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Forty papers presented at the Japanese Association for Language Teaching (JALT) conference were selected for inclusion in this volume. JALT is a nonprofit professional organization of language teachers dedicated to the improvement of language learning and teaching in Japan. JALT's publications and events serve as vehicles for the exchange of new ideas and techniques, and a means of keeping abreast of new developments in a rapidly changing field. The theme of this conference was connecting research to the classroom. Papers for this volume were selected in part for attention to this larger current running through the second language learning and teaching field. Numerous references are cited in the papers selected for this volume. (KFT)

These conference proceedings address the following six topics: (1) "Change and the Future" (e.g., English language education in Japan, sociolinguistics in Hong Kong, and Esperanto); (2) "Children and Language Education" (e.g. a short-term language immersion case study, virtual classrooms for bilingual students, and the role of phonics in achieving literacy); (3) "Curriculum Concerns" (e.g., attending to ESL concerns in content-based instruction, expectations and imagination in foreign language literacy, and the global issues language classroom); (4) "Interactions" (e.g., exploring teachers' collaborative action research, action research in an academic skills course, and increasing autonomy with recorded conversations); (5) "Across Cultures" (e.g., intercultural dimensions of the foreign language classroom, a curriculum for student ethnography, and techniques in the culture-based classroom); and (6) "The Practical Teacher" (e.g., trends in pronunciation teaching in Japan, evaluation and assessment of videomovie tasks, and using conversation circles in small conversation classes to raise student investment). (Papers contain references.) (SM)

Nonprofit management centers, dedicated to teaching the management of nonprofit organizations have become a mechanism through which higher education can become more responsive to the communities it serves and move beyond the boundaries of academic departments. This paper examines how centers can become more permanent or sustainable parts of their institutions while maintaining their positive distinction of flexibility and responsiveness. This paper is based on published literature about academic centers and draws on interviews of center directors and staff from six nonprofit management centers. The focus is on institutional stability and academic credibility. The paper assumes that centers are seeking sustainability and it proposes how centers might become sustainable through attention to funding, organizational fit, and community connections. Not all centers will want to sustain themselves; some may wish to become integrated into other segments of the university. Academic stability is most likely to be achieved when the mission of the center is consistent with that of the university and remains stable over time, with strong faculty connections to the university as a whole. (Contains 10 references.) (SLD)

For Australian cotton issues that have been highlighted as concerns by spinners including: neps (small entanglements of cotton fibers), short fiber (fibers shorter than 12.5 mm), rising contamination and micronaire greater than 4.5. Significant research efforts are being undertaken seeking to optimize cotton fiber quality and enhance the value of Australian cotton through research into direct influences of on-farm agronomic management and climate on fiber development and post-harvest research that investigate the degree of these influences on textile performance in the mill. This paper presents research which is developing in-field monitoring techniques to identify circumstances when crops may have increased levels of neps so these instances maybe avoided. Field experiments were conducted that measured neps in harvested cotton taken from treatments that had harvest aids systematically applied to force bolls open from 1.6% open bolls to full harvest maturity (100% open bolls). The amount of neps (count/g) was significantly related the proportion of bolls open (%), nodes above cracked boll (NACB), and % immature bolls (as defined by the color of the seed coats in cut bolls). The most reliable relationship in predicting change in the amount of neps was % open bolls followed by % immature bolls then NACB. Application of harvest aids after 60% open bolls reduced chances of increasing neps and lowering yield. Substantial increases in neps were avoided despite crops being harvested with 20% immature bolls present. Current research is investigating the feasibility of these monitoring techniques to predict neps in crops that have plants variable in their maturity, and how these treatments impact on textile performance (yarn strength and dye uptake). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian cotton is well known for its high and consistent quality, although agronomy, physiology and breeding research continues to ensure Australian cotton stays competitive from a quality standpoint. The testing of fiber in yarn and fabric form means the selection of new cultivars and field treatments is based on outcomes important to the end user. Such field experimentation inevitably produces large numbers of small (< 1kg) lint samples that need to be processed through to yarn and fabric. To meet this need, an alternative miniature spinning system which is actually a hybrid spinning system was created utilizing a combination of the 'Shirley' miniature spinning plant and industrial-scale spinning machinery. This process uses the miniature system for carding and a single drawing passage, while industrial-scale machinery are employed for a second draw passage, the creation of twisted roving and ring spinning. The experimental sample required for this protocol is small, being only 170 g. This study showed that there was no significant difference between industrial-scale and the new hybrid miniature spinning system for yarn strength for both Upland and Pima cotton, although the miniature spinning protocol produced yarns that were less even. We conclude that this miniature spinning system is adequate for assessing the strength of medium count, carded ring spun yarns manufactured from small amounts of lint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently there are concerns relating to high micronaire, short fibre content and neps in Australian cotton. This study investigates the influence that harvest aid management practice has on fibre quality and textile performance, with the aim of minimising these problems. Harvest aid treatments were systematically applied at different times from 29% to 100% open bolls for field grown Gossypium hirsutum plants. Yield was significantly less for treatments applied up to 56% bolls open, yet remained constant for later harvest aid treatments. The range of fibre maturity across treatments was small (maturity ratio 0.88 for the earliest cf. 0.91 for late treatment application), while micronaire and linear density were significantly less for treatments applied up to 42% open bolls, yet similar for later treatments. Nep content was high for all treatments (>250 counts/g with no lint cleaning) with later treatments trending to have less nep. The addition of lint cleaning significantly generated neps at approximately 100 counts/ g per lint cleaner passage. No significant differences between timing of harvest aid treatments were noted for yarn performance attributes (yarn irregularities and strength for carded 20 tex ring spun yarns). There was however, a significant relationship between fabric colour intensity (b*) and time of harvest aid treatment with the earlier treatments taking up less dye. This study is part of an ongoing and larger initiative linking crop management practices with textile performance to enhance quality at all levels of the production chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "An Assessment of Alternative Cotton Fiber Quality Attributes and Their Influence on Yarn Strength," by Robert L. Long and colleagues is presented.