Global Research Report – South and East Asia

Global Research Report – South and East Asia by Jonathan Adams, David Pendlebury, Gordon Rogers & Martin Szomszor. Published by Institute for Scientific Information, Web of Science Group

A mixed picture in the UK election results favours the Conservatives

The initial tale of the May 2016 ‘Super Thursday’ is an incredibly mixed picture so it is difficult to draw too many firm conclusions from the results. However, the failure of the Conservatives’ opponents, especially the Labour party, to make any significant gains means that the Conservative party had the best overall outcome from these elections

Oldham: post-election analysis

On 3 December Labour candidate Jim McMahon won the Oldham West and Royton by-election. After his prediction that Labour were likely to hold the seat but face a UKIP surge, Martin Rogers discusses the result and suggests that any findings should be treated with caution

Homotopy moment maps

Associated to any manifold equipped with a closed form of degree >1 is an `L-infinity algebra of observables' which acts as a higher/homotopy analog of the Poisson algebra of functions on a symplectic manifold. In order to study Lie group actions on these manifolds, we introduce a theory of homotopy moment maps. Such a map is a L-infinity morphism from the Lie algebra of the group into the observables which lifts the infinitesimal action. We establish the relationship between homotopy moment maps and equivariant de Rham cohomology, and analyze the obstruction theory for the existence of such maps. This allows us to easily and explicitly construct a large number of examples. These include results concerning group actions on loop spaces and moduli spaces of flat connections. Relationships are also established with previous work by others in classical field theory, algebroid theory, and dg geometry. Furthermore, we use our theory to geometrically construct various L-infinity algebras as higher central extensions of Lie algebras, in analogy with Kostant's quantization theory. In particular, the so-called `string Lie 2-algebra' arises this way.Comment: Final version will appear in Advances in Mathematics. Results concerning equivariant cohomology strengthened. In particular, we exhibit the explicit relationship between equivariant de Rham cocycles of arbitrary degree and homotopy moment maps. 62 pages. Comments are welcome. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1402.0144 by other author

The elusive perfect textbook : Cultural sensitivity as a factor in materials selection/modification/creation

A good textbook can provide a strong base from which to build a course, so instructors should take prudence in its selection. One of the many factors that should be considered when making a selection is cultural sensitivity. This study examines suggested textbooks for Advanced English II Level 5 in the fall 2008 semester at Kansai Gaidai University in regards to cultural sensitivity. It is assumed that a universally ideal textbook does not exist due the multiple variables that every teacher, group of learners, or course creates. Therefore, the findings are taken one step further to suggest research paths and methods that teachers can utilize to modify any shortcoming that they find in their own textbooks. The results showed that all of the textbooks had deficiencies that point to trends instructors should be aware of, although some textbooks were more ideal than others. Also of note would be content found that should be deemed inappropriate for the Japanese learner. More importantly, this study sheds light on what instructors can look for when scanning textbooks in regards to cultural sensitivity, thus filling a gap in textbook evaluation that stems from instructor time constraints. Larger implications include points of interest for publishers/materials writers and self reflection for instructors who, unbeknownst to themselves, may have been exposing their students to cultural colonialism through the materials they use

On the creation of a learner corpus for the purpose of error analysis

Learners with similar backgrounds have a tendency to make the same types of errors in L2 production. Such errors can be viewed as having the potential to inform pedagogical methodologies, in that they shed light onto which features of the L2 are the most problematic for particular learners. Analyzing such errors also provides insight as to why these learners tend to make these errors, thus furthering our understanding of how second languages are acquired.This study aimed to create a learner corpus for the purpose of error analysis to discover which errors occurred most frequently, and to examine why such errors occurred. Various CALL (computer aided language learning) methodologies were utilized to create an approximately 85,000 word learner corpus. Errors were corrected and classified, and error analysis was conducted on the most frequent errors found. This analysis revealed that interference from the learners\u27 L1 was the source for the majority of errors, while cultural and metalinguistic knowledge also proved to be at fault for some particular errors.The results of this study should prove to be valuable for English language teachers and researchers in Japan, in that the most frequent English errors that Japanese learners produce were quantified and also discussed. Thus, teachers and researchers can be cognizant of which errors prove to be the most troublesome, and can better understand why they occur to help Japanese learners to avoid them

How many high frequency words of English do Japanese university freshmen`know\u27?

Knowledge of high-frequency vocabulary is essential to language fluency. However, there is more to knowing a word than simply knowing its meaning. Full vocabulary depth knowledge includes not only semantics, but also knowledge of a word\u27s phonology, orthography, collocations, word parts, grammar, constraints on use, concepts and referents, and associations.This research examined the extent of knowledge that a group Japanese university freshmen have of high-frequency English vocabulary. First, students were made to give judgments on how well they knew a list of 3,000 high-frequency English lemma. Then, items deemed as being known were examined to determine whether they functioned as a cognate between English and Japanese. Finally, a sample of the items marked as being known was tested in regards to the full range of vocabulary depth knowledge. The results of this study showed that while the students tested in this study are familiar with a majority of high-frequency English vocabulary, their vocabulary depth knowledge of these items is shallow. The results of this study should help guide teachers as to which aspects of vocabulary depth they need to concentrate on to help make language learning more efficient

On the Mahler measure of 1+X+1/X+Y+1/Y1+X+1/X+Y+1/Y

We prove a conjectured formula relating the Mahler measure of the Laurent polynomial $1+X+X^{-1}+Y+Y^{-1}$, to the $L$-series of a conductor 15 elliptic curve.Comment: 18 pages, Fixed typos in Lemmas 3 and

Anticommuting Variables, Fermionic Path Integrals and Supersymmetry

(Replacement because mailer changed `hat' for supercript into something weird. The macro `\sp' has been used in place of the `hat' character in this revised version.) Fermionic Brownian paths are defined as paths in a space para\-metr\-ised by anticommuting variables. Stochastic calculus for these paths, in conjunction with classical Brownian paths, is described; Brownian paths on supermanifolds are developed and applied to establish a Feynman-Kac formula for the twisted Laplace-Beltrami operator on differential forms taking values in a vector bundle. This formula is used to give a proof of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem which is rigorous while being closely modelled on the supersymmetric proofs in the physics literature.Comment: 18 pages, KCL-TH-92-

Quantifying the abundance of four large epiphytic fern species in remnant complex notophyll vine forest on the Atherton Tableland, north Queensland, Australia

Epiphytes are generally considered rare in complex forests on the western edge of the Atherton Tablelands, north Queensland. This assertion is based on comparisons with wetter forests in the Wet Tropics bioregion, but is of limited use in restoration projects where targets need to be quantified. We quantified ‘rarity’ for a subset of the epiphyte community in one of the largest remaining patches of Type 5b rainforest at Wongabel State Forest(17°18' S, 145°28' E). The bundance of large individuals of the epiphytic fern species Asplenium australasicum, Drynaria rigidula, Platycerium bifurcatum, and Platycerium superbum were recorded from 100 identified midstorey or canopy trees. Epiphytes were less rare than the canopy trees sampled, averaging 1.7 individuals per tree. A clumped distribution was suggested with large epiphytes only occurring on 57 of the 100 trees. As tree size increased so did the number of individuals and species of large epiphytes recorded; only trees taller than 20 m yielded more than one epiphyte. Trees from the Meliaceae and Rutaceae hosted the most epiphytes, but host tree specificity patterns were not conclusive. Techniques for including epiphytes in restoration planning and projects are considered, and a quantified restoration target for epiphyte communities in Type 5b plantings is outlined