Precipitation elasticity is an efficient index to quantify the sensitivity of streamflow to precipitation changes in watersheds. It provides us with a tool to understand the historical and predicted changes in streamflow, which is key to assess the impact of climate change on water resources. This chapter provides the details of three frequently used methods for estimating precipitation elasticity of streamflow and a case study on the temporal and spatial variability of precipitation elasticity and runoff coefficient in 164 watersheds in China. The precipitation elasticity is estimated by a non-parametric estimator in three periods of interest. The results bring evidence of an association between spatiotemporal patterns of streamflow changes and precipitation changes, which suggest that climatic change is a dominant factor of annual streamflow changes in the investigated watersheds. In most watersheds, the precipitation elasticity of streamflow is larger than 1, indicating that a 1 per cent change in annual precipitation would result in more than a 1 per cent change in annual streamflow. The precipitation elasticity in watersheds with a small runoff coefficient is generally larger than that in watersheds with a large runoff coefficient.

Statistical issues are prominent in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) clinical trials due to the enormous challenges in this disease. The complexity of the disease and intervention pathways challenge drug discovery efforts, but measurement and analysis complexities and subjective outcomes also interfere with successful drug development. Variability across disease stage, disease sub-types, comorbidities and concomitant treatments (between-subject), and non-equivalent forms, good and bad days, and rater inconsistencies (within-subject) increase the chance of failure. AD-specific statistical expertise is critical for success, in contrast to most disease areas that require less disease-specific statistical knowledge. Use of global statistical tests and composites, correcting for covariates, and model selection increase the chance of a clearly positive outcome for active treatments and a clearly negative outcome for inactive or harmful treatments.

Vowels are traditionally viewed as one of the two major classes of speech sound. Vowels lack contact between the tongue and the roof of the mouth, and they are normally voiced. Importantly, the speaker receives little proprioceptive feedback from their speech organs, meaning that it is not fully appropriate to define a vowel in terms of place and manner of articulation. Instead, tongue height and advancement are used to describe vowel quality, and auditory features play a more important role in description, e.g. with reference to the Cardinal Vowels system. Vowel categories form a continuum, and this has repercussions in terms of articulatory, auditory and acoustic overlap between contrastive categories and the special role that vowel gradience plays in dialect variation and language change. Other features of vowels stem from the general openness of vocalic articulations. For example, in principle, lip rounding can be combined with any tongue position, and nasality too demonstrates specific patterns that have both phonetic and phonological dimensions. Vowel quantity, or duration, is also used in differing ways by different languages, both phonemically and allophonically.

This chapter provides an overview of the ADEPT planning system that applies the previously discussed principles of effective plan-development, implementation, and evaluation.

Symmetry: it may be symmetric, mildly asymmetric, or markedly asymmetric. Mild asymmetry of the dominant hemisphere may be physiologic. Continuity: it may be continuous, nearly continuous, discontinuous, or burst-suppressed. Attenuation is the periodic dampening of amplitudes by less than half the remaining background, while suppression is when the amplitude falls below 10 uV. Voltage: it may be normal (above 20 uV), low voltage (20-10 uV), or suppressed (less than 10 uV). Organization: a well-organized background has an anterior-posterior gradient, predominantly alpha frequencies, and a reactive posterior dominant rhythm (PDR). The loss of either or all these features results in a deterioration in background organization. Variability and reactivity: variability refers to spontaneous changes in the background, while variability refers to changes in response to external stimulation. Always specify the stimulation used and advance it in a graded manner. Variability and reactivity of the background are associated with favorable clinical outcomes. Presence of stage II sleep architecture such as spindles and K complexes should be noted

The 50-year career of Peter Ornstein heralded and reflected major changes in Developmental Psychology. In this commentary, I highlight the importance of the “Cognitive Revolution” for the study of memory development. As his research progressed, Ornstein saw that a fuller understanding of memory development was needed to recognize the role of the classroom environment in shaping cognitive growth. Subsequent research discovered large individual differences in teacher pedagogic activities, the direct impact of teacher behavior on children’s memory development and important child by instruction interactions. Viewed across that 50-year span, Ornstein’s impressive career offers insightful life lessons for those who follow.

The bulk of the work on nonnative speech has focused on average differences between L1 and L2 speakers. However, there is growing evidence that variability also plays an important role in distinguishing L1 from L2 speech. While some studies have demonstrated greater variability for nonnative than native speech, others have demonstrated that under some circumstances, nonnative speech maybe less variable and that variability in nonnative speech may shift as a function of many factors, including task and L1-L2 pairing. In the present study, we ask how variability manifests in L1 and L2 speech by speakers from a variety of language backgrounds. Specifically, we ask whether a speaker whose L1 speaking rate is highly variable is also highly variable in their L2. We also ask whether variability in speaking rate in L1 or L2 differs as a function of task (e.g., read vs. spontaneous speech) and complexity of the task (e.g., more or less complicated reading passages). The results of this study will inform our understanding of the myriad complex factors that influence nonnative speech.

An important objective of research in Second Language Acquisition has been to find a simple and reliable way to quantify second language use. Corpora have provided a crucial source of information for these studies. In spite of many attempts to determine an optimal “yardstick” to measure the quality of second language use, particularly lexical complexity and syntactic complexity, a reliable and widely applicable instrument has not yet been determined. The difficulty in finding a suitable instrument can be accounted for in a complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) approach to second language development. An important starting point of this approach is that every next step in time “is the emergent product of context and history, and no component has causal priority” (Thelen 2005, p. 271). In this paper we illustrate this by using a dense longitudinal corpus of the development of 22 highly similar L2 learners, consisting of 23 weekly measurements. The analysis of these data show convincingly that L2 development is a highly individually owned and nonlinear process. While complexity yardsticks (like MLTU and Guiraud) may seem functional from a group perspective, their application to individual learners is very limited.

The chapter summarises the main arguments and evidence throughout the volume, presenting the case for a broad multidisciplinary perspective on defining, understanding and researching L2 fluency by considering fluency as a dynamic variable in language performance that interacts with cognitive factors as well as with external factors. Main points from research and practice are synthesised evaluating current insights into fluency across cognitive, interactional, pedagogic and assessment domains. We finish by identifying remaining gaps in our understanding of how fluency develops, and how combining research and practice is needed to help understand issues of real-life second language communication.

This chapter discusses two types of descriptive statistics: models of central tendency and models of variability. Models of central tendency describe the location of the middle of the distribution, and models of variability describe the degree that scores are spread out from one another. There are four models of central tendency in this chapter. Listed in ascending order of the complexity of their calculations, these are the mode, median, mean, and trimmed mean. There are also four principal models of variability discussed in this chapter: the range, interquartile range, standard deviation, and variance. For the latter two statistics, students are shown three possible formulas (sample standard deviation and variance, population standard deviation and variance, and population standard deviation and variance estimated from sample data), along with an explanation of when it is appropriate to use each formula. No statistical model of central tendency or variability tells you everything you may need to know about your data. Only by using multiple models in conjunction with each other can you have a thorough understanding of your data.

Iron production has played a part in the history of Africa for more than 2,500 years. The study of this specific human activity has demonstrated its exceptional significance, its historical continuity and an astonishing variability of practice. In Sub-Saharan Africa, metallurgists developed different ways to produce the same material: iron. They multiplied the technical choices to a degree unequalled on other continents. But what is the significance of such extreme diversity? In this chapter, four case studies representing different situations are detailed: in Dendi Country/Benin, where the question of the nature of the raw materials is considered; in Dogon Country/Mali, seven contemporaneous smelting traditions in a limited geographical area; at the Korsimoro site/Burkina Faso, five successive smelting traditions in the same place; and in the Bassar region/Togo, the impact of ancient and intensive iron production on the environment and on the technology. Based on these examples the chapter discusses the interpretation of diversity in terms of the history of technology and population dynamics.

This essay provides a typology of different ‘Pauls’ in the early centuries (P, HP, HEP, PACTS, CanP), all of which may in some sense be rooted in the inheritance of the genuine letters (HEP), but are interpreted and reshaped in a variety of ways according to the needs, purposes, contexts and talents of early interpreters.  It identifies the key elements, practical, technological, bibliographic and hermeneutical, that shaped the interpretation of ‘Paul’ in the early church and enduringly throughout the history of Pauline interpretation that was to follow.