Illustration of micro-scale advection using grid-pattern mini-lysimeters

Twenty-five small soil-filled perspex boxes arranged in a square, with dwarf sunflowers growing in them, were used to study micro-scale advection. Hydrological heterogeneity was introduced by applying two different amounts of irrigation water (low-irrigation, L, versus high-irrigation, H). The nine central boxes (4 H, 4 L and I bare box) were precision weighing lysimeters, yielding diurnal measurements of evaporation. After the onset of soil water stress, a large difference in latent heat flux (up to 4-fold) was observed between the lysimeters of the H and L treatments, mainly caused by large differences between H and L stomatal conductance values. This resulted in micro-advection, causing H soil-sunflower systems to evaporate well above equilibrium latent heat flux. The occurrence of micro-advective enhancement was reflected in large values of the Priestley-Taylor constant (often larger than 2.0) and generally negative values of sensible heat flux for the H treatment. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Putting the pieces back together again: an illustration of the problem of interpreting development indicators using an African case study

Indicators are commonly recommended as tools for assessing the attainment of development, and the current vogue is for aggregating a number of indicators together into a single index. It is claimed that such indices of development help facilitate maximum impact in policy terms by appealing to those who may not necessarily have technical expertise in data collection, analysis and interpretation. In order to help counter criticisms of over-simplification, those advocating such indices also suggest that the raw data be provided so as to allow disaggregation into component parts and hence facilitate a more subtle interpretation if a reader so desires. This paper examines the problems involved with interpreting indices of development by focusing on the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI) published each year in the Human Development Reports (HDRs). The HDI was intended to provide an alternative to the more economic based indices, such as GDP, commonly used within neo-liberal development agendas. The paper explores the use of the HDI as a gauge of human development by making comparisons between two major political and economic communities in Africa (ECOWAS and SADC). While the HDI did help highlight important changes in human development as expressed by the HDI over 10 years, it is concluded that the HDI and its components are difficult to interpret as methodologies have changed significantly and the 'averaging' nature of the HDI could hide information unless care is taken. The paper discusses the applicability of alternative models to the HDI such as the more neo-populist centred methods commonly advocated for indicators of sustainable development. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Productivity change in Polish agriculture: an illustration of a bootstrapping procedure applied to Malmquist indices

This article illustrates the usefulness of applying bootstrap procedures to total factor productivity Malmquist indices, derived with data envelopment analysis (DEA), for a sample of 250 Polish farms during 1996-2000. The confidence intervals constructed as in Simar and Wilson suggest that the common portrayal of productivity decline in Polish agriculture may be misleading. However, a cluster analysis based on bootstrap confidence intervals reveals that important policy conclusions can be drawn regarding productivity enhancement.

An illustration of the modelling of cost and efficacy data from a clinical trial

Health care providers, purchasers and policy makers need to make informed decisions regarding the provision of cost-effective care. When a new health care intervention is to be compared with the current standard, an economic evaluation alongside an evaluation of health benefits provides useful information for the decision making process. We consider the information on cost-effectiveness which arises from an individual clinical trial comparing the two interventions. Recent methods for conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis for a clinical trial have focused on the net benefit parameter. The net benefit parameter, a function of costs and health benefits, is positive if the new intervention is cost-effective compared with the standard. In this paper we describe frequentist and Bayesian approaches to cost-effectiveness analysis which have been suggested in the literature and apply them to data from a clinical trial comparing laparoscopic surgery with open mesh surgery for the repair of inguinal hernias. We extend the Bayesian model to allow the total cost to be divided into a number of different components. The advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches are discussed. In January 2001, NICE issued guidance on the type of surgery to be used for inguinal hernia repair. We discuss our example in the light of this information. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Satanic Mills? An illustration of Victorian external environmental accounting

The paper evaluates a Victorian environmental account of the pollution of the River Wandle. This account was produced during a period of social and environmental crisis, when there were no significant industrial environmental regulations. This problematising external environmental account provides valuable insights into the historical development of social and environmental accounting. Our analysis located this account within an institutional reform programme to create systems of governance to mitigate the damage arising from unfettered industrial growth. We argue that problematising external environmental accounting has a longer tradition than previously recognised in the literature and predates corporate social and environmental reporting.

'The house of books': libraries and archives in Ancient Egypt

In 1957, John Sperry Jr. published an article in Libri entitled “Egyptian libraries: a survey of the evidence.” Some 55 years on, this article revisits the subject, taking into account research undertaken in the field of Egyptology over the last half a century. Based on an extended essay written for the online Certificate in Egyptology course at the University of Manchester, this article considers the evidence for the existence of “institutional” (that is, created for the use and functioning of the state) libraries and archives in Ancient Egypt throughout the dynastic period (c.3500−30 B.C.); their history, purpose and, to some extent, their administration. It also considers an aspect not explored in Sperry’s article, that of “private” libraries in Ancient Egypt (texts collected by an individual for their own personal use). Whilst estimated literacy levels within the general population precluded the widespread collection of texts for personal edification, there is evidence to suggest that private libraries were present in Ancient Egypt. The article concludes with a brief assessment of the legacy of these ancient libraries and their influence on the creation of the Library of Alexandria, in both its ancient and modern manifestations.

Case formulation with sex offenders : an illustration of individualized risk assessment

There has been a rapid expansion of the professional literature in risk assessment with sexual offenders over the past 20 years.  However, recent professional experience suggests that risk assessment reports often fail to be as relevant or useful as they might be for judicial decision-makers.  Research with large samples of offenders has refined our understanding of identifiable subgroups with different rates of sexual reoffending, but the management of risk requires that we deal effectively with individual offenders.  One area that can be improved is the development of case formulations of risk.  Clinicians must move beyond the mechanical use of actuarial static and dynamic risk factors to a broader integration of relevant information about the individual if they are to assist in managing risk in a way that serves the needs of the offender while protecting public safety.

An illustration of variable precision rough set theory : The gender classification of the European barn swallow (Hirundo rustica)

This paper introduces a new technique in the investigation of object classification and illustrates the potential use of this technique for the analysis of a range of biological data, using avian morphometric data as an example. The nascent variable precision rough sets (VPRS) model is introduced and compared with the decision tree method ID3 (through a ‘leave n out’ approach), using the same dataset of morphometric measures of European barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) and assessing the accuracy of gender classification based on these measures. The results demonstrate that the VPRS model, allied with the use of a modern method of discretization of data, is comparable with the more traditional non-parametric ID3 decision tree method. We show that, particularly in small samples, the VPRS model can improve classification and to a lesser extent prediction aspects over ID3. Furthermore, through the ‘leave n out’ approach, some indication can be produced of the relative importance of the different morphometric measures used in this problem. In this case we suggest that VPRS has advantages over ID3, as it intelligently uses more of the morphometric data available for the data classification, whilst placing less emphasis on variables with low reliability. In biological terms, the results suggest that the gender of swallows can be determined with reasonable accuracy from morphometric data and highlight the most important variables in this process. We suggest that both analysis techniques are potentially useful for the analysis of a range of different types of biological datasets, and that VPRS in particular has potential for application to a range of biological circumstances.

An illustration of the physical robustness of silica monolithic rod columns

A commercial silica monolithic rod column (100 × 4.6 mm) was cut into smaller sections using a saw. Each time a section was cut from the column, the performance of the remaining intact monolith was retested. No significant change in the performance of the bed was recorded following the removal of 40 mm of the column in three separate cut sections. The work illustrates that monoliths are extremely robust and that they can be remodelled to different lengths if required, or a blocked section of the column (i.e. inlet) could be removed in much the same manner as for GC columns.

International students in Australia: read ten thousand volumes of books and walk ten thousand miles

A number of international students, predominately from Asian countries, are present in universities in the UK, United States, and Australia. There is little research exploring their experiences as they negotiate the disciplinary requirements of their courses. This paper investigates students' agency as they write their first assignment for their Master's of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages course and the academics who teach them. Talk around texts and the positioning theory are used to analyse the data. It is argued that the students demonstrate strategic agency, which allows them to better understand the academic requirements of their disciplines. The analysis reveals the complexities involved in international students' adaptation to disciplinary discourse and the implications for teaching and learning in higher education.

The immunisation controversy as an illustration of who we are

This seminar paper enlists the controversy about vaccination in an attempt to illustrate how human subjectivity can be said to be always created discursively. It suggests how these discourses are often manipulated along irrational lines.