title: Spontaneous singing and musical agency in the everyday home lives of three- and four-year-old children

authors: Dean, Bronya

subjects: Early childhood music

abstract: Spontaneous singing permeates the lives of young children and can provide insights into the social and personal worlds of young children at home. Research into young children’s singing has traditionally been dominated by studies framed by developmental perspectives. However, developmental approaches run the risk of overlooking the ways in which spontaneous singing is useful and meaningful to young children. Despite increased interest in the musical lives of young children, there exists very little research into young children’s musical lives at home, largely because the home can be a difficult space to access for research purposes. This chapter is based on research undertaken from audio recordings of 15 3- and 4-year-old children who were recorded for continuous periods at home using all-day recording technology. I draw on ideas from music sociology and childhood studies to illustrate how children use singing as a tool of agency in their interactions with others and to manage their own experience.

text: Spontaneous singing and musical agency in the everyday home lives of three- and four-year-old children Spontaneous singing permeates the lives of young children and can provide insights into the social and personal worlds of young children at home. Research into young children’s singing has traditionally been dominated by studies framed by developmental perspectives. However, developmental approaches run the risk of overlooking the ways in which spontaneous singing is useful and meaningful to young children. Despite increased interest in the musical lives of young children, there exists very little research into young children’s musical lives at home, largely because the home can be a difficult space to access for research purposes. This chapter is based on research undertaken from audio recordings of 15 3- and 4-year-old children who were recorded for continuous periods at home using all-day recording technology. I draw on ideas from music sociology and childhood studies to illustrate how children use singing as a tool of agency in their interactions with others and to manage their own experience.

year: 2019

title: The impact of national cultures on structured knowledge transfer

authors: Chen, Jihong

subjects: China

abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of national culture on the structured knowledge transfer from a US-based (onshore) technical support center to an offshore support center in China. 
Design/methodology/approach – The research was conducted as an interpretive case study. Three techniques (i.e. document review, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews) were employed for data collection in the field. 
Findings – The findings identify that knowledge tacitness, knowledge gaps, cultural and communication difficulties and weak relationships were the critical barriers to successful knowledge transfer in a cross-cultural knowledge transfer context. It was found that, when a provider and a recipient are located in different individualism/collectivism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance cultural dimensions, there will be a reduced likelihood of successful knowledge transfer in a structured knowledge transfer process. However, peer-to-peer help, close relationships and proactive learning may assist in decreasing the knowledge transfer difficulties. 
Research limitations/implications – The research was limited to one organization in one industry (the IT support industry) and in one country (China). There could be both industry-specific issues and national cultural issues that may affect the findings and conclusions. However, the paper has important practical implications for organizations that are trying to carry out transfer of organizational knowledge or to acquire organizational knowledge in a cross-cultural business context. 
Originality/value – The findings provide insight into the cultural issues implicated in the structured knowledge transfer process, when a knowledge provider and a recipient are from different cultural dimensions, as well as offering more general insight into the mechanism of knowledge transfer in the cross-cultural business context.

text: The impact of national cultures on structured knowledge transfer Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of national culture on the structured knowledge transfer from a US-based (onshore) technical support center to an offshore support center in China. 
Design/methodology/approach – The research was conducted as an interpretive case study. Three techniques (i.e. document review, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews) were employed for data collection in the field. 
Findings – The findings identify that knowledge tacitness, knowledge gaps, cultural and communication difficulties and weak relationships were the critical barriers to successful knowledge transfer in a cross-cultural knowledge transfer context. It was found that, when a provider and a recipient are located in different individualism/collectivism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance cultural dimensions, there will be a reduced likelihood of successful knowledge transfer in a structured knowledge transfer process. However, peer-to-peer help, close relationships and proactive learning may assist in decreasing the knowledge transfer difficulties. 
Research limitations/implications – The research was limited to one organization in one industry (the IT support industry) and in one country (China). There could be both industry-specific issues and national cultural issues that may affect the findings and conclusions. However, the paper has important practical implications for organizations that are trying to carry out transfer of organizational knowledge or to acquire organizational knowledge in a cross-cultural business context. 
Originality/value – The findings provide insight into the cultural issues implicated in the structured knowledge transfer process, when a knowledge provider and a recipient are from different cultural dimensions, as well as offering more general insight into the mechanism of knowledge transfer in the cross-cultural business context.

year: 2010

title: Radiocarbon dates on desiccated moa (Dinornithiformes) flesh from Inland Otago, New Zealand

authors: Anderson, Atholl

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Remains of soft tissues from extinct moa (Dinornithiformes), mainly desiccated sinew, muscle, skin, and feathers have been recovered rather seldom but their distribution is distinctive. Of 22 records of such finds accumulated between 1864 and 1987, 15 came from inland Otago (Anderson 1989: 67–68, Table 5.2), west of Dunedin in the southern South Island. Most were found in the late nineteenth century (13 records) in rockshelters, clefts or alluvial sediments and were regarded at the time as evidence of the survival of moa up to about AD 1800 (Hutton and Coughtrey 1874a). Improbable as this latter point is, it has not been tested by radiocarbon dating until now. Our particular impetus to do so, however, arises in another way. It is from research, again largely within inland Otago, on Maori artefacts which have also been made from various other kinds of soft tissues (flax, grasses, dog skin, bird skin, feathers etc.). A series of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates on these (Anderson et al., n.d.) shows that they are exclusively late, post-AD 1650, which begs the question of why the age range does not extend across the full prehistoric period, beginning about AD 1300.

text: Radiocarbon dates on desiccated moa (Dinornithiformes) flesh from Inland Otago, New Zealand Remains of soft tissues from extinct moa (Dinornithiformes), mainly desiccated sinew, muscle, skin, and feathers have been recovered rather seldom but their distribution is distinctive. Of 22 records of such finds accumulated between 1864 and 1987, 15 came from inland Otago (Anderson 1989: 67–68, Table 5.2), west of Dunedin in the southern South Island. Most were found in the late nineteenth century (13 records) in rockshelters, clefts or alluvial sediments and were regarded at the time as evidence of the survival of moa up to about AD 1800 (Hutton and Coughtrey 1874a). Improbable as this latter point is, it has not been tested by radiocarbon dating until now. Our particular impetus to do so, however, arises in another way. It is from research, again largely within inland Otago, on Maori artefacts which have also been made from various other kinds of soft tissues (flax, grasses, dog skin, bird skin, feathers etc.). A series of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates on these (Anderson et al., n.d.) shows that they are exclusively late, post-AD 1650, which begs the question of why the age range does not extend across the full prehistoric period, beginning about AD 1300.

year: 2010