Linear Lengthening in Iwaidja: An Event-Quantifying Intonation at the Phonology to Semantics/Pragmatics Interface

This paper investigates the meaning of a specific intonation contour found in the Northern Australian language Iwaidja called Linear Lengthening Intonation (LLI). Using an experimental field work approach, we analysed approximately 4,000 utterances. We demonstrate that the semantics of LLI is broadly event-quantificational as well as temporally scalar. LLI imposes aspectual selectional restrictions on the verbs it combines with (they must be durative, i.e. cannot describe ‘punctual’, atomic events), and requires the event description effected by said verbs to exceed a contextually-determined relative scalar meaning (e.g., a ‘typical duration’ à la (Tatevosov 2008)). Iwaidja differs from other Northern Australian languages with similar intonation patterns (see e.g. (Bishop 2002: 2002; Simard 2013)), in that it does not seem to have any argument NP-related incremental or event scalar meaning. This suggests that LLI is a decidedly grammatical, language-specific device; not a purely iconic kind of expression (even though it also possibly has an iconic dimension).

Biological Indicators of Soil Condition on the Kabanyolo Experimental Field, Uganda

Soil biological activity is an integral characteristic reflecting the state of soil fertility, biodiversity, and the activity of soil processes carried out by soil organisms. In Africa, studies of soil biological properties are few compared to the agrochemical research. In this paper, we present an assessment of multiple biochemical and microbiological properties of soil from an agricultural field located in the African tropical savanna. We determined basal respiration, substrate-induced respiration, C of microbial biomass, the potential activity of denitrification, nitrogen fixation activity, and estimated prokaryotic components in the soil microbial complex by quantitative PCR. Basal respiration of soils ranged from 0.77 ± 0.04 to 1.90 ± 0.23 μg C-CO2·g−1·h−1, and substrate-induced respiration ranged from 3.31 ± 0.17 to 7.84 ± 1.04 μg C-CO2·g−1·h−1. The C reserves of microbial biomass averaged 403.7 ± 121.6 μg C·g−1 of soil. The N2O emission from the upper layer on average amounted to 2.79 ng N-N2O·g−1·day−1, and the potential denitrification activity reached 745 ± 98 ng N-N2O·g−1·h−1. The number of copies of bacterial genes varied from (0.19 ± 0.02) × 108 to (3.52 ± 0.8) × 108 copies·g−1, and of archaea—from (0.10 ± 0.01) × 107 to (0.29 ± 0.01) × 107 copies·g−1 of soil. These results were in good agreement with the studies in other seasonally wet tropical regions: the biological activity was relatively low. The difference between biological indicators of the experimental field and the reference profile were insignificant except for nitrogen loss, which was higher in the ploughed field. Biological indicators strongly varied in space; we explained their heterogeneity by non-uniform management practices in the course of agrochemical field experiments in the past. The use of organic fertilisers may cause the release of climatically active gases due to intensive microbial respiration and denitrification, but the intensity of emission would strongly depend on the cultivation and management method.

Several features of growing Colchicum autumnale l. in the urban environment of Tashkent-Uzbekistan

For the first time, the collection of autumn colchicum was created at the experimental field site of the Tashkent State Agrarian University. In this paper, the issues of growing conditions for the growth and development of Colchicum autumnale l plant were deeply studied and investigated. It was revealed that the Colchicum autumnale l growth and development largely depend on the size of the corm and the type of soil conditions.

The impact of manager recognition training on performance: a quasi-experimental field study

PurposeEmployee recognition programs are ubiquitous, and recognition is a multibillion-dollar industry. Yet, very little research has tested the utility of recognition-based interventions. The purpose of this paper was to examine the impact of managerial training for employee recognition on the occurrence of recognition and unit-level performance.Design/methodology/approachThe design was a quasi-experimental field study of branches within a financial services company. Differences between a recognition training group and a no-training control group were examined using objective unit-level performance and recognition data before and after the training intervention.FindingsResults indicated that the training program led to more recognition and improved unit performance compared to control.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size was small, but the research demonstrates that managerial recognition training is effective.Practical implicationsThis research establishes the effectiveness of recognition training and describes its effects on important business outcomes, supporting the notion that recognition programs may be a worthwhile investment for organizations.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to demonstrate the benefit of training managers on effective recognition practices on recognition behavior and unit performance.

Productive capacity of the maize for silage crop grown in disturbed irrigation regime

An experiment was conducted with maize for silage as a main irrigation culture in the experimental field of the Agricultural Institute - Stara Zagora. The following variations have been tested: variation 1 - no irrigation (sentinel); variation 2 - optimal irrigation, 80%-85% of FC (100% irrigation); variation 3 - Irrigation as variation 2 but with first irrigation cancelled; variation 4 - irrigation as variation 2 but with second irrigation cancelled; variation 5 - irrigation as variation 2, but with third irrigation cancelled. On the basis of a chemical analysis of the sudangrass forage for the raw protein content, FUM, FUG and PDI were defined. It was found that the highest yield of raw maize protein grown as the main crop was obtained from the optimal irrigation variation, both in the non-fertilized and the fertilized variation, respectively with 1023.5 kg / ha and 1303.5 kg / ha. The optimal water supply of maize provides the highest energy efficiency of the forage expressed in FUM -15022.8 kg / ha, FUG -15584.4 kg / da, PDI - 1060 kg / ha for non fertilized variations and FUM -16873.5 kg / ha, FUG -17516.3 kg / ha, PDI-1219 kg / ha with fertilizer applied.

Regularities in the formation of entomofauna in alfalfa agrocenosis

The field work was performed at the experimental field of the Institute of Forage Crops, Pleven, Bulgaria during the period of 2006-2009. The share distribution of the orders Coleoptera, Thysanoptera, Diptera, Orthoptera and Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha, Heteroptera, Fulgoromorpha and Cicadomorpha was established for every four alfalfa growth cycles during the vegetation period for four years. It was found that the share participation of orders was determined primarily by the population dynamics of the dominant insect species and it was closely dependent on plant development following a characteristic course over the years. Depending on the food specialization and the division of the species into harmful and beneficial, the share of predators in regrowth corresponded to that of their prey. A clear trend was observed of increasing the share of harmful species and reducing the beneficial ones (Coleoptera, Thysanoptera, Hemiptera: Heteroptera) with the alfalfa development over the years.