New records of Paraprionospio (Annelida: Spionidae) from Chinese waters, with the description of a new species

Paraprionospio pinnata (Ehlers, 1901), a poorly known and potentially cosmopolitan polychaete, was examined from museum specimens and from collections in Jiaozhou Bay, the Yellow Sea. New observations indicate that previous Chinese records of P. pinnata are doubtful, and that Chinese waters contain at least three valid species of Paraprionospio, two are known and one is new. Paraprionospio inaequibranchia (Caullery, 1914) and Paraprionospio coora Wilson, 1990, previously misidentified as P. pinnata, are reported from Chinese waters for the first time. Paraprionospio crist'ata. new species, is characterized by having brown pigment patches on the prostomium, ventral crests on chaetigers 9 and 10, dorsal crests on the middle part of the body (from chaetigers 21-23, not beyond chaetiger 29). thin filaments on chaetiger 3, and bifoliate branchial lamellae.

左侧梭状回内文字的字形加工：中文正常阅读者，中文文盲、非中文母语被试的对比研究

Reading is an important human-specific skill obtained through extensive learning experience and is reliance on the ability to rapidly recognize single words. According to the behavioral studies, the most important stage of reading is the representation of “visual word form”, which is independent on surface visual features of the reading materials. The prelexical visual word form representation is characterized by the abstractive and highly effective and precise processing. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies have investigated the neural basis underlying the visual word form processing. On the basis of summary of the existing literature, the current thesis aimed to address three fundamental questions involving neural basis of word recognition. First, is there a dedicated neural network that is specialized for word recognition? Second, is the orthographic information represented in the putative word/character selective region (VWFA)? Third, what is the role of reading experience in the genesis of the VWFA, is experience a main driver to shape VWFA instead of evolutionary selectivity? Nineteen Chinese literate volunteers, 5 Chinese illiterates and 4 native English speakers participated in this study, and performed perceptual tasks during fMRI scanning. To address the first question, we compared the differential responses to three categories of visual objects, i.e., faces, line drawings of objects and Chinese characters, and defined the region of interesting (ROI) for the next experiment. To address the second question, Chinese character orthography was manipulated to reveal possible differential responses to real characters, false characters, radical combinations, and stroke combinations in the regions defined by the first experiment. To examine the role of reading experience in genesis of specialization for character, the responses for unfamiliar Chinese characters in Chinese illiterates and native English speakers were compared with that in the Chinese literates, and tracked the change in cortical activation after a short-term reading training in the illiterates. Data were analyzed in two dimensions. Both BOLD signal amplitude and spatial distribution pattern among multi-voxels were used to systematically investigate the responsiveness of the left fusiform gyrus to Chinese characters. Our results provide strong and clear evidence for the existence of functionally specialized regions in the human ventral occipital-temporal cortex. In the skilled readers a region specialized for written words could be consistently found in the lateral part of the left fusiform gyrus, line drawings in the median part and faces in the middle. Our results further show that spatial distribution analysis, a method that was not commonly used in neuroimaging of reading, appears to be a more effective measurement for category specialization for visual objects processing. Although we failed to provide evidence that VWFA processes orthographic information in terms of signal intensitiy, we do show that response pattern of real characters and radical collections in this area is different from that of false characters and random stroke combinations. Our last set of experiments suggests that the selective bias to reading material is clearly experience dependent. The response to unknown characters in both English speakers/readers and Chinese illiterates is fundamentally different from that of the skilled Chinese readers. The response pattern for unknown characters is more similar to that for line drawings rather as a weak version of character in skilled Chinese readers. Short-term training is not sufficient to produce VWFA bias even when tested with learned characters, rather the learned characters generated a overall upward shift of the activation of the left fusiform region. Formation of a dedicated region specialized for visual word/character might depend on long-term extensive reading experience, or there might be a critical period for reading acquisition.

Grouping For Recognition

This paper presents a new method of grouping edges in order to recognize objects. This grouping method succeeds on images of both two- and three- dimensional objects. So that the recognition system can consider first the collections of edges most likely to lead to the correct recognition of objects, we order groups of edges based on the likelihood that a single object produced them. The grouping module estimates this likelihood using the distance that separates edges and their relative orientation. This ordering greatly reduces the amount of computation required to locate objects and improves the system's robustness to error.

Scalable Multi-Relational Association Mining

Clare, A., Williams, H. E. and Lester, N. M. (2004) Scalable Multi-Relational Association Mining. In proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Data Mining ICDM '04.

Digital libraries: principles and practice in a global environment

Tedd, L.A. & Large, A. (2005). Digital libraries: principles and practice in a global environment. Munich: K.G. Saur.

Qualitative evaluation of KA24 (Knowledge Access 24)

Durbin, J. & Urquhart, C. (2003). Qualitative evaluation of KA24 (Knowledge Access 24). Aberystwyth: Department of Information Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth. Sponsorship: Knowledge Access 24 (NHS)

Library management systems in the UK: 1960s-1980s

Tedd, L.A. (2007). Library management systems in the UK: 1960s-1980s. Library History, 23(4),301-316 Originally published (as above) by Maney Publishing.

Aggre-culture: What do e-book aggregators offer?

Lonsdale, Ray, & Armstrong, Chris (2008) Aggre-culture: What do e-book aggregators offer? Library + Information Update, 7(4), 28-33.

MUES (Mid Wales - Users - Ethnic Services) Ethnic services provision 2007-08. Report for Libraries for Life: Delivering the entitlement agenda for library users in Wales 2007-09

Thomas, R., Urquhart, C., Crossan, S. & Hines, B. (2008). MUES (Mid Wales - Users - Ethnic Services) Ethnic services provision 2007-08. Report for Libraries for Life: Delivering the entitlement agenda for library users in Wales 2007-09. Aberystwyth: Department of Information Studies, Aberystwyth University. Related policy guidance published separately Sponsorship: CyMAL

Rural information needs. Final report for Mid Wales Library and Information Partnership

Thomas, R., Crossan, S., Urquhart, C. & Hines, B. (2008). Rural information needs. Final report for Mid Wales Library and Information Partnership. Aberystwyth: Department of Information Studies, Aberystwyth University Sponsorship: Mid Wales Library and Information Partnership

Wendt, IR and Philosophy: A Critique

Suganami, Hidemi, 'Wendt, IR and Philosophy: A Critique', In: 'Constructivism and International Relations: Alexander Wendt and His Critics', (New York: Routledge), pp.57-72, 2006 RAE2008

Hugh Blaker: Doing his Bit for the Moderns

Meyrick, Robert, 'Hugh Blaker: Doing his Bit for the Moderns', Journal of the History of Collections (2004) 16(2):173-189 RAE2008

New Collected Poems of W. S. Graham

Francis, Matthew, New Collected Poems of W. S. Graham, (London: Faber and Faber, 2004 RAE2008

The Paston Women: Selected Letters

Watt, D. (Ed.). (2004). The Paston Women: Selected Letters. Library of Medieval Women. Rochester: D. S. Brewer. RAE2008

Badania wykorzystania przez polskie biblioteki naukowe środków europejskich, grantów ministerialnych i samorządowych oraz dotacji sponsorów w latach 2000-2008

Badania dotyczące pozyskiwania środków pomocowych przez polskie biblioteki naukowe przeprowadzone zostały w ramach wewnętrznych projektów badawczych Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej w Poznaniu. Realizacji projektu podjął się Oddział Prac Naukowych, Wydawniczych i Dydaktycznych BU. Zadanie wykonano od września 2008 do czerwca 2009 roku. Zamierzeniem autorek artykułu było uzyskanie pełnej informacji na temat środków pozabudżetowych pozyskiwanych przez polskie biblioteki naukowe oraz określenie stopnia ich wykorzystania. Zastosowano metodę sondażu diagnostycznego z wykorzystaniem techniki ankiety. Przygotowany kwestionariusz ankiety wraz z informacją dla respondentów o celu prowadzonych badań skierowano do wszystkich bibliotek uniwersyteckich, bibliotek głównych uczelni technicznych, medycznych, ekonomicznych, bibliotek akademii wychowania fizycznego, uczelni pedagogicznych i rolniczych oraz do bibliotek publicznych posiadających status bibliotek naukowych. Łącznie wysłano 70 ankiet, odpowiedzi udzieliło 38 respondentów. Wskazany w artykule okres 2000-2008 był czasem zwiększonych możliwości uzyskiwania dodatkowych funduszy przez biblioteki. Najczęściej otrzymywane fundusze to dotacje ministerialne, dalej środki sponsorów na działalność podstawową. W poważnym stopniu wspierały biblioteki, głównie biblioteki publiczne, lokalne samorządy. Zauważalne były dotacje wspierające biblioteki przekazywane przez fundacje i środki ofiarowane przez sponsorów na działalność organizacyjną; ewenementem natomiast – subwencje unijne.