia during inflammation in humans.

Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2001) 70, 66–73; doi: 10.1067/mcp.2001.116443