bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Information measures
Authors: Soofi Ehsan S. , Zhao Huimin , Nazareth Derek L. 
Published: January 2010

AbstractThis article presents an overview of the concept of information about random outcomes and measures that quantify information provided by probability distributions. We also provide a few examples and illustrate applications of the information measures in a computationally intensive context, namely cluster analysis. Information measures for the multivariate normal, Cauchy, and Pareto distributions are presented. Three clustering algorithms are proposed. The algorithms are used to cluster variables and observations in a data set. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.This article is categorized under:

Statistical and Graphical Methods of Data Analysis > Information Theoretic Methods
Simulating boreal forest dynamics from perspectives of ecophysiology, resource availability, and climate change
Authors: Ise Takeshi , Moorcroft Paul R. 
Published: January 2010

AbstractBoreal forests are under strong influences from climate change, and alterations in forest dynamics will have significant impacts on global climate‐biosphere feedback as well as local to regional conservation and resource management. To understand the mechanisms of forest dynamics and to assess the fate of boreal forests, simulation studies should be based on plant ecophysiological responses onto environmental conditions. In central Canadian boreal forests, local geomorphology created by past glacial activities often generates a mosaic of very distinctive forest types. On sandy hilltop of a glacial till, due to limitations in moisture availability and short fire return intervals, drought‐tolerant and fire‐adapted jack pine usually becomes the dominant species. On mesic and nutrient‐rich slopes, fast‐growing and resource‐demanding trembling aspen forms mixed forests with coniferous species. In bottomland, black spruce, slowly growing but tolerant species, is often the only species that can survive to the adult stage. These three very distinctive forest types often occur within a scale of 10 m. Simulation models of boreal forests should be able to reproduce this heterogeneity in forest structure and composition as an emergent property of plant ecophysiological responses to varying environmental properties. In this study, a process‐based forest dynamics model, ecosystem demography model version 1.0, is used to mechanically reproduce the landscape heterogeneity due to edaphic variations. First, boreal tree species of northern Manitoba, Canada, are parameterized according to field observations, and, to explicitly capture interactions among tree saplings, allometric equations based on diameter at height of 0.15 m, instead of the conventional breast height of 1.37 m, is parameterized. Then, soil moisture regime and nutrient concentrations are statistically incorporated from a dataset. The resultant simulation successfully reproduces the distinctive forest dynamics influenced by the edaphic heterogeneity. The sequences of succession and the trajectories of forest development are generally consistent with the field observations. The differences in resource availability are the essential control on equilibrium values of total forest leaf area index. Next, to show the effect of anthropogenic atmospheric changes, changes in temperature and CO2 concentrations are studied by a set of factorial experiments. The magnitude of CO2 fertilization is largely affected by soil fertility. The temperature rise will increase the length of growing season, but can have a negative impact on forest growth by increasing aridity and autotrophic respiration. Overall, the boreal forest responses to climate change are complex due to the inherent edaphic variations and ecophysiological responses.
Elaborating a simpler theory of anchoring
Authors: Frederick Shane , Kahneman Daniel , Mochon Daniel 
Published: January 2010

AbstractWithin the classic anchoring paradigm, in which respondents are forced to consider provided numbers as possible responses to a target judgment, Wegener et al. (2008) proposed that cognitive load affects the psychological mechanism by which these anchors influence judgments. We propose, instead, that level of cognitive resources does not fundamentally affect how anchoring works, but only whether respondents can access other considerations that bear on the target judgment. Though we share the authors' view that environmental circumstances can influence the relative contribution of associative and deliberative inputs in judgments, we contend that cognitive load primarily affects the types of information that respondents consider, not the manner by which a focal element is processed.
Long-term follow up after bony mastoid and epitympanic obliteration: radiological findings
Authors: Vercruysse J-P , De Foer B , Somers T , Casselman J , Offeciers E 
Published: January 2010

AbstractObjective:The canal wall up bony obliteration technique lowers the incidence of recurrent cholesteatoma, but carries the potential risk of obliterating residual cholesteatoma. The objective of this study was to report long-term follow-up radiological findings after performing a canal wall up bony obliteration technique procedure, in order to detect residual and/or recurrent cholesteatoma.Patients:Fifty-one patients presenting with a cholesteatoma or a troublesome cavity were operated upon using the canal wall up bony obliteration technique, and were evaluated by follow-up imaging a mean of 76.4 months post-operatively (range, 53.8–113.6 months).Intervention:All patients were evaluated with high resolution computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (including delayed contrast, T1-weighted imaging and non-echo-planar, diffusion-weighted imaging).Results:Imaging revealed the presence of one residual, one recurrent and one congenital petrosal apex cholesteatoma. On high resolution computed tomography, completely obliterated mastoid filled with bone was observed in 74.5 per cent (38/51) of patients, and an aerated middle-ear cavity in 64.7 per cent (33/51). High resolution computed tomography clearly detected any associated soft tissue present in the middle-ear cavity (18/51) and in the obliterated mastoids (13/51), but could not characterise this tissue. Non-echo-planar, diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging clearly identified all three cholesteatomas, and differentiated them from other associated soft tissues. No cholesteatoma was found within the obliterated mastoids.Conclusion:Long-term follow up indicated that the canal wall up bony obliteration technique is a safe method with which to treat primary and recurrent cholesteatoma and to reconstruct unstable cavities. Soft tissue was found quite often in the middle ear and obliterated mastoids. High resolution computed tomography identified its presence but could not further characterise it. However, non-echo-planar, diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging succeeded in differentiating soft tissues, enabling detection of residual or recurrent cholesteatoma after a canal wall up bony obliteration technique procedure.
Therapeutic ultrasound as treatment for chronic rhinosinusitis: preliminary observations
Authors: Young D , Morton R , Bartley J 
Published: January 2010

AbstractBackground:Bacterial biofilms have been implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis. In the laboratory setting, ultrasound is effective in disrupting such biofilms; however, few clinical studies have evaluated the role of therapeutic ultrasound in chronic rhinosinusitis.Objective:This study was performed to investigate the short-term effectiveness of therapeutic ultrasound as a treatment modality for chronic rhinosinusitis.Methods:Twenty-two patients with a positive history of chronic rhinosinusitis, according to the criteria set out by the Rhinosinusitis Task Force, together with a previous computed tomography scan compatible with a diagnosis of chronic rhinosinusitis, and who had failed previous, aggressive medical management, were treated with therapeutic pulsed ultrasound at 1 MHz two to three days per week for six sessions. Patients completed an assessment of individual sinus symptom severity and the 20-Item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test questionnaire before treatment, prior to session four and after completion of session six.Results:Two patients were unable to complete the study protocol. After completion of session six, 18 patients had experienced improvement in symptoms, while two patients noted a worsening of symptoms. Median percentage improvement of the total overall symptom score was 16.7 per cent (Wilcoxon signed rank,p < 0.001). The 20-Item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test score improved by 34.1 per cent (Wilcoxon signed rank,p < 0.0001).Conclusion:This study demonstrated a significant improvement in chronic rhinosinusitis symptoms after a six-session course of pulsed ultrasound therapy. Treatment with ultrasound alone or combined with antibiotics may provide a strategy to target biofilms on the sinus mucosa. Therapeutic ultrasound warrants further investigation as a potential treatment modality for chronic rhinosinusitis.
The three faces of the Arabic participle in Negev Bedouin dialects: continuous, resultative, and evidential
Authors: Henkin Roni 
Published: January 2010

The category of participle (P) usually includes at least two distinct paradigms. The terms for these vary, as it is not easy to determine the often language-specific nature of the opposition encoded in them. Temporal- ‘aspectual’ terminology is widely applied, giving present or ‘imperfect’ or progressive Ps as opposed to past, preterite, or ‘perfect’ Ps. An alternative popular opposition in many a linguistic tradition is of active vs. passive Ps. To avoid commitment to any of these nomenclatures, I use neutral formal terms: PI and P2.In order to establish the place of P in the verbal system of a given language, the relevant verbal-syntactic categories of that particular system must first be isolated. For this, I define the following components of indicative verbal systems in non-aspectual languages.
Mon–Aslian contacts
Authors: Bauer Christian 
Published: January 2010

In an article concerning the prehistory of Kelantan G. Benjamin provided an etymology for the toponym ‘Lebir’ as deriving from the Old Mon [OM] word for ‘sea, river’, OM Iḅir, Iḅīr, modern Mon LM ḅś, SM /бi/. He went on to say that there is evidence to assume early Malay–Mon contacts; in fact, it was only by the twelfth century A.D. that a language-shift at the expense of Mon occurred in an area of what is today southern Thailand and northern Malaysia. By implication this might also mean that there were contacts between groups speaking Aslian languages and Mon.In support of his hypothesis Benjamin referred to epigraphic evidence, in particular to Mon inscriptions from southern Thailand as the earliest written in any vernacular. In fact, there are only two inscriptions, previously claimed to be written in Mon, Nś. 2, discovered in 1971, from Nakhorn Sri Thammarat [Ligor] and Nś. 3 from the same area. The Thai Government's Fine Arts Department [FAD] dates Nś. 2 to the later half of the thirteenth century A.D., at a time when Benjamin assumes the language-shift Mon > Malay/Thai in the peninsula to have already taken place. But the difficulty is not only how to reconcile the comparatively late date—based on palaeographical grounds—with Benjamin's chronological framework; the inscription is largely illegible and classed by the FAD in its most recent publication as written in ‘Old Mon and Old Burmese’. The other inscription which the FAD has interpreted as Old Mon is Nś. 3/RIS XXVII, dated by Cœdès to the sixth century. But Cœdès himself was unable to determine the language of this one line inscription, and it cannot be ascribed to Old Mon.
About the phonetic value of the Middle Korean grapheme Δ
Authors: Vovin Alexander 
Published: January 2010

The problem concerning the phonetic value of the Middle Korean (MK) Grapheme Δ is one of the most troublesome in the study of Korean historical phonology. There are several hypotheses about the phonetic value of this grapheme, its phonemic status, and origin.The most widespread and more or less generally accepted theory proposes that MK Δ was a voiced fricative [z] which appeared as the result of the lenition of phoneme /s/ in the intervocalic and post-sonorant positions, since Δ is found in these positions in the overwhelming majority of cases (Yi Kimun 1987, 30) and (Ramsey, 1978: 33). Thus, this point of view denies the phonemic status of Δ, representing it as an allophone of /s/.
The development of the exalted function of the possessive construction in Classical Japanese
Authors: Takeuchi Lone 
Published: January 2010

The system of Japanese interpersonally marked linguistic elements (keigo) encodes interpersonal relations between the addresser, the referent of the grammatical subject and the indirect object, as well as the addressee. Basically, the distinction is between a reference axis and an address axis. The reference axis expresses assessment of the status of the subject vis-à-vis the addresser of the communication, and when relevant, also of the indirect object vis-à-vis the subject (and addresser). Expressions of the former relation are termed subject honorifics or exalted forms, those of the latter relation object honorifics or humble forms.By and large, the verb is the core constitutent of interpersonally marked expressions. To use an example from Classical Japanese (CJ) which is slightly more complicated than Modern Japanese, but more relevant to the following discussion,uramu‘to bear a grudge’ is a plain, i.e. interpersonally unmarked, form. As such it can be used in reference to the action of the addresser, the addressee, or a third person, whenever the status of the persons involved is equal and the speech situation informal. By contrast,urami tamafuis an exalted form expressing the addresser's consideration of the exalted status of the subject, be it the addressee or a third person. Morphologically, urami tamafu is a combination of a head verb with the auxiliary verbtamafu‘to deign’.
The internal classification of the Malayic subgroup
Authors: Adelaar K. Alexander 
Published: January 2010

My This paper is a critical evaluation of B. Nothofer's definition of ‘Malayic’ (§1). It also discusses his classification of Iban (or ‘Sea Dayak’) as a separate primary branch in the Malayic language group, and his analysis of some aspects of Iban phonological history (§ 2).The Malayic language group consists of (literary, standard) Malay and all dialects and languages that are sufficiently close to Malay in order to form an exclusive subgroup with it within the Austronesian language family. In 1985 I finished a PhD thesis which is a phonological, lexical and morphological reconstruction of Proto-Malayic, the hypothetical stock-language of the Malayic subgroup. The reconstruction is made on the basis of six members of the Malayic subgroup, viz. Malay, Minangkabau, Banjarese, Middle Malay (Seraway variant) Iban and Jakartanese. In August 1986 the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in Kuala Lumpur organized the International Workshop on the History of Malay, the contributions to which were published in 1988 (Mohd. Thani Ahmad and Zaini Mohamed Zain, 1988). Nothofer's paper treated the various views on the definition of the Malayic subgroup (Nothofer, 1988). Concerning my 1985 study, Nothofer made the following criticisms: definition of ‘Malayic’ is different from that of previous scholars and I do not explain in which way it differs. More particularly, my definition differs from that of Blust (1981), who also includes the Chamic languages of Vietnam and Rejang.
Muslim identity and separatism in India: the significance of M. A. Ansari
Authors: Robb P. G. 
Published: January 2010

This paper arises out of dissatisfaction with wholly instrumentalist explanations of Muslim separatism in India, views which have their critics but which generally prevail nowadays, reinforced by no less an influence than that of Michel Foucault. The problem is the fundamental one of what constitutes a group, and in particular of whether or not there can be objective harmonization, ‘orchestration sans chef d'orchestre qui confère regularité’, within any set of people. At an empirical level, in regard to Indian Muslims, the debate has three main elements: what was the nature of communalism, how far Muslim separatism was a process, and whether its development was a sufficient explanation for the partition of 1947. To the extent that Muslimsbecameseparatist, they obviously might have been diverted into other attitudes, and to that extent is it important to identify events which encouraged or errors which prevented that diversion.On this occasion the discussion will begin as a review ofA nationalist conscience, Mushirul Hasan's study of M. A. Ansari, and then move on to some of the issues suggested by Ansari's life and Hasan's treatment of it. The book provides an important corrective, in its emphasis and viewpoint, to the tendency to attribute the partition in India to a consistent and inevitable conflict between increasingly irreconcilable forces. The study extends and rounds out earlier work; it brings to life the alternative symbolized by Ansari, and thus casts into relief the occasions when Hindu–Muslim agreement and a common front against the British seemed possible, as in 1919–22 and 1935. The book exhibits the familiarity and maturity of understanding resulting from such an intense and long-term project of research. It is a timely contribution too, as intercommunal tensions once again mount in South Asia, and voices are heard suggesting that the secular constitution of India is inappropriate to the essential character of its people. The book's implicit thesis is that separatism did indeed evolve, with clear stages from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century; that its opponents were unable to arrest its advance; and that Ansari is significant for exemplifying these two points. Hasan thus illustrates an alternative to communalism offered during the struggles against British rule; it was an alternative which failed. The question is whether or not it could have succeeded.
On Latin mundus and Sanskrit muṇḍa
Authors: Canevascini Giotto 
Published: January 2010

Thanks to its variety of meanings, the word mundus had already aroused the interest of classical authors. It is in fact widely attested throughout the history of the language both as an adjective and as a noun.The adjective mundus, -a, -um means primarily ‘propre, d’ où soigné, coquet, élégant’ (DELL, 420), but is it also found used in the rural language when the act of cleaning is involved as is proved by the occurrence in this context of the derived verbs commundō, emundō, and by the expression mundus ager. The definition given to the adjective as mundus quoque appellatur lautus et purus (in Festus, cf. DELL, 420) accounts for this particular meaning because we find expressions describing earth ready for farming as humus subacta et pura ‘earth (which has been) worked and cleaned’. The relevance and wide distribution of this meaning of the adjective in the spoken language is made apparent by the occurrence in the Romance languages of numerous derivatives, such as Italian mondo ‘cleaned, purified’ and mondare ‘to husk, thresh, weed’, or French monder ‘to clean by separating something impure’ and émonder ‘to remove dead branches, to lop a tree’.
Modern South Arabian ‘nine’
Authors: Testen David 
Published: January 2010

There can be little doubt that the stem of the Common Semitic cardinal numeral ‘nine’ is to be reconstructed as *tiš'-.Among the Modern South Arabian languages, however, we find a set of forms for this numeral which, while clearly reminiscent of those of the remaining Semitic languages, are remarkable for (a) the absence of the initial *ti- and (b) the presence of the sibilant s rather than the expected *š (Johnstone, 1975:23).
The Qur'ān and the Islamic practice of Wuḍū'
Authors: Burton John 
Published: January 2010

It might appear that the Qur'ān does not establish the wuḍū', or ‘lesser ablution’. It mentions only ġasl and tayammum the distinction between which is most clearly expressed in Q. 4: 43:Do not approach the [place of] prayer when you are befuddled, until you know what you are saying, nor in a state of ritual impurity (junub)—except for those merely passing through [the place of prayer]—until you have cleansed yourselves (taūtasilū); and if you should be ill or on a journey, or come from the lavatory or have touched women, and cannot find water, then make for (tayammamū) some pure soil and wipe your faces and your hands
The conjugation of the Tangut verb
Authors: Kepping Ksenia Borisovna 
Published: January 2010

The data and analyses of Tangut verbal morphology which I have presented (1979b, 1981, 1982, 1985) represent the cumulative result of more than twenty years of research of Tangut texts. It is with great regret that I saw my analyses misunderstood (LaPolla, 1992). In order to clarify my view on the Tangut verbal agreement, I feel compelled to give a succinct account of the phenomena causing so much controversy in the Tibeto-Burman linguistic literature.The Tangut verb shows agreement for person and number of actant. The three overt agreement morphemes are<-ŋa2> (first person singular),<-na2> (second person singular) and<-ni2> (first and second person plural). The Tangut verb shows overt agreement only with first and second person actant. Third person involvement is marked by zero. A Tangut intransitive verb agrees with the subject, i.e. the ‘intransitive subject’. The two rules for the distribution of the overt agreement markers in the transitive verb as formulated in my Tangut grammar (Kepping, 1985: 233–4) are: (1) If one and no more than one of the actants is a first or second person, then the verb will overtly agree with that actant regardless of its syntactic role, and (2) if a transitive verb has two non-third person actants, the verb will agree with the grammatical patient or ‘transitive object’.
The Yakkha verb: interpretation and analysis of the Omruwa material (a Kiranti language of eastern Nepal)
Authors: van Driem George 
Published: January 2010

In 1989 Jadranka Gvozdanović published data of the ‘Yakkhaba’ transitive verbal paradigm. In the present paper these data are identified as Yakkha, re-arranged and interpreted. Comparisons are made with other Kiranti verbal agreement systems and with my model of the Proto-Kiranti verb.1.Yakkhaba, Yakkha and YakthungbaKiranti languages are native to eastern Nepal and the western fringe of Sikkim. The Kiranti branch of the Tibeto-Burman is characterized by verbal morphologies which by Tibeto-Burman standards may be called complex. The Kiranti languages are traditionally divided into Limbu, Yakkha and the Rai languages. Limbu, at the far eastern extent of the Kiranti homeland, has several dialects, of which(Weidert and Subba, 1985) and Phedāppe (van Driem, 1987) are the best described. Yakkha occupies an intermediate position and is spoken in the vicinity of Cainpur in Saṅkhuvā Sabhā district on the slopes east of the Arūṇ river. Rai (Nep. Rāī) is a highly heterogeneous group of languages. This has to do with the fact that the name Rai, although convenient, is not a proper linguistic designation, but represents what in Nepal is perceived to be an ethnic grouping.