Separating grazing and rainfall effects at regional scale using remote sensing imagery: A dynamic reference-cover method

Remote detection of management-related trend in the presence of inter-annual climatic variability in the rangelands is difficult. Minimally disturbed reference areas provide a useful guide, but suitable benchmarks are usually difficult to identify. We describe a method that uses a unique conceptual framework to identify reference areas from multitemporal sequences of ground cover derived from Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery. The method does not require ground-based reference sites nor GIS layers about management. We calculate a minimum ground cover image across all years to identify locations of most persistent ground cover in years of lowest rainfall. We then use a moving window approach to calculate the difference between the window's central pixel and its surrounding reference pixels. This difference estimates ground-cover change between successive below-average rainfall years, which provides a seasonally interpreted measure of management effects. We examine the approach's sensitivity to window size and to cover-index percentiles used to define persistence. The method successfully detected management-related change in ground cover in Queensland tropical savanna woodlands in two case studies: (1) a grazing trial where heavy stocking resulted in substantial decline in ground cover in small paddocks, and (2) commercial paddocks where wet-season spelling (destocking) resulted in increased ground cover. At a larger scale, there was broad agreement between our analysis of ground-cover change and ground-based land condition change for commercial beef properties with different a priori ratings of initial condition, but there was also some disagreement where changing condition reflected pasture composition rather than ground cover. We conclude that the method is suitably robust to analyse grazing effects on ground cover across the 1.3 x 10(6) km(2) of Queensland's rangelands. Crown Copyright (c) 2012 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sustainable grazing management for temporal and spatial variability in north Australian rangelands – a synthesis of the latest evidence and recommendations

Rainfall variability is a major challenge to sustainable grazing management in northern Australia, with management often complicated further by large, spatially-heterogeneous paddocks. This paper presents the latest grazing research and associated bio-economic modelling from northern Australia and assesses the extent to which current recommendations to manage for these issues are supported. Overall, stocking around the safe long-term carrying capacity will maintain land condition and maximise long-term profitability. However, stocking rates should be varied in a risk-averse manner as pasture availability varies between years. Periodic wet-season spelling is also essential to maintain pasture condition and allow recovery of overgrazed areas. Uneven grazing distributions can be partially managed through fencing, providing additional water-points and in some cases patch-burning, although the economics of infrastructure development are extremely context-dependent. Overall, complex multi-paddock grazing systems do not appear justified in northern Australia. Provided the key management principles outlined above are applied in an active, adaptive manner, acceptable economic and environmental outcomes will be achieved irrespective of the grazing system applied.

Climate savvy grazing (Developing improved grazing and related practices to assist beef production enterprises across northern Australia to adapt to a changing and more variable climate)

There is uncertainty over the potential changes to rainfall across northern Australia under climate change. Since rainfall is a key driver of pasture growth, cattle numbers and the resulting animal productivity and beef business profitability, the ability to anticipate possible management strategies within such uncertainty is crucial. The Climate Savvy Grazing project used existing research, expert knowledge and computer modelling to explore the best-bet management strategies within best, median and worse-case future climate scenarios. All three scenarios indicated changes to the environment and resources upon which the grazing industry of northern Australia depends. Well-adapted management strategies under a changing climate are very similar to best practice within current climatic conditions. Maintaining good land condition builds resource resilience, maximises opportunities under higher rainfall years and reduces the risk of degradation during drought and failed wet seasons. Matching stocking rate to the safe long-term carrying capacity of the land is essential; reducing stock numbers in response to poor seasons and conservatively increasing stock numbers in response to better seasons generally improves profitability and maintains land in good condition. Spelling over the summer growing season will improve land condition under a changing climate as it does under current conditions. Six regions were included within the project. Of these, the Victoria River District in the Northern Territory, Gulf country of Queensland and the Kimberley region of Western Australia had projections of similar or higher than current rainfall and the potential for carrying capacity to increase. The Alice Springs, Maranoa-Balonne and Fitzroy regions had projections of generally drying conditions and the greatest risk of reduced pasture growth and carrying capacity. Encouraging producers to consider and act on the risks, opportunities and management options inherent in climate change was a key goal of the project. More than 60,000 beef producers, advisors and stakeholders are now more aware of the management strategies which build resource resilience, and that resilience helps buffer against the effects of variable and changing climatic conditions. Over 700 producers have stated they have improved confidence, skills and knowledge to attempt new practices to build resilience. During the course of the project, more than 165 beef producers reported they have implemented changes to build resource and business resilience.

Religion Explained? : A Philosophical Appraisal of the Cognitive Science of Religion

This study examines philosophically the main theories and methodological assumptions of the field known as the cognitive science of religion (CSR). The study makes a philosophically informed reconstruction of the methodological principles of the CSR, indicates problems with them, and examines possible solutions to these problems. The study focuses on several different CSR writers, namely, Scott Atran, Justin Barrett, Pascal Boyer and Dan Sperber. CSR theorising is done in the intersection between cognitive sciences, anthropology and evolutionary psychology. This multidisciplinary nature makes CSR a fertile ground for philosophical considerations coming from philosophy of psychology, philosophy of mind and philosophy of science. The study begins by spelling out the methodological assumptions and auxiliary theories of CSR writers by situating these theories and assumptions in the nexus of existing approaches to religion. The distinctive feature of CSR is its emphasis on information processing: CSR writers claim that contemporary cognitive sciences can inform anthropological theorising about the human mind and offer tools for producing causal explanations. Further, they claim to explain the prevalence and persistence of religion by cognitive systems that undergird religious thinking. I also examine the core theoretical contributions of the field focusing mainly on the (1) “minimally counter-intuitiveness hypothesis” and (2) the different ways in which supernatural agent representations activate our cognitive systems. Generally speaking, CSR writers argue for the naturalness of religion: religious ideas and practices are widespread and pervasive because human cognition operates in such a way that religious ideas are easy to acquire and transmit. The study raises two philosophical problems, namely, the “problem of scope” and the “problem of religious relevance”. The problem of scope is created by the insistence of several critics of the CSR that CSR explanations are mostly irrelevant for explaining religion. Most CSR writers themselves hold that cognitive explanations can answer most of our questions about religion. I argue that the problem of scope is created by differences in explanation-begging questions: the former group is interested in explaining different things than the latter group. I propose that we should not stick too rigidly to one set of methodological assumptions, but rather acknowledge that different assumptions might help us to answer different questions about religion. Instead of adhering to some robust metaphysics as some strongly naturalistic writers argue, we should adopt a pragmatic and explanatory pluralist approach which would allow different kinds of methodological presuppositions in the study of religion provided that they attempt to answer different kinds of why-questions, since religion appears to be a multi-faceted phenomenon that spans over a variety of fields of special sciences. The problem of religious relevance is created by the insistence of some writers that CSR theories show religious beliefs to be false or irrational, whereas others invoke CSR theories to defend certain religious ideas. The problem is interesting because it reveals the more general philosophical assumptions of those who make such interpretations. CSR theories can (and have been) interpreted in terms of three different philosophical frameworks: strict naturalism, broad naturalism and theism. I argue that CSR theories can be interpreted inside all three frameworks without doing violence to the theories and that these frameworks give different kinds of results regarding the religious relevance of CSR theories.

Sanailua, kynäilyä, intoilua ja epäilyä : Oppilaiden kirjoitustaito ja sen arvioiminen alkuopetuksessa

Objectives. In primary education the pupils form a basis for their writing skills. By assessing pupils writing skills the teacher gathers information about the development of their skills and notices possible learning disabilities. The assessment of writing skills requires both knowledge of different evaluation methods and the phonological system in Finnish language. The purpose of this study is to analyze the pupils writing skills and different assessment methods that help the teacher in writing evaluation. The pupils writing skills are viewed from spelling, composing and writing motivation s point of view. Methods. The research material consists of dictation exercises, written stories and writing motivation self-assessments of 19 pupils. Dictation exercises measured the spelling skills of pupils and they were written in the spring of the first grade and the autumn of the second grade. Dictation exercises were analyzed with two different methods: mistake analysis and word-structure analysis. Information of pupils spelling skills development was gathered by comparing their performance in autumn s dictation exercise to spring s dictation. Composing skills were measured with stories that the pupils wrote. Both the stories and the writing motivation s self-assessment were made in the autumn of the second grade. Composing skills were analyzed according to assessment criteria formed for this study. Results. The spelling skill of most of the pupils had developed from the first grade s spring to the second grade s autumn. The spelling skills of half of the pupils (N=9) had improved significantly. The composing skills of the pupils varied largely. Strongest part of the pupils composing skill was following instructions and the weakest part was the use of versatile vocabulary and clause structures. The girls outdid the boys in all segments of their composing skills. For most pupils their spelling skill reflected their composing skill: good spellers were also good story writers. The relation between writing motivation and general writing skill was not this simple: some pupils (N=5) writing motivation was much higher than what would have been expected based on their writing skills.

Subsídios para a publicação de conteúdos na intranet da Câmara dos Deputados

A partir do mapeamento das páginas do Portal Intranet da Câmara dos Deputados, que atende a mais de 10 mil usuários internos, identificou-se a ocorrência de problemas na publicação de seus conteúdos, tais como erros de formatação, duplicação, grafia e inconsistências. Esse trabalho apresenta um diagnóstico, relacionando os problemas encontrados às razões de sua ocorrência e concluiu-se que há dificuldade no uso da ferramenta de gestão de conteúdos, ocasionada pela falta de treinamento dos provedores e por restrição da própria ferramenta com relação a algumas funcionalidades que, caso estivessem disponíveis, facilitariam a atividade de publicação no Portal. Como resultado da pesquisa, são elencadas ações corretivas na gestão da intranet, com o objetivo de minimizar os erros na publicação de seus conteúdos.

Ruas imaginárias: o humor linguístico-expressivo nas crônicas de Aldir Blanc

O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar as marcas linguísticas que compõem as relações de sentido no que diz respeito ao humor da crônica de Aldir Blanc. A partir da percepção da estrutura da Língua Portuguesa, verificar quais as ações na produção textual da crônica sejam estas morfológicas, gramaticais, lexicais, sintáticas, fonéticas, estilísticas ou semânticas que, ao aliar-se à práxis cotidiana (contexto) oferecida pelos jornais, propiciam o discurso humorístico do autor. Os pressupostos teóricos que corroboram as respectivas demarcações linguísticas terão ênfase no tocante aos aspectos semânticos, com Stephen Ullman, Pierre Guiraud e Edward Lopes. Os traços característicos da crônica, o humor e a ironia como recursos discursivos, a seleção lexical, as inferências, o jogo lúdico da grafia das palavras, as formas textuais serão inferidos dialogicamente em grande parte pelos estudos estilísticos de Marcel Cressot, Pierre Guiraud, Mattoso Câmara, Nilce SantAnna Martins e José Lemos Monteiro. Desse modo, apontamos para um estudo da língua sob uma ótica semântico-discursiva, levando em conta sua expressividade estilística. Dessa forma, à valorização do manuseamento linguístico, quer pela escritura, quer pela leitura, acrescenta-se o dado crítico da língua através do discurso presente no humor, tendo em vista o gênero textual que é a crônica e sua grande penetração social pelos jornais de grande circulação

De Flor do Lácio à Língua Global: uma análise discursiva das relações de poder nas políticas linguísticas para a promoção, a difusão e a projeção do português da Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP)

Nesta última década notamos uma série de políticas que visam ampliar a presença da língua portuguesa no mundo, tais como a inauguração da TV Brasil Internacional (2010), no âmbito do governo brasileiro ou a entrada em vigor do acordo ortográfico de 1990 (2009), no âmbito da Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP), organização internacional formada por todos os países de língua oficial portuguesa. Diante desse panorama, esta pesquisa propõe-se a contribuir para a compreensão do papel de políticas linguísticas na configuração do que seja a expansão do português no mundo contemporâneo. Para isso, partimos das premissas de que todo discurso é polêmico pelo princípio da interincompreensão constitutiva (MAINGUENEAU, 2008 [1984]), e de que todo texto político-jurídico-normativo busca apagar, superar essa polêmica e construir um sentido único. Esse caminho teórico-metodológico, nos leva a questionar sobre que processos discursivos constroem essa busca de univocidade para superar a polêmica nos documentos de políticas linguísticas para a expansão do português? Quais coerções foram enfatizadas? De que maneira o enunciador se apresenta em nome dessa univocidade? Acreditamos que encontrar respostas a essas indagações nos levem a discutir relações de poder que sustentam essas políticas linguísticas de expansão do português nesta última década. Para desenvolver nossa pesquisa, selecionamos como corpora de análise, declarações e resoluções da Conferência de Chefes de Estado e de Governo e do Conselho de Ministros da CPLP sobre a difusão e promoção da língua portuguesa, por causa do poder político e simbólico, que essa organização representa em relação à temática. Assim, pudemos identificar quatro posições/faces de enunciadores, o ufanista, o defensor, o apreensivo e o idealista-apaziguador, que juntos compõem um enunciador, que chamamos de super graças a sua memória e a sua competência interdiscursivas e sua maneira específica de enunciar, que potencializam o poder imperativo de seus enunciados. Nas sequências discursivas analisadas podemos constatar que esse (super)enunciador na busca da adesão do coenunciador, articula alianças (a língua portuguesa comum, a sociedade civil) e oposições (diversidade cultural dos países, a língua inglesa) na construção de uma aparente homogeneidade linguística a fim de superar a heterogeneidade fundante da própria CPLP. Desse modo, as polêmicas são silenciadas e podemos notar um processo de construção de um novo sentido de língua portuguesa, homogeneizante em contraposição a outro já em curso de gramatização e heterogeneização das línguas portuguesas nacionais

Dificuldades ortográficas: história de uma intervenção

Realizada no espírito da pesquisa-ação, a presente dissertação historia a atuação de sua autora, uma fonoaudióloga escolar, na condução de um grupo de estudos junto com um grupo de professoras da sua escola, no sentido de juntas buscarem subsídios sobre os fatores subjacentes às dificuldades ortográficas do alunado, de modo a possibilitar o desenvolvimento de atividades pedagógicas capazes de reverter essas dificuldades. Relata como foi feito o diagnóstico inicial de tais dificuldades e o desenvolvimento do processo de apropriação de conhecimentos e de reavaliação pedagógica ocorrido durante os encontros do grupo, que duraram seis meses, bem como apresenta a avaliação posterior do trabalho realizado feita pelas participantes, inclusive pela própria pesquisadora, que também testemunha sobre o seu próprio desenvolvimento pessoal durante o processo. Também é estabelecida na dissertação uma correlação entre a questão das dificuldades ortográficas com outros aspectos da aquisição da escrita; e são ainda apresentados boa parte dos saberes, conclusões e resultados obtidos pelo grupo, com o objetivo de fazer deste próprio texto uma contribuição para outros professores e técnicos escolares que se defrontem com problemas de aquisição da ortografia

汉语地名语音拼写能作为国际地名标志吗

本文针对我国有关管理部门提出对于地点、街道名一律采用汉语拼音作为地名的“罗马化标志 "，在详细分析的基础之上认定所谓的国际地名的罗马化不适合于汉语地名。中国地名的唯一国际性标志就是它的汉字表达。为了让这个地名走向国际，重要的是对它加以注音和翻译。

Choking RECtified: embodied expertise beyond Dreyfus

On a Dreyfusian account performers choke when they reflect upon and interfere with established routines of purely embodied expertise. This basic explanation of choking remains popular even today and apparently enjoys empirical support. Its driving insight can be understood through the lens of diverse philosophical visions of the embodied basis of expertise. These range from accounts of embodied cognition that are ultra conservative with respect to representational theories of cognition to those that are more radically embodied. This paper provides an account of the acquisition of embodied expertise, and explanation of the choking effect, from the most radically enactive, embodied perspective, spelling out some of its practical implications and addressing some possible philosophical challenges. Specifically, we propose: (i) an explanation of how skills can be acquired on the basis of ecological dynamics; and (ii) a non-linear pedagogy that takes into account how contentful representations might scaffold skill acquisition from a radically enactive perspective.

W poszukiwaniu czasowników nieznanych lingwist(k)om

Abstract. The paper presents a list of 437 verbs which have not been recorded in lexicography. As the source of reference, the author consulted a spelling dictionary of the Polish language, Wielki słownik ortograficzny PWN, 2nd edition, 2006. The concept of this paper originated from the wish to satisfy the curiosity after reading Indeks neologizmów [Index of Neologisms] prepared by Krystyna Waszakowa in her work Przejawy internacjonalizacji w słowotwórstwie współczesnej polszczyzny [Word-formative internationalisation processes in modern Polish]. The index contains a list of nouns. Given that K. Waszakowa did not take verbs into account (there are far (?) fewer neo-verbs than neo-nouns), the author decided to find out whether it is true that the number of verb neologisms is so small that their philological analysis is pointless from the point of view of research, vocabulary registration, etc. If nouns, such as podczłowiek, miniokupacja, redefinicja, are of interest, why not record the prefixal constructions of the do-, z-, od-, na-, w-, wy-, za-, od-, nad- etc. -robić type? The analysis included randomly selected texts from the „Rzeczpospolita” daily (without any thorough preparation with respect to the content; the texts available were sequentially analysed until the satisfactory result was obtained). The texts under review included an incomplete (it is virtually impossible to determine completeness in this case) electronic archive from the years 1993–2006.

O caso do Marco

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Psicologia, especialização em Psicologia Clínica e da Saúde.

Structuring the Calibration of Qualitative Data as Sets for Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)

Most studies that apply qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) rely on macro-level data, but an increasing number of studies focus on units of analysis at the micro or meso level (i.e., households, firms, protected areas, communities, or local governments). For such studies, qualitative interview data are often the primary source of information. Yet, so far no procedure is available describing how to calibrate qualitative data as fuzzy sets. The authors propose a technique to do so and illustrate it using examples from a study of Guatemalan local governments. By spelling out the details of this important analytic step, the authors aim at contributing to the growing literature on best practice in QCA. © The Author(s) 2012.

H.M.'s personal crossword puzzles: understanding memory and language.

The amnesic patient H.M. has been solving crossword puzzles nearly all his life. Here, we analysed the linguistic content of 277 of H.M.'s crossword-puzzle solutions. H.M. did not have any unusual difficulties with the orthographic and grammatical components inherent to the puzzles. He exhibited few spelling errors, responded with appropriate parts of speech, and provided answers that were, at times, more convincing to observers than those supplied by the answer keys. These results suggest that H.M.'s lexical word-retrieval skills remain fluid despite his profound anterograde amnesia. Once acquired, the maintenance of written language comprehension and production does not seem to require intact medial temporal lobe structures.