Policy Framework for Myanmar Rice Production and In-Depth Study on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

This study assesses the interactive nature of rice and climate change in the context of Myanmar, one of the largest rice-producing countries. In the first section, special emphasis is given to the current situation of Myanmar’s rice production as affected by climate change alongside with possible adaptation strategies. Since only a small share (23.6 %) of the rice area is irrigated, low precipitation climate extremes directly translate into either drought problems due to limited access of water in case of drought or flood problems due to limited drainage. Moreover, more than half of the national rice production derives from the Ayaryewady delta, so that Myanmar’s food security is very susceptible to impacts triggered tropical cyclones such as “Nargis” in 2008. The scope of adaptation to climate change is elaborated at different levels ranging technical options for increasing resilience of the rice crop to policies that alleviate risks for farmers.

A POWER REGRESSION MODEL FOR LONG RANGE FORECAST OF SOUTHWEST MONSOON RAINFALL OVER INDIA

A detailed analysis of southwest monsoon (June to September) rainfall over India of several decades vis-a-vis the regional and global antecedent signals in numerous permutations and combinations has led the authors to conclude that a long range forecast based on one, two, three or four parameters as attempted by several workers in the past, cannot be reliable on all occasions as indeed has proved to be the case. The parametric and power regression models utilizing 16 parameters, described in the present paper, suggest that it is a tapestry of several parameters and interactive nature of the regional and global climatic forcings that govern the quality and quantity of the monsoon. A detailed analysis of non-linear interactions among the antecedent climatic conditions and the monsoon has led the authors to introduce the concept of proportionate weightage to the signals of different parameters. This has led to the development of a power regression model, which is able to quantify the effect of each parameter. Details of the model are presented, Based on the model, the India Meteorological Department has been issuing the operational long range forecast of monsoon rainfall over India as a whole during the past 3 years, 1988 to 1990, and these forecasts have proved to be correct.

Orangutan mothers adjust their behaviour during food solicitations in a way that likely facilitates feeding skill acquisition in their offspring

Immature orangutans acquire their feeding skills over several years, via social and independent learning. So far, it has remained uninvestigated to what extent orangutan mothers are actively involved in this learning process. From a fitness point of view, it may be adaptive for mothers to facilitate their offspring’s skill acquisition to make them reach nutritional independence faster. Food solicitations are potential means to social learning which, because of their interactive nature, allow to investigate the degree of active involvement of the mother. To investigate the role of food solicitation and the role of the mother in immatures’ foraging skill acquisition, we analysed 1390 food solicitation events between 21 immature Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) and their mothers, collected over 13 years at the Suaq Balimbing orangutan population. We found that solicitation rates decreased with increasing age of the immatures and increased with increasing processing complexity of the food item. Mothers were more likely to share complex items and showed the highest likelihoods of sharing around the age at which immatures are learning most of their feeding skills. Our results indicate that immature Sumatran orangutans use food solicitation to acquire feeding skills. Furthermore, mothers flexibly adjust their behaviour in a way that likely facilitates their offspring’s skill acquisition. We conclude that orangutan mothers have a more active role in the skill acquisition of their offspring than previously thought.

Random Forest Similarity Maps: A Scalable Visual Representation for Global and Local Interpretation

Machine Learning prediction algorithms have made significant contributions in today’s world, leading to increased usage in various domains. However, as ML algorithms surge, the need for transparent and interpretable models becomes essential. Visual representations have shown to be instrumental in addressing such an issue, allowing users to grasp models’ inner workings. Despite their popularity, visualization techniques still present visual scalability limitations, mainly when applied to analyze popular and complex models, such as Random Forests (RF). In this work, we propose Random Forest Similarity Map (RFMap), a scalable interactive visual analytics tool designed to analyze RF ensemble models. RFMap focuses on explaining the inner working mechanism of models through different views describing individual data instance predictions, providing an overview of the entire forest of trees, and highlighting instance input feature values. The interactive nature of RFMap allows users to visually interpret model errors and decisions, establishing the necessary confidence and user trust in RF models and improving performance.

Imaginary friend play in light of enactivism

Review of psychological data of how children engage in imaginary friend play (IFP) shows that it involves a lot of explicit embodied action and interaction with surrounding people and environments. However, IFP is still seen as principally an individualistic activity, where, in addition to those interactions, the actor has to mentally represent an absent entity in imagination in order to engage in IFP. This capacity is deemed necessary because the imaginary companion is absent or not real. This article proposes a proof of concept argument that enactivism can account for complex imaginary phenomena as imaginary friend play. Enactivism proposes thinking of IFP in a fundamentally different way, as an explicitly embodied and performative act, where one does not need to mentally represent absent entities. It reconceptualizes imagination involved in IFP as strongly embodied, and proposes that play environments have present affordances for social and normative interactions that are reenacted in IFP—there is no “absence” that needs to be mentally represented first. This article argues that IFP is performed and enacted in the world without having to be represented in the mind first, which best captures the social and interactive nature of this form of play.

E-campaigning: An Empirical Study of the Utilisation of ICTs for Election Campaigning in the 2008 New Zealand General Election

<p>E-campaigning refers to the utilisation of information and communication technologies (ICTs), predominantly the Internet, and related applications for election campaigning. At present, scholarly research in this social phenomenon chiefly focuses on how e-campaigning is utilised by political parties or candidates. Also, there is growing research interest in factors that influence e-campaigning utilisation. However, political parties’ or candidates’ e-campaigning utilisation is largely unexplored and unexplained. This is attributable to several factors, notably, restricted access to the phenomenon, the narrow and geographical concentration of existing e-campaigning research, the accessibility of political parties’ or candidates’ campaign teams as research participants, and a dearth of multidisciplinary research. To that end, this study empirically explores and explains e-campaigning utilisation with a multidisciplinary, multiple-case research approach. Further, this study is situated in the 2008 New Zealand general election, involving six of eight parliamentary parties. Based on existing e-campaigning research, this study proposes a new theoretical framework to understand, describe, and compare e-campaigning utilisation. This e-campaigning framework has been empirically applied. Notably, the findings suggest that political parties’ e-campaigning utilisation varied markedly beyond information dissemination; although social media was introduced in most parties’ e-campaigning, its interactive nature was barely exploited; and innovative e-campaigning appeared to be the exception rather than the norm. From political science and information systems literature, this study identifies ten factors, encompassing both external and internal aspects as well as various perspectives, to explain e-campaigning utilisation. The findings suggest that those factors in general are empirically relevant, accurate, and adequate. This study concludes that e-campaigning is a complex, contextual, diverse, and dynamic phenomenon. As such, it is difficult, if not impossible, to generalise or predict e-campaigning utilisation; also, a multidisciplinary approach is pivotal to investigating the phenomenon.</p>

E-campaigning: An Empirical Study of the Utilisation of ICTs for Election Campaigning in the 2008 New Zealand General Election

<p>E-campaigning refers to the utilisation of information and communication technologies (ICTs), predominantly the Internet, and related applications for election campaigning. At present, scholarly research in this social phenomenon chiefly focuses on how e-campaigning is utilised by political parties or candidates. Also, there is growing research interest in factors that influence e-campaigning utilisation. However, political parties’ or candidates’ e-campaigning utilisation is largely unexplored and unexplained. This is attributable to several factors, notably, restricted access to the phenomenon, the narrow and geographical concentration of existing e-campaigning research, the accessibility of political parties’ or candidates’ campaign teams as research participants, and a dearth of multidisciplinary research. To that end, this study empirically explores and explains e-campaigning utilisation with a multidisciplinary, multiple-case research approach. Further, this study is situated in the 2008 New Zealand general election, involving six of eight parliamentary parties. Based on existing e-campaigning research, this study proposes a new theoretical framework to understand, describe, and compare e-campaigning utilisation. This e-campaigning framework has been empirically applied. Notably, the findings suggest that political parties’ e-campaigning utilisation varied markedly beyond information dissemination; although social media was introduced in most parties’ e-campaigning, its interactive nature was barely exploited; and innovative e-campaigning appeared to be the exception rather than the norm. From political science and information systems literature, this study identifies ten factors, encompassing both external and internal aspects as well as various perspectives, to explain e-campaigning utilisation. The findings suggest that those factors in general are empirically relevant, accurate, and adequate. This study concludes that e-campaigning is a complex, contextual, diverse, and dynamic phenomenon. As such, it is difficult, if not impossible, to generalise or predict e-campaigning utilisation; also, a multidisciplinary approach is pivotal to investigating the phenomenon.</p>

FIELD MODELLING OF SPEECH GENRE (CASE STUDY OF ELITE BRAND GOODS IN INSTAGRAM)

The article is striving to describe one of the genres of advertising discourse - the advertising of elite brand goods in Instagram - through the theory of speech genres. The study is based on the following principles of the theory: all communication phenomena can be described through their primary or secondary nature; any speech genre has a field structure. A field consists of a core represented by features opposing this genre to other genres, and periphery represented by shared features. Field features of a genre are represented by language units of different levels grouped around some invariant content which depends on the topic and aim of communication. We have built a field model of speech genre of advertising of elite brand goods in Instagram, where the core features are word-play, highly expressive vocabulary and allusions which all aim to create positive image of elite goods. The field periphery has been split into closer periphery (common for all e-advertising) and farther periphery (represented by features common for advertising in general). The features of closer periphery are instant, ubiquitous and interactive nature. The features of farther periphery are informative and evaluative character, inducement and creolized nature.

Unintended Consequences: Unknowable and Unavoidable, or Knowable and Unforgivable?

Recognizing that there are multiple environmental limits within which humanity can safely operate, it is essential that potential negative outcomes of seemingly positive actions are accounted for. This alertness to unintended consequences underscores the importance of so called “nexus” research, which recognizes the integrated and interactive nature of water, energy and food systems, and aims to understand the broader implications of developments in any one of these systems. This article presents a novel framework for categorizing such detrimental unintended consequences, based upon how much is known about the system in question and the scope for avoiding any such unintended consequences. The framework comprises four categories (Knowable and Avoidable; Knowable and Unavoidable; Unknowable and Avoidable, and Unknowable and Unavoidable). The categories are explored with reference to examples in both the water-energy-food nexus and planetary boundary frameworks. The examples highlight the potential for the unexpected to happen and explore dynamic nature of the situations that give rise to the unexpected. The article concludes with guidance on how the framework can be used to increase confidence that best efforts have been made to navigate our way toward secure and sustainable water, energy and food systems, avoiding and/or managing unintended consequences along the way.

Women’s letters from the Chilean Nitrate Era: address choice, emotions and patriarchal reciprocity

This article explores how women from the lower ranks of Chilean society mobilized a dynamic address system through affective letter-writing to negotiate their familial position and identity at the end of Chile’s Nitrate Era. Inspired by the third wave in historical sociolinguistics and in dialogue with the glottopolitical perspective, the study foregrounds the interactive nature of ego-documents by analyzing indexical connections between address choice, emotions and unequal gendered relationships between partners. The pragmatic analysis of a set of letters written by women between 1913 and 1928 shows insightful connections between address choice, speech acts, emotions and politeness strategies. By linking textual evidence to the material conditions in which letter-writing is embedded, the article illustrates how women writers negotiated their position and personae within the family structure by inscribing letter-writing in a system of patriarchal reciprocity. This suggests that address choices and the expression of emotions are an index of gendered reciprocal practices that allowed women to preserve their familial structure in the context of industrialization and labor migration.