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This document is a collection of three parts: two extended papers and one shorter commentary on the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). These originally appeared in "Literacy Across the Curriculum" in response to an invitation for comment to several prominent international researchers. The first of these entitled "The Persisting Power and Costs of the Literacy Myth" by Harvey J. Graff appeared in Volume 12, No. 2, Summer 1996. The second "Literacy, Economy and Society--A Review" by Brian V. Street was published in Volume 12, No. 3, Fall 1996. The third, "Ending the Myth of the 'Literacy Myth" by Stan Jones was published in Volume 12, No.4, Winter 1997. These articles have been collected because they reflect a continuing debate on literacy between two schools of thought which have been variously called the autonomous and the socio-cultural. (The second paper, "Literacy, Economy and Society--A Review" by Brian V. Street, contains references.)

This history of growing up is based on more than 500 first-person accounts relating to growing up from the middle of the 18th through the early 20th centuries. Major focus is on the formation, experience, and transformation of the principal paths of growing up. It considers transitions or turning points, particularly as they surround entries and exits from distinct life course stages such as school, work, leaving home, migration, marriage, and so on. Chapter 1 discusses signposts along the paths of growing up that emphasize the importance of integration, inclusion, conflict, and historicity. Chapter 2 focuses on four major paths of growing up that stand out in life accounts from the 1740s to the early 1800s: traditional, transitional, female, and emergent. Chapter 3 on the 19th century looks at 4 principal paths of growing up that dominate: traditional, transitional, female, and emerging social class. Chapter 4 discusses 3 principal paths that predominate in configurations of growing up in the middle decades of the 19th and early years of the 20th centuries: transitional and class-determined paths for young men and the female path. Chapter 5 spans from the 1890s into the 1920s and explores a narrower range of paths--social class and female. Chapter 6 surveys the most recent past and present and considers the recent and contemporary continuities and connections as well as breaks from the past. Appendixes include chapter notes and an index. (YLB)

After a brief overview of responsiveness in government, this book discusses citizen participation in State and local politics and how well-intentioned reformers actually increased the insulation of State and local governments from their constituents. Sustained activity on behalf of interest groups and lobbying as the dominant mode of communication between organizational elites and legally constituted decision makers in State government are examined. A six-step model is presented that describes the normal pattern of policy making at all levels of government. Contrasting degrees of insularity of decision making in government are discussed. The policy formation process in the area of educational policy is considered, and the six-step model is applied to educational decision making. The authors attempt to challenge the notion that governmental responsiveness to the masses is either attainable or desirable. (Author)

Arguing that the subject of literacy is immense and complex, this book contends that literacy is a subject with continuities and contradictions at its very core and that literacy can be understood only in its historical and societal contexts. Since the book is a critical, selective synthesis of a vast amount of research, the notes appended are mostly illustrative. Chapter titles include: (1) "The Origins of Western Literacy"; (2) "The Light of Literacy in the 'Dark Ages'"; (3) "New Lights of Literacy and Learning: From the Tenth-Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries"; (4) Ends and Beginnings: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries"; (5) "Print, Protest, and the People"; (6) "Toward Enlightenment/Toward Modernity: 1660-1780"; (7) "The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Our Times"; and (8) "Epilogue: Today and Tomorrow: Revisioning Literacy." (RS)

Two entire Inertance Tube Pulse Tube Refrigerator (ITPTR) systems operating under a variety of thermal boundary conditions were modeled using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code. Each simulated ITPTRs included a compressor, an after cooler, a regenerator, a pulse tube, cold and hot heat exchangers, an inertance tube, and a reservoir. The simulations represented fully coupled systems operating in steady-periodic mode. The objectives were to ascertain the suitability of CFD methods for ITPTRs and to examine the extent of multidimensional flow effects in various ITPTR components. The results confirmed that CFD simulations are capable of elucidating complex periodic processes in ITPTRs. The results also showed that a one-dimensional modeling is appropriate only when all the components in the system have large length-to-diameter (L/D) ratios. Significant multi-dimensional flow effects occur at the vicinity of component-to-component junctions, and secondary-flow recirculation patterns develop when one or more components have small L/D ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raytheon is in initial test of a second generation two-stage Stirling/pulse tube hybrid cold head for use in long life space cryocoolers. The Stirling/pulse tube configuration provides excellent thermodynamic performance by optimally combining the strengths of both technologies. The cold head is designed for optimal performance at a second stage temperature of 40 K and a first stage temperature of 110 K with nominal capacity of 1 W at the lower stage and simultaneous 7 W at the upper stage. The inherent load shifting capability of this configuration permits efficient operation of the cooler over a wide range of temperatures and heat loads. Load shifting is accomplished through varying the phase angle of the Stirling displacer piston relative to the pressure wave. Load shift data on the new cold head is provided. Lessons learned from the testing of the initial brass-board regarding component sizing have been incorporated into this second generation design. The quantitative improvement provided by those design changes is presented. The second generation cold head design is currently being incorporated into a flight design warm-end expander motor assembly with Oxford-class flexure and clearance technology typical of Raytheon flight-qualified production cryocoolers for space. The expander is driven by an Oxford-class compressor of similar design legacy to other Raytheon designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the construction of a modeling approach for dynamic geospatial domains based on the concepts of object and event. The paper shows how such a model extends traditional object-based geospatial models. The focus of the research is the introduction of events into the object-based paradigm, and consequent work on the classification of object-event and event-event relationships. The specific geospatial nature of this model is captured in the concept of a geosetting. The paper also introduces an extension of UML diagrams to incorporate events and their relationship to each other, and to objects. The paper briefly considers an example to show the working of some of the modeling constructs, and concludes with a discussion of further research needed on event aggregation and event-based query languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the understanding of landmarks using a model of embedding procedures that sees affordances established on three levels. On the first level there are landmark experience and direct communication process as distinct affordance structures. On the second level the initial landmark experience has become part of the speech act thus establishing direct wayfinding communication. On the third level the communication situation of the speech act incorporating the landmark experience is changed into indirect communication thus transforming into a narrative. We apply the leveled model of narrative structure to human-generated route directions. We demonstrate how the initial experience-the landmark-is incorporated into communication structures, how it turns into a narrative in order to secure understanding and how understanding is guided via narrative structures. With this approach from Literature we contribute to the problem of in-depth natural language understanding. Ultimately our interest is in automatic generation of route directions. We show that simply referring to landmarks in route directions is insufficient for successful communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate an approach to the formalization of user actionsActions in our sense are often called tasks in the human-computer interaction literature [18].for the purpose of producing task-oriented ontologies. Verbs and nouns are extracted from a document that depicts user actions during a surface water monitoring process. The conceptual structure of the user actions is formalized through a combination of Formal Concept Analysis and Entailment theory. The subconcept-superconcept relations between user actions in a concept lattice are refined through the entailments of troponymy, proper inclusion, and backward presupposition. The approach is intended to strengthen the consideration of user tasks in ontology engineering for geographic information applications. We aim to enhance the context specification in semantic similarity assessments with action lattices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial allocation models represent decision processes of allocating discrete spatial units (e.g., land parcels and grid cells) to particular uses under the assumption that attributes of those units are unchanged over time and all decisions are made at one time. Given forecasts of spatial attributes, this assumption may be dropped, though spatial and temporal considerations will be highly interwoven and difficult to articulate in simple algebraic terms. This paper describes a systematic approach to analyzing and resolving this complexity in formulating time-dependent spatial allocation models. The implication of the paper is that geographic information systems can serve not only as devices to store and manage spatio-temporal data, but also as platforms to build spatio-temporal decision models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reasoning about events or temporal aspects is fundamental for modeling geographic phenomena. This work concerns the analysis of events as configurations of temporal intervals. It presents two strategies to select relations that characterize configurations of temporal intervals: a strategy based on the algebraic property of composition and a strategy based on a neighboring concept in a vector representation. This type of analysis is useful for characterizing sets of events without the need of making an exhaustive specification of all temporal relations. This work complements a previous study about topological relations of regions in a 2D space and confirms the potential of using the algebraic properties of composition and the metric characteristics of intervals, even if only qualitative relations are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of category aggregation on measurement of land-use and land-cover change. To date, research concerning data aggregation has examined primarily the effects of modifying the unit of observation (i.e., the modifiable areal unit problem and the ecological inference problem); here, we examine the effects of changing the categorical definition, such as the conversion from many, detailed Anderson Level II classes to fewer, broader Anderson Level I classes. Cross-tabulation matrices are used to analyze the change between two times for aggregated and unaggregated versions of identical landscapes. A mathematical technique partitions the Total change as the sum of Net (i.e., quantity change) and Swap (i.e., location change). This paper shows that the Total and Net exhibited by maps between two points in time can be substantially reduced through land-use category aggregation, but cannot be increased. Swap, however, can be reduced or increased by the aggregation of categories. We derive five principles that dictate the effect of aggregation and illustrate the principles using both simplified examples and empirical data. The empirical data are from three Human Environment Regional Observatory sites. The principles are mathematical facts that apply to the analysis of any categorical variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proximity buffers are used in many spatial applications in research and management. Nevertheless, they are limited in their representational validity. Since only the nearest points on the edge of an entity are used in calculating the buffer boundary, the various meanings of the ‘influence' of an entity on its surrounding environment are not well-estimated. An alternative implementation of a more generalized class of buffers is described here. This method considers the contribution that the internal spatial geometry and attribute values of entities have on the buffered environment. It also considers the cumulative influence of multiple entities. The method is easily implemented by using a class of integrative spatial filters. For many applications, it is likely to yield results that are more meaningful than those obtained through proximity buffers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the globe individuals and organizations are creating geographic data work products with little ability to efficiently or effectively make known and share those digital products with others. This article outlines a conceptual model and the accompanying research challenges for providing easy legal and technological mechanisms by which any creator might affirmatively and permanently mark and make accessible a geographic dataset such that the world knows where the dataset came from and that the data is available for use without the law assuming that the user must first acquire permission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of how to disseminate relevant information to mobile agents within a geosensor network. Conventional mobile and location-aware systems are founded on a centralized model of information systems, typified by the client-server model used for most location-based services. However, in this paper we argue that a decentralized approach offers several key advantages over a centralized model, including robustness and scalability. We present an environment for simulating information dissemination strategies in mobile ad-hoc geosensor networks. We propose several strategies for scalable, peer-to-peer information exchange, and evaluate their performance with regard to their ability to distribute relevant information to agents and minimize redundancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present an approach for predictive uncertainty modeling in field-based survey maps using Generalized Linear Models (GLM). Frequently, inherent uncertainty, especially in historical maps, makes the interpretation of objects very difficult. Such maps are of great value, but usually only few reference data are available. Consequently, the process of map interpretation could be greatly improved by the knowledge of uncertainty and its variation in space. To predict inherent uncertainty in forest cover information of the Swiss topographic map series from the 19th century we formulate rules from several predictors. These are topography-dependent variables and distance measures from old road networks. It is hypothesized that these rules best describe the errors of historical field work and hence the mapping quality. The uncertainty measure, the dependent variable, was derived from local map comparisons within moving windows of different sizes using a local community map as a reference map. The derivation of local Kappacoefficient and percent correctlyclassified from these enlarged sample plots takes the local distortion of the map into account. This allows an objective and spatially oriented comparison. Models fitted with uncertainty measures from 100m windows best described the relationship to the explanatory variables. A significant prediction potential for local uncertainty could thus be observed. The explained deviance by the Kappa-based model reached more than 40 percent. The correlation between predictions by the model and independent observations was ρ=0.76. Consequently, an improvement of the model to 47 percent, indicated by the G-value, was calculated. The model allows the spatial-oriented prediction of inherent uncertainty within different regions of comparable conditions. The integration of more study areas will result in more general rules for objective evaluation of the entire topographic map. The method can be applied for the evaluation of any field-based map which is used for subsequent applications such as land cover change assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to use statistical functionality for spatial modeling and analysis in conjunction with a mapping interface in the same environment has received a great deal of attention in the spatial analysis literature. We demonstrate the feasibility of extracting map polygon and database information from ESRI's ArcView shape files for use in statistical software environments. Specifically, we show that information containing map polygons can be used in these environments to produce high quality mapping functionality. Improvements in recent computer graphics hardware and software allow basic plotting functionality that is part of statistical software environments to produce mapping functionality based on the high quality ArcView map polygons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of human activity and movement in space and time has been an important research area in the social sciences. However, the difficulty in collecting and analyzing the space-time activity (STA) data using current 3D location positioning techniques has limits in applying the time-geographic and activity theory to transportation and urban research and analyses. This paper develops a "3D Indoor Geo-Coding" technique to identify 3D indoor locational data for analyzing human activities. For implementing 3D positioning methods, this paper presents (1) to model micro-scale urban environments to be a frame of reference (reference data) to identify distance and direction, in order to obtain locational data, and (2) to develop a 3D indoor geo-coding method to identify locational data on individual activities based on the reference data. Finally, this paper describes the output from implementing the 3D indoor geo-coding technique to demonstrate the potential benefits of the 3D indoor geo-coding technique for improving the speed of emergency response using GIS data of the study area at Minnesota State University-Mankato, MN (USA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial auto-regression (SAR) model is a popular spatial data analysis technique, which has been used in many applications with geo-spatial datasets. However, exact solutions for estimating SAR parameters are computationally expensive due to the need to compute all the eigenvalues of a very large matrix. Recently we developed a dense-exact parallel formulation of the SAR parameter estimation procedure using data parallelism and a hybrid programming technique. Though this parallel implementation showed scalability up to eight processors, the exact solution still suffers from high computational complexity and memory requirements. These limitations have led us to investigate approximate solutions for SAR model parameter estimation with the main objective of scaling the SAR model for large spatial data analysis problems. In this paper we present two candidate approximate-semi-sparse solutions of the SAR model based on Taylor series expansion and Chebyshev polynomials. Our initial experiments showed that these new techniques scale well for very large data sets, such as remote sensing images having millions of pixels. The results also show that the differences between exact and approximate SAR parameter estimates are within 0.7% and 8.2% for Chebyshev polynomials and Taylor series expansion, respectively, and have no significant effect on the prediction accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SPIRIT search engine provides a test bed for the development of web search technology that is specialised for access to geographical information. Major components include the user interface, a geographical ontology, maintenance and retrieval functions for a test collection of web documents, textual and spatial indexes, relevance ranking and metadata extraction. Here we summarise the functionality and interaction between these components before focusing on the design of the geo-ontology and the development of spatio-textual indexing methods. The geo-ontology supports functionality for disambiguation, query expansion, relevance ranking and metadata extraction. Geographical place names are accompanied by multiple geometric footprints and qualitative spatial relationships. Spatial indexing of documents has been integrated with text indexing through the use of spatio-textual keys in which terms are concatenated with spatial cells to which they relate. Preliminary experiments demonstrate considerable performance benefits when compared with pure text indexing and with text indexing followed by a spatial filtering stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A datatype with increasing importance in GIS is what we call the location history-a record of an entity's location in geographical space over an interval of time. This paper proposes a number of rigorously defined data structures and algorithms for analyzing and generating location histories. Stays are instances where a subject has spent some time at a single location, and destinations are clusters of stays. Using stays and destinations, we then propose two methods for modeling location histories probabilistically. Experiments show the value of these data structures, as well as the possible applications of probabilistic models of location histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of floating-point arithmetic in geometric computation represents a formidable challenge for development and implementation of geometric algorithms. On one hand, one thrives to develop algorithms that are robust and produce accurate results, while on the other hand, one attempts to achieve rapid execution time. In particular for GIS applications, where large problem sizes are frequently encountered, efficiency considerations are important. In this paper, we present a floating-point filter written specifically for the important line intersection operation that is robust, outperforms existing general purpose filters and results in an accurate discovery and representation of topology from the geometric information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]