Second Author (second + author)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


How is Education Possible?

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 1 2001
Preliminary investigations for a theory of education
The following text is the result of our ongoing discussions about the notion of intersubjectivity and its significance for an understanding of the process of education. Rather than merging our sometimes diverging ideas into one single line of argument, we decided to try if we could make the movement of divergence and convergence of our thoughts visible in the text itself. Although we definitely explore different pathways, these pathways lead to a similar insight. This is, that it is not the educator who educates, but that it is the educational ,situation',a situation constituted though not determined by the interaction between the educator and the student,which educates. This educational situation, which one of us describes as an ,in between space', emerges from the interaction between the educator and the student. In this respect we can say that it results from the difference between the partners in education. The in-between space of education is an emerging reality, which not only comes into existence as a result of the difference between the partners in education but in fact only exists in this difference. It is precisely in this respect that the form of the following article provides an example of what we want to say about the process of education. The point is, to put it briefly, that this article contains or expresses a meaning that results from the difference between the two texts, but this meaning is neither something that can be attributed to the two texts as such (in this sense this emerging meaning is constituted though not determined by the two texts), nor,and this is crucial,is it something that can be articulated in any positive way in a third text. The interaction between our two texts therefore creates a reality that results from the difference between the texts and only exists in this difference. The order of authorship expresses the fact that the first author wrote the left column and the second author the right column. [source]


The feasibility of smoking reduction: an update

ADDICTION, Issue 8 2005
John R. Hughes
ABSTRACT Aim To update conclusions of a previous review of smoking reduction on the extent to which (1) smokers spontaneously reduce their smoking, (2) smokers who try to quit and fail return to smoking less, (3) smokers can substantially reduce and maintain reductions via pharmacological and behavioral treatments and (4) smokers compensate when they reduce. Method Qualitative systematic review. Data sources Systematic computer searches and other methods. Study selection Published and unpublished studies of smokers not trying to stop smoking. We located 13,26 studies for each of the four aims. Data extraction The first author entered data with confirmation by second author. Data synthesis Due to the heterogeneity of methods and necessity of extensive recalculation, a meta-analysis was not feasible. Results Few daily smokers spontaneously reduce. Among those who try to stop smoking and relapse, some return to reduced smoking but whether they maintain this reduction is unclear. Nicotine replacement (and perhaps behavior therapies) can induce smokers not interested in quitting to make significant reductions in their smoking and maintain these over time. Some compensatory smoking occurs with reduction but significant declines in smoke exposure still occur. Conclusions These results indicate that reduction is feasible when aided by treatment. Whether reduction should be promoted will depend on the effect of reduction on health outcomes and future cessation. [source]


Teaching undergraduate econometrics with GRETL

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMETRICS, Issue 7 2006
J. Wilson Mixon Jr
This paper reviews GRETL, a software package for econometrics. Mainly it discusses GRETL's merits as an aid in teaching undergraduate econometrics. This discussion is in two parts. First one author, an instructor, reviews the teaching of undergraduate econometrics with GRETL. Then the second author, a student, discusses the experience of being introduced to GRETL as part of the introductory course and of putting it to work as part of his employment. The paper briefly discusses GRETL as a research tool. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Ascertaining Health-Related Information on Adults With Intellectual Disabilities: Development and Field Testing of the Rochester Health Status Survey

JOURNAL OF POLICY AND PRACTICE IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 1 2008
Philip W. Davidson
Abstract, There is a growing need for researchers and service providers to ascertain and track health status and health care utilization among adults with intellectual disabilities as they pass through the lifespan. This paper reports the development and field testing of the Rochester Health Status Survey (RHSS), a survey instrument that identifies incidence, lifetime prevalence, and point prevalence of diseases common in adults, as well as functional abilities and medication usage. The instrument also provides information about health system access and utilization. The survey is designed to be completed from chart review. An initial version of the survey was developed in 1998, revised in 2003, and then validated on a cohort of adults ages 21 to 73 years living in supervised community residences in the U.S. The RHSS includes 51 questions and requires about 45 min to complete. In the present study, data were collected on each subject by 3 different respondents (a service coordinator, a nurse, and when available, a family member). Their responses were compared item by item with the responses of the second author, a developmental disabilities geriatrician, who also completed the survey on each subject. Correlations and Kappa statistics confirmed that the highest agreement scores occurred between nurses and the geriatrician. [source]


Asymptotic and spectral properties of operator-valued functions generated by aircraft wing model

MATHEMATICAL METHODS IN THE APPLIED SCIENCES, Issue 3 2004
A. V. Balakrishnan
Abstract The present paper is devoted to the asymptotic and spectral analysis of an aircraft wing model in a subsonic air flow. The model is governed by a system of two coupled integro-differential equations and a two parameter family of boundary conditions modelling the action of the self-straining actuators. The differential parts of the above equations form a coupled linear hyperbolic system; the integral parts are of the convolution type. The system of equations of motion is equivalent to a single operator evolution,convolution equation in the energy space. The Laplace transform of the solution of this equation can be represented in terms of the so-called generalized resolvent operator, which is an operator-valued function of the spectral parameter. More precisely, the generalized resolvent is a finite-meromorphic function on the complex plane having a branch-cut along the negative real semi-axis. Its poles are precisely the aeroelastic modes and the residues at these poles are the projectors on the generalized eigenspaces. The dynamics generator of the differential part of the system has been systematically studied in a series of works by the second author. This generator is a non-selfadjoint operator in the energy space with a purely discrete spectrum. In the aforementioned series of papers, it has been shown that the set of aeroelastic modes is asymptotically close to the spectrum of the dynamics generator, that this spectrum consists of two branches, and a precise spectral asymptotics with respect to the eigenvalue number has been derived. The asymptotical approximations for the mode shapes have also been obtained. It has also been proven that the set of the generalized eigenvectors of the dynamics generator forms a Riesz basis in the energy space. In the present paper, we consider the entire integro-differential system which governs the model. Namely, we investigate the properties of the integral convolution-type part of the original system. We show, in particular, that the set of poles of the adjoint generalized resolvent is asymptotically close to the discrete spectrum of the operator that is adjoint to the dynamics generator corresponding to the differential part. The results of this paper will be important for the reconstruction of the solution of the original initial boundary-value problem from its Laplace transform and for the analysis of the flutter phenomenon in the forthcoming work. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Evolution operators generated by non-densely defined operators

MATHEMATISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 11 2005
Hirokazu Oka
Abstract In this paper it is shown that an evolution operator is generated by a family of closed linear operators whose common domain is not necessarily dense in the underlying Banach space, under the stability condition proposed by the second author from the viewpoint of finite difference approximations. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]


Speeding up the FMMR perfect sampling algorithm: A case study revisited

RANDOM STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS, Issue 4 2003
Robert P. Dobrow
Abstract In a previous paper by the second author, two Markov chain Monte Carlo perfect sampling algorithms,one called coupling from the past (CFTP) and the other (FMMR) based on rejection sampling,are compared using as a case study the move-to-front (MTF) self-organizing list chain. Here we revisit that case study and, in particular, exploit the dependence of FMMR on the user-chosen initial state. We give a stochastic monotonicity result for the running time of FMMR applied to MTF and thus identify the initial state that gives the stochastically smallest running time; by contrast, the initial state used in the previous study gives the stochastically largest running time. By changing from worst choice to best choice of initial state we achieve remarkable speedup of FMMR for MTF; for example, we reduce the running time (as measured in Markov chain steps) from exponential in the length n of the list nearly down to n when the items in the list are requested according to a geometric distribution. For this same example, the running time for CFTP grows exponentially in n. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2003 [source]


Further analysis of the population history of ancient Egyptians

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
Michael A. Schillaci
Abstract The origins of state formation in ancient Egypt have been the focus of recent research utilizing biological data to test hypotheses regarding in situ development of local groups, or large-scale in-migration, possibly by an invading army. The primary goal of the present research is to further test these hypotheses. Our secondary goal is to compare different distance measures and assess how they might affect interpretation of population history. We analyze craniodental nonmetric data using several different measures of biological distance, as well as a method for estimating group diversity using multidimensional scaling of distance estimates. Patterns of biological variation and population relationships were interpreted in temporal and geographic contexts. The results of our analyses suggest that the formation of the ancient Egyptian state likely included a substantial in situ process, with some level of contribution by outside migrants probable. The higher level of population structure in Lower Egypt, relative to Upper Egypt, suggests that such influence and migration by outsiders may not have been widespread geographically. These findings support, but serve to refine further those obtained by the second author in a previous study. Moreover, our comparison of distance measures indicates that the choice of measure can influence identification and interpretation of the microevolutionary processes shaping population history, despite being strongly correlated with one another. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


L-histidine decarboxylase as a probe in studies on histamine

THE CHEMICAL RECORD, Issue 6 2002
Takehiko Watanabe
Abstract Because the Falck-Hillarp formaldehyde fluorescence method, which was superbly applied to identify catecholaminergic and serotonergic neurons, is not applicable to histamine, the first author (T.W.) developed an antibody to L-histidine decarboxylase (HDC) for identification of the histaminergic neuron system in the brain. The anti-HDC antibody was of great use for mapping the location and distribution of this histaminergic neuron system. (S)-,-fluoromethylhistidine, a specific and potent irreversible inhibitor of HDC, was also very useful in studies on functions of the neuron system. The activity of HDC is increased by various agents, treatments, and physiological conditions. We found new compounds that increased HDC activity (i.e., tetradecanoylphobol acetate (TPA), other tumor promoters, and staphylococcal enterotoxin A); and using mast cell-deficient mutant (W/Wv) mice, we obtained evidence that this increase occurred in macrophages. To further characterize the mechanism of increases in HDC activity, the second author (H.O.) cloned human HDC cDNA and a human HDC gene. In studies on the regulation mechanism of the HDC gene, which is expressed only in limited types of cells such as mast cells, enterochromaffin-like cells in the stomach, cells in the tuberomammillary nucleus of the brain, and macrophages, CpG islands in the promoter region of the HDC gene were found to be demethylated in cells expressing the gene, whereas they are methylated in other cells that do not express the HDC gene. In collaboration with many other researchers, we developed HDC knockout mice. The resulting research is producing a lot of interesting findings in our laboratory as well as in others. In summary, HDC has been and will be useful in studies on functions of histamine. © 2002 The Japan Chemical Journal Forum and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Chem Rec 2: 369,376, 2002: Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI 10.1002/tcr.10036 [source]


On the convergence and singularities of the J -Flow with applications to the Mabuchi energy

COMMUNICATIONS ON PURE & APPLIED MATHEMATICS, Issue 2 2008
Jian Song
The J -flow of S. K. Donaldson and X. X. Chen is a parabolic flow on Kähler manifolds with two Kähler metrics. It is the gradient flow of the J -functional that appears in Chen's formula for the Mabuchi energy. We find a positivity condition in terms of the two metrics that is both necessary and sufficient for the convergence of the J -flow to a critical metric. We use this result to show that on manifolds with ample canonical bundle, the Mabuchi energy is proper on all Kähler classes in an open neighborhood of the canonical class defined by a positivity condition. This improves previous results of Chen and of the second author. We discuss the implications of this for the problem of the existence of constant-scalar-curvature Kähler metrics. We also study the singularities of the J -flow and, under certain conditions (which always hold for dimension 2) derive some estimates away from a subvariety. We discuss the conjectural remark of Donaldson that if the J -flow does not converge on a Kähler surface, then it should blow up over some curves of negative self-intersection. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]