The exponentiated generalized inverse Gaussian distribution

The modeling and analysis of lifetime data is an important aspect of statistical work in a wide variety of scientific and technological fields. Good (1953) introduced a probability distribution which is commonly used in the analysis of lifetime data. For the first time, based on this distribution, we propose the so-called exponentiated generalized inverse Gaussian distribution, which extends the exponentiated standard gamma distribution (Nadarajah and Kotz, 2006). Various structural properties of the new distribution are derived, including expansions for its moments, moment generating function, moments of the order statistics, and so forth. We discuss maximum likelihood estimation of the model parameters. The usefulness of the new model is illustrated by means of a real data set. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bioluminescent sensor for naphthalene in air: Cell immobilization and evaluation with a dynamic standard atmosphere generator

A dynamic atmosphere generator with a naphthalene emission source has been constructed and used for the development and evaluation of a bioluminescence sensor based on the bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens HK44 immobilized in 2% agar gel (101 cell mL(-1)) placed in sampling tubes. A steady naphthalene emission rate (around 7.3 nmol min(-1) at 27 degrees C and 7.4 mLmin(-1) of purified air) was obtained by covering the diffusion unit containing solid naphthalene with a PTFE filter membrane. The time elapsed from gelation of the agar matrix to analyte exposure (""maturation time"") was found relevant for the bioluminescence assays, being most favorable between 1.5 and 3 h. The maximum light emission, observed after 80 min, is dependent on the analyte concentration and the exposure time (evaluated between 5 and 20 min), but not on the flow rate of naphthalene in the sampling tube, over the range of 1.8-7.4 nmol min(-1). A good linear response was obtained between 50 and 260 nmol L-1 with a limit of detection estimated in 20 nmol L-1 far below the recommended threshold limit value for naphthalene in air. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Concreteness in Business letters : a Corpus-based Analysis of British and Pakistani English

Linguistic features of business letters have been a research target of both linguists and business writers. In this study, the language of British and Pakistani Business letters was compared and contrasted in terms of concreteness and abstractness. A corpus of 100 business letters from Inner Circle and Outer Circle writers were collected for analysis. The findings of the study revealed that British writers use more specific and concrete nouns, definite determiners, numeral, possessive and demonstrative adjectives, cohesive and rhetorical devices than the Pakistani Writers in order to be become concrete and vivid in their communication. The present findings are rather corpus specific since the data include only two countries; however this study may lead to further cross circle research including Expanding Circle research of business letters in terms of concreteness and abstractness. The issue of concreteness in Cross-circle business English can also be studied from psychological, sociological and anthropological perspectives in future Research.

Txtng as a replacement for standard written English : an attitude survey based on Age and Gender

Text messaging is a new form of writing, brought about by technological development in the last couple of decades. Mobile phone usage has increased rapidly worldwide and texting is now part of many people's everyday communcation. A large number of users send or receive texts which include some abbreviations and shortenings, commonly referred to as textspeak. This novel linguistic phenomenon is perceived by some with indifference and by others with aggravation. The following study examines attitudes towards this linguistic change from a gender and age perspective. The comparison between two groups show that the most conservative and least positive to change are young women. The analysis and discussion around this focuses on power, prestige and patterns.

The Concept of ’Selling/Buying’ in the Russian Linguistic Picture of the World : from standard to sub-standard

The thesis belongs to the field of lexical semantics studies, associated with describing the Russian linguistic world-image. The research focuses on the universal situation of purchase and sale as reflected in the Russian lexical standard and sub-standard. The work deals also with subjects related to the sphere of social linguistics: the social stratification of the language, the structure of sub-standard, etc. The thesis is a contribution to the description of the Russian linguistic world-image as well as to the further elaboration of the conceptional analysis method. The results are applicable in teaching Russian as a foreign language, particularly in lexis and Russian culture and mentality studies.

Letters, authority and secrecy : The case of Karagwe in Tanzania

This paper aims to show how letters, as a genre of literacy, are used in Karagwe in Tanzania, in relation to authority and secrecy. It is shown that literacy, in the form of letters, plays an important role in the negotiation of authority. Authorities as well as ordinary people use letters according to official norms to claim or manifest authority, while grassroots forms of literacy, dominated forms, are used to resist authorities. Through secret messages and letters people find opportunities to resist that are less dangerous than open rebellion, although the effects may be limited because of the secrecy. It is also shown how children are socialized into this pattern of secrecies through literacy as they are used as messengers. When delivering secret letters and messages, they may be said to exercise a passive voice through literacy.

Preparers’ and non-preparers’ lobbying on the proposed prohibition of goodwill amortisation in ED3 ‘business combinations’

In this paper preparers’ and non-preparers’ positions regarding accounting for goodwill are examined through studying submitted comment letters on ED3 ‘Business Combinations’. Preparers have, because of economic consequences, incentives to lobby for the non-amortisation approach and non-preparers for the amortisation approach. As hypothesised, non-preparers are found to support amortisation of goodwill to a greater extent than do preparers. Moreover, the two groups’ supportive arguments, i.e. how they argue for or against the non-amortisation or amortisation approach, are studied. Again, as hypothesised, the results show that the two groups use the same type of ‘sophisticated’ framework based arguments instead of economic consequences arguments. Taken together the examination of the comment letters thus indicates that both preparers and non-preparers point at conceptual strengths and weaknesses, instead of pointing at the real cause of the lobbying activities, i.e. perceived economic consequences, when they try to affect the final outcome of the standard. These findings confirm earlier research which has suggested that self-interested lobbyists use accounting theories and concepts as useful justifications.

You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me: Covenant in Faith and History

In this paper I have attempted to explore "covenant" in faith and history, as it extends throughout the entire framework of the Bible and the entire history of the people who produced it. With such a monstrous topic, a comprehensive analysis of the material could take a lifetime to do it justice. Therefore, I have taken a very specific approach to the material in order to investigate the evolution of covenant from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) to the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). I have made every effort to approach this thesis as a text-based, non-doctrinal discussion. However, having my own religious convictions, it has, at times, been difficult to recognize and escape my biases. Nevertheless, I am confident that this final product is, for the most part, objective and free from dogmatism. Of course, I have brought my own perspective and understanding to the material, which may be different from the reader's, so there may be matters of interpretation on which we differ, but c 'est fa vie in the world of religious dialogue. The structure of this paper is symmetrical: Part I examines the traditions of the Torah and the Prophets; Part II, the Gospels and Paul's letters. I have balanced the Old Testament against the New Testament (the Torah against the Gospels; the Prophets against Paul) in order to give approximately equal weight to the two traditions, and establish a sense of parallelism in the structure of my overall work. A word should also be said about three matters of style. First, instead of the customary Christian designation of time as B.C. or A.D., I have opted to use the more modem B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) notations. This more recent system is less traditional; however, more acceptable in academic and, certainly, more appropriate for a non-doctrinal discussion. Second, in the body of this paper I have chosen to highlight several texts using a variety of colors. This highlighting serves (1) to call the reader's attention to specific passages, and (2) to compare the language and imagery of similar texts. All highlighting has been added to the texts at my own discretion. Finally, the divine name, traditionally vocalized as "Yahweh," is a verbal form of the Hebrew "to be," and means, approximately, "I am who I am." This name was considered too holy to pronounce by the ancient Israelites, and, the word adonai ("My LORD") was used in its stead. In respect of this tradition, I have left the divine name in its original Hebrew form. Accordingly, should be read as "the LORD" throughout this paper. All Hebrew and Greek translations, where they occur, are my own. The Greek translations are based on the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible.