How siblings adjust sib-sib communication and begging signals to each other

Parents allocate food resources to their offspring in proportion to the intensity of begging behaviour. Begging encompasses several activities including vocalizations that should honestly signal need and jostling for the position in the nest where parents predictably deliver food items. Although siblings are known to adjust begging level to each other, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. We examined this issue in experimental two-chick broods of the barn owl, Tyto alba, a species in which siblings communicate vocally with each other in the prolonged absence of parents. The function of sib-sib vocal communication, so-called sibling negotiation, is to resolve conflicts over which individual will have priority of access to the next delivered indivisible food item. We found that when a nestling produced longer negotiation calls and stood closer to the nestbox entrance in the absence of parents, its sibling vocally negotiated at a lower rate. Additionally, when an individual produced more negotiation calls in the absence of parents, its sibling begged less intensely at the parent's return, with begging being the key factor that determined which nestling obtained a food item. We conclude that position in the nest and the duration of negotiation calls produced in the absence of parents influence the rate of producing negotiation calls, which in turn influences the rate at which siblings beg for food from their parents. Adjusting begging behaviour could therefore depend on complex sib-sib interactions taking place in the prolonged absence of parents.

'Freakish Fat', 'Wretched Black': Female abject beings in contemporary Colombian media and culture

This paper explores the construction of female abject beings in Colombian contemporary media and culture comparing a character in the 2010 telenovela Chepe Fortuna named Venezuela, and the cultural representation of Piedad Córdoba. I argue that the construction of these two characters as abject beings is coherent with the dominant discourse of Alvaro Uribe's national project, which relied on a strong nationalist rhetoric based on binary oppositions of the type "we/other." In this context both Chepe Fortuna's Venezuela and Piedad Córdoba are constructed as "other." While Venezuela's abjection is partly effected on the basis of her being fat and black, Córdoba's is on the basis of her being a left-wing politician, and mediated through her being a black female. These two instances evidence an approach to femaleness that goes hand-in-hand with particular understandings of female subjectivity within current post-feminist paradigms.

English as a medium of instruction in teaching other languages: attitudes and practices

Internationalisation of HE and emergence of English as a global academic lingua franca used by people who share neither a common native tongue nor cultural and educational background have not only offered more opportunities but also raised challenges. According to recent European surveys, the percentage of pupils attaining the level of independent user in English varies from 14% to 82%, which evidences the potential and the complexity for English as a medium of instruction at tertiary level. This study aims to present the model of foreign language instruction at Vytautas Magnus University where one third of 30 languages are taught through English. It investigates the attitudes and practices of teachers in delivering their English-medium language courses by discussing the questions whether teaching other languages through English is psychologically, culturally and educationally preferable for teachers and students, whether it can limit the content taught and require a special methodology, how the teaching process changes with multiple languages used in the classroom and what level of English is necessary for teachers and students to ensure high quality of English-medium language teaching. The study is based on qualitative methodology with 12 language teachers participating as respondents. The results reveal areas in need of improvement.

Muuttuvat tilat lasten- ja nuortenkirjallisuuden tutkijoiden pohdittavana : : metamorphic spaces in children's literature and culture 17.-19.1.2008 Jyväskylä

Ajankohtaista

Finnair’s “New Silk Road” in the New Millennium: An Analysis of the Construction of Asia and of the Company

During the past century, an increasingly diverse world provided us with opportunities for intercultural communication; especially the growth of commerce at all levels from domestic to international has made the combination of the theories of intercultural communication and international business necessary. As one of the main beneficiaries in international business in recent years, companies in airline industries have developed their international market. For instance, Finnair has developed its Asian strategy which responds to the increasing market demand for flights from Europe to Asia in the new millennium. Therefore, the company manages marketing communication in a global environment and becomes a suitable case for studying the theories of intercultural communication in the context of international marketing. Finnair implemented a large number of international advertisements to promote its Asian routes, where Asia has been constructed as a number of exotic destinations. Meanwhile, the company itself as a provider of these destinations has also been constructed contrastively. Thus, this thesis aims at research how Finnair constructs Asia and the company itself in the new millennium, and how these constructions compare with the theories of intercultural communication. This research applied the theories of international marketing, intercultural communication and culture. In order to analyze the collected corpora as Finnair’s international advertisements and its annual reports in the new millennium, the methods of content analysis and discourse analysis have been used in this research. As a result, Finnair has purposefully applied the essentialist approach to intercultural communication and constructed Asia as an exotic “Other” due to the company’s market orientation. Meanwhile, Finnair has also constructed the company itself two identities based on the same approach: as an international airline provider between Europe and Asia, as well as a part of Finnish society. The combination of intercultural communication and international marketing theories, together with the combination of the methods of content analysis and discourse analysis ensure the originality of this paper.

Travelling in a Palimpsest : Finnish nineteenth-century painters' encounters with Spanish art and culture

Utgångspunkten för avhandlingen är finländska konstnärsresor till Spanien under 1800-talet, och kontakterna med spansk konst och kultur. Endast ett fåtal finländare reste till Spanien, och inledningsvis utrycktes intresset för spansk konst i form av kopior efter gamla mästare, utförda både efter original utanför Spanien, och reproduktioner. Denna föga imponerande start efterföljdes av ett litet antal målare som verkligen reste till Spanien under 1800-talets senare hälft: Adolf von Becker (1831–1909), Albert Edelfelt (1854–1905) och Venny Soldan (1863–1945). Jag undersöker hur deras syn på landet manifesterades i deras resebilder i förhållande till den växande turistindustrin. Syftet med avhandlingen är att visa hur den resande målaren, likt en turist, föreställde sig, upplevde och tolkade den främmande kulturen, och hur detta avbildades och uttrycktes i deras resebilder. Vid sidan av ikonografisk analys och stilkritik utnyttjas forskningsmetoder från turismteorin. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att de flesta konstnärerna dyrkade konsten på Prado-museet, beundrade flamenco, Andalusiens vackra kvinnor, tjurfäktningar och zigenarna. De längtade efter en förgången och exotisk tid, samtidigt som de följde de vältrampade turiststigarna och hänfördes av de sedvanliga sevärdheterna; de reste i ett delvis mytiskt och delvis verkligt land. Likt turister (i allmänhet), såg de det de ville se, och sökte sig till på förhand inpräntade mentala (före)bilder. Resebilderna kan med fog tolkas som medvetet konstruerade minnen från resan, souvenirs d’Espagne. Samtidigt förstärkte och upprätthöll valen av motiv uppfattningen att Spaniens äldre konst och samtida kultur var mer ”äkta” (autentiska) än den kultur man själv tillhörde. Spanien uppfattades som en kvarleva från en förgången tid som hölls levande i nuet

Relations between communication and development of family farmers

This research investigates relations between communication and the development of family farmers from the Pontal do Paranapanema region (state of São Paulo), mainly in the municipality of Teodoro Sampaio. Family agriculture in this municipality is represented basically by beneficiaries the Agrarian Reform program. The main hypothesis is that communication contributes positively to the development of those family farmers. Thus, this study aimed to understand communication practices of these farmers and relate them with the development of their families. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. Development proxy is understood as the combination between the family living conditions and production. Among the main results, it was found that the effect of communication for "life and production conditions" increases as farmers at superior levels of "development" are analyzed; thus the main hypothesis should not be rejected for those farmers with higher development condition. For the others, communication did not have the same effect because many settled families are not focused on agricultural activities. The main suggestion is to improve ways for producers and professionals from public services related to them to access information.

Isolation and culture of umbilical vein mesenchymal stem cells

Bone marrow contains a population of stem cells that can support hematopoiesis and can differentiate into different cell lines including adipocytes, osteocytes, chondrocytes, myocytes, astrocytes, and tenocytes. These cells have been denoted mesenchymal stem cells. In the present study we isolated a cell population derived from the endothelium and subendothelium of the umbilical cord vein which possesses morphological, immunophenotypical and cell differentiation characteristics similar to those of mesenchymal stem cells isolated from bone marrow. The cells were isolated from three umbilical cords after treatment of the umbilical vein lumen with collagenase. The cell population isolated consisted of adherent cells with fibroblastoid morphology which, when properly stimulated, gave origin to adipocytes and osteocytes in culture. Immunophenotypically, this cell population was found to be positive for the CD29, CD13, CD44, CD49e, CD54, CD90 and HLA-class 1 markers and negative for CD45, CD14, glycophorin A, HLA-DR, CD51/61, CD106, and CD49d. The characteristics described are the same as those presented by bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Taken together, these findings indicate that the umbilical cord obtained from term deliveries is an important source of mesenchymal stem cells that could be used in cell therapy protocols.

Commercial blog communication and brand image

The aim of this thesis was to examine whether company initiated commercial communication in personal blogs has an effect on consumers’ brand image. A detailed picture of the main topics was built based on the previous academic literature. The study explores how sponsored and company-initiated blog postings influence consumers’ brand image with a qualitative research. A framework defines the link between the main concepts of commercial blog communication and how this can be used in order to reach positive results in relation to consumers’ brand image. The findings of this study demonstrate that if the tech-savvy consumers consider that the commercial blog communication is genuine and the blogger stands behind the recommendation of the blog posting, it will result on a more positive brand image. However, if the consumers consider the content of the blog posting to be too controlled by the company, it is automatically seen as an advertisement instead of a recommendation by someone trustworthy. The company-controlled commercial blog communication without presenting the personality of the blogger has negative effects on brand image.

Effects of computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication on the quantity and quality of discourse produced by English as a second language students /

The effects oftwo types of small-group communication, synchronous computer-mediated and face-to-face, on the quantity and quality of verbal output were con^ared. Quantity was deiSned as the number of turns taken per minute, the number of Analysis-of-Speech units (AS-units) produced per minute, and the number ofwords produced per minute. Quality was defined as the number of words produced per AS-unit. In addition, the interaction of gender and type of communication was explored for any differences that existed in the output produced. Questionnaires were also given to participants to determine attitudes toward computer-mediated and face-to-face communication. Thirty intermediate-level students fi-om the Intensive English Language Program (lELP) at Brock University participated in the study, including 15 females and 15 males. Nonparametric tests, including the Wilcoxon matched-pairs test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Friedman test were used to test for significance at the p < .05 level. No significant differences were found in the effects of computer-mediated and face-to-face communication on the output produced during follow-up speaking sessions. However, the quantity and quality of interaction was significantly higher during face-to-face sessions than computer-mediated sessions. No significant differences were found in the output produced by males and females in these 2 conditions. While participants felt that the use of computer-mediated communication may aid in the development of certain language skills, they generally preferred face-to-face communication. These results differed fi-om previous studies that found a greater quantity and quality of output in addition to a greater equality of interaction produced during computer-mediated sessions in comparison to face-to-face sessions (Kern, 1995; Warschauer, 1996).