Evidence Of Alignment Research Articles

It’s alignment all the way down, but not all the way up: Speakers align on some features but not others within a dialogue

During conversation, speakers modulate characteristics of their production to match their interlocutors’ characteristics. This behavior is known as alignment. Speakers align at many linguistic levels, including the syntactic, lexical, and phonetic levels. As a result, alignment is often treated as a unitary phenomenon, in which evidence of alignment on one feature is cast as alignment of the entire linguistic level. This experiment investigates whether alignment can occur at some levels but not others, and on some features but not others, within a given dialogue. Participants interacted with two experimenters with highly contrasting acoustic-phonetic and syntactic profiles. The experimenters each described sets of pictures using a consistent acoustic-phonetic and syntactic profile; the participants then described new pictures to each experimenter individually. Alignment was measured as the degree to which subjects matched their current listener’s speech (vs. their non-listener’s) on each of several individual acoustic-phonetic and syntactic features. Additionally, a holistic measure of phonetic alignment was assessed using 323 acoustic-phonetic features analyzed jointly in a machine learning classifier. Although participants did not align on several individual spectral-phonetic or syntactic features, they did align on individual temporal-phonetic features and as measured by the holistic acoustic-phonetic profile. Thus, alignment can simultaneously occur at some levels but not others within a given dialogue, and is not a single phenomenon but rather a constellation of loosely-related effects. These findings suggest that the mechanism underlying alignment is not a primitive, automatic priming mechanism but rather guided by communicative or social factors.

Homogamy in Gender Role Attitudes Among Young Couples: Evidence from Germany

Romantic partners’ similarity in gender role attitudes affects important outcomes such as sharing of housework, relationship stability, or fertility. However, there is little knowledge about how similar romantic partners are in these attitudes. Using dyadic panel data from German couples (sourced from pairfam), this study puts the degree of homogamy in gender role attitudes among young couples into perspective by comparing real couples with two types of counterfactuals. To create these counterfactuals, I re-mate couples in two ways: (a) randomly and (b) in such a way that similarity in attitudes between partners is maximized. Real couples differ only slightly from randomly mated couples, which suggests rather weak attitudinal similarity. Using longitudinal information, I further test the mechanisms that determine the degree of homogamy: there is strong evidence for alignment over time and for lower rates of separation among homogamous couples, but no evidence for homogamy as a by-product of assortative mating on other variables. This paper offers methodological and substantial contributions to the literature: it presents a method for intuitive assessment of the degree of homogamy with multiple variables simultaneously. It also shows that in Germany, macro-level diversity in attitudes largely translates into dissimilar attitudes between partners—with important implications for relationship dynamics.

Kashaya Foot Extrametricality as Post-Accentuation

Kashaya, an endangered Pomoan language of northern California, has an iambic stress pattern, assigned within words and phrases. Accent regularly shifts rightward from a (CV:) foot onto the following foot, including opaque contexts when length is lost or moved by other processes. This paper brings into the analysis a class of lexical triggers of accent shift: specific stems with no long vowels on the surface that nonetheless also trigger this shift. I propose an analysis of all varieties of accent shift as alignment of constituents, requiring the head foot to follow the triggering foot. Particular evidence for alignment comes from the fact that it is blocked by phrasal resyllabification of a word-final consonant. I argue for a unified analysis of all cases that employs a diacritic at the level of the foot, which also provides an account for opacity.

Dyadic alignment in capital goods companies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the main factors of the dyadic alignment in the supply chain of capital goods companies.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted among 159 respondents (53 supplier companies, 53 manufacturers and 53 clients).FindingsUsing structural equation modelling, no evidence of alignment between suppliers and manufacturers was identified. However, for the manufacturers, there is a partial mediation effect of the operational capabilities in the relationship between supply chain management and business performance.Originality/valueThis research investigates whether there is a dyadic alignment among supplier–manufacturer, manufacturer–customer and supplier–customer from the capital goods manufacturers’ perspective.

Splice Sites Seldom Slide: Intron Evolution in Oomycetes.

We examine exon junctions near apparent amino acid insertions and deletions in alignments of orthologous protein-coding genes. In 1,917 ortholog families across nine oomycete genomes, 10–20% of introns are near an alignment gap, indicating at first sight that splice-site displacements are frequent. We designed a robust algorithmic procedure for the delineation of intron-containing homologous regions, and combined it with a parsimony-based reconstruction of intron loss, gain, and splice-site shift events on a phylogeny. The reconstruction implies that 12% of introns underwent an acceptor-site shift, and 10% underwent a donor-site shift. In order to offset gene annotation problems, we amended the procedure with the reannotation of intron boundaries using alignment evidence. The corresponding reconstruction involves much fewer intron gain and splice-site shift events. The frequency of acceptor- and donor-side shifts drops to 4% and 3%, respectively, which are not much different from what one would expect by random codon insertions and deletions. In other words, gaps near exon junctions are mostly artifacts of gene annotation rather than evidence of sliding intron boundaries. Our study underscores the importance of using well-supported gene structure annotations in comparative studies. When transcription evidence is not available, we propose a robust ancestral reconstruction procedure that corrects misannotated intron boundaries using sequence alignments. The results corroborate the view that boundary shifts and complete intron sliding are only accidental in eukaryotic genome evolution and have a negligible impact on protein diversity.

The Impact of Aligning IT Capability and Operations Strategy on Operational Performance

This paper examines the relationship among IT capability, operations strategy decisions and operational performance. Using primary data from a sample of European firms, we test a model of fit between two specific IT capability-building decisions and three competitive priorities, and we analyze the impact of IT capability alignment on several dimensions of process performance. After uncovering three stylized configurations, we note that firms tend to adopt internally coherent IT capability-building decisions but we find only mixed evidence of alignment between IT capability-building decisions and competitive priorities. Interestingly, however, failing to achieve alignment has negative performance consequences but only for firms that develop limited IT capability. Our results suggests that IT plays a central role in the fulfillment of a firm’s operations strategy, not only for firms that pursue differentiation and are interested in improving the effectiveness of their customer-oriented functions, but also for firms seeking efficiency improvements in back-office operations. Although it is, a priori, more expensive, the development of advanced IT capability can support cost leadership strategies more effectively than a frugal approach, as long as IT projects are used to generate operational knowledge and thus improve process efficiency. At the same time, our results cast further doubt on the value of frugal IT capability, even for firms that strive to reduce cost.

Mechanical Strain Controls Endothelial Patterning During Angiogenic Sprouting

Cyclic strain is known to affect endothelial cell phenotype, but its effects on neovascular pattern formation remain poorly understood. To examine how cyclic strain affects angiogenesis, we designed a stretchable, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based multi-well system that supports a 3D cell culture model of angiogenesis, consisting of endothelial cells coated onto microcarrier beads embedded in a fibrin gel with a supporting monolayer of smooth muscle cells atop the gel. Calibration of the integrated system showed a linear relationship between applied strain and strain within the fibrin gel. Capillaries formed in unstrained conditions grew radially outward, while 3D constructs subjected to 10% cyclic strain at 0.7 Hz sprouted in a direction parallel to the applied strain. Removal of the tissue from the strain stimulus eliminated directional sprouting. To better understand this directional biasing, the strain field surrounding a microcarrier bead was modeled computationally, showing local strain anisotropy surrounding a microcarrier. Confocal reflection microscopy revealed only modest fiber alignment in regions of the gel close to microcarriers, with no evidence of alignment further away. Together, these data showed that externally applied cyclic strain can spatially pattern capillaries in a 3D culture, and suggests a means to control pattern formation in engineered tissues.

A practical guide to using the World Federation for Medical Education Standards. WFME 3: assessment of students

Preparing a medical school for institutional review of all aspects of a medical school's programs requires an understanding of the international standards being used and adequate preparation and planning (MacCarrick et al. in Med Teach 32 (5):e227, 2010). This series examines each of the nine standards developed by the World Federation for Medical Education (World Federation for Medical Education Basic Medical Education WFME Global Standards for Quality Improvement. WFME Office: University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 2003) with practical advice on their use in both self-review and independent accreditation processes. The WFME Standard 3 (Assessment of Students) examines in detail the manner in which student learning is assessed. Evidence of alignment between stated learning outcomes, methods of delivery and assessment is critical. Assessment methods should be regularly evaluated to ensure reliability and validity. Investment in faculty development will ensure necessary technical expertise which is maintained within the school.

A Framework for Developing and Aligning a Knowledge Management Strategy

Businesses today, including non-profits, recognise the need for knowledge management (KM). KM may require new strategies and goals before it can be implemented, or it can be aligned with current business strategies for quicker implementation. The framework presented here is for managers in companies and organisations to use to align their KM strategies with business strategies to improve performance involving financial growth, cost reduction and customer satisfaction. A study of three strategic types of organisations (defender, prospector, analyser) and interviews at a large corporation and a non-profit organisation suggests that the conceptual framework presented in this paper can be verified. More empirical evidence of alignment is planned, as organisations become more sophisticated users of KM. The authors have been working for over three years on the taxonomy and conceptual framework for KM/BS Alignment (also known as KMSABS) and present a procedure for implementation in this paper. The KM/BS Alignment model involves concepts, actors, actions and processes. An important aspect of the methodology is for businesses and organisations to identify their strategic character to support appropriate interactions associated with knowledge. As shown in this paper, product and knowledge managers can affect goal alignment and interaction in an organisation if they implement change based on the suggested framework.

Classroom talk: "there are more questions than answers"

Congruence between new language in education policies and broader curriculum policy is crucial if educational and language acquisition plans are to be realised, and wider social aims of access and equity are to be met. This study addresses the alignment between the language policy choice of Vuka primary school, and the classroom practices of an English and a Science teacher. My research interests were (i) to analyse classroom talk with respect to teachers' questions providing comprehensible input (Krashen, 1982) and learners' responses constituting comprehensible output (Swain, 1985); (ii) to establish whether there was congruence between national language in education policy (LiEP) and curriculum policy, on the one hand, and local school-level language policy and practices, on the other. My findings provide empirical evidence of alignment between the language policy of Vuka primary and the classroom language practices of an English and a Science teacher in Grades 5, 6 and 7.

Monte Carlo Simulation Study of the Induced Deformation of Polymer Chains Dissolved in Stretched Networks

We examine the preferential alignment of flexible hard-sphere polymer chains along a direction defined by a network of parallel hard rods. For relatively short chains (of 50 hard-sphere segments) we are able to quantify the alignment using a function, φ, which we have called the “nonsphericity” and which is analogous to the nematic order parameter P2. Using this function, we show the alignment to be a weakly increasing function of the density of the chains and a much more strongly decreasing function of the separation of the rods comprising the network. In particular, for shorter chains, we demonstrate the presence of alignment even in the dilute regime, which is unexpected. Using three-dimensional distribution and scattering functions, we demonstrate preferential alignment for longer chains (of 2000 hard-sphere segments) at a density corresponding to the crossover between the dilute and semidilute regimes, although we see no evidence of alignment in the dilute region in this case.

Evidence on the time of chromosome pairing from the preleptotene spiral stage in Lilium longiflorum ?Croft?

A period of chromosome spiralization and contraction was observed between premeiotic interphase and leptotene in Lilium longiflorum “Croft”. There was variation in the extent of preleptotene spiralization and contraction of chromosomes among microsporocytes, anthers and buds. The chromosomes sometimes contracted sufficiently to be visible as separate entities. It could then be determined that the chromosomes were single and entirely separate; synapsis and crossing-over had not yet occurred. Furthermore there was no evidence of alignment or association of homologues during the preleptotene contraction period; the chromosomes appeared to be distributed at random. The chromosomes subsequently elongated into the leptotene stage. Wherever they were visible separately the chromosomes were single in early leptotene. These observations support the classical view that synapsis of homologous chromosomes takes place during zygotene, followed by crossing-over at pachytene.