scholarly journals Fine-tuning locational formulations in mobile phone calls

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 553-570
Author(s):  
Ali Kazemi

This study examines the sequential and situated organization associated with framing locational formulations by dislocated parties to mobile phone calls for the joint accomplishment of location-related social action. The data come from 22 mundane Farsi mobile phone calls involving location inquiring and/or reporting. The analysis of the data, informed by conversational analysis and Levinson’s conceptual framework of perspective-taking, adds frame of reference (hereafter, FoR) to Schegloff’s location, membership, and topic or activity analyses operative in the selection of locational formulations. The trajectory plotted for location-related action indicates the contingent roles which material, linguistic and semiotic resources play in the selection of locational formulations deployed for co-presence purposes. The findings suggest consequentiality of the-relevant-next action for the framing of locational descriptions and provide insight into how conversationalists interact with their physical environment in a wider social context.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Mohammad Mahzari

Although much work has been conducted on studying conversational openings of telephone and ritual expressions, conversational closings and ritual expressions have received less attention by researchers due to the complexity and difficulty of identifying the beginning of closings in telephone conversations. The parts of closing and ritual expressions on telephone have been examined in some languages, but Arabic has not been studied in landline telephone or mobile phone. Therefore, this study seeks to identify the sequences and ritual expressions between Saudi friends and relatives to explore the strategies of closing informal mobile phone calls by using a conversation analysis approach. Thirty audio-recorded and transcribed mobile phone conversations served as the data source for this study. The results found that the majority of mobile phone closing conversations include three parts: pre-closing, leave taking, and terminal exchange that are similar to many languages such as English, Japanese, and German. Also, various expressions were used in pre-closing and leave taking sequences, but the expressions of using prayers were used more frequently in the sequences. Finally, closing conversation is affected by various external and internal social factors in the sequences and the use of ritual expressions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1420326X2097760
Author(s):  
Azadeh O. Sawyer

This paper presents an experimental research study intended to evaluate daylight perception in work environments. The current metrics for assessing daylight in work environments involve quantifying daylight and do not provide insight into the actual appearance of the space, thus overlooking the qualitative aspects of light and their effect on occupants. Conceptual content cognitive mapping (3CM), a mixed methodology, was used to obtain participants' hierarchical knowledge structure and mental model of daylight in work environments. This method was selected to understand the end users' perception of an environment rather than measuring the physical environment. A cognitive map of 50 participants, half architects and half non-architects, was created using 3CM. The results present a list of daylight lexicon and a vast selection of concepts related to physical and psychological comfort among all participants. This experiment reveals that connectivity and emotional reactions are the two dominant underlying dimensions describing daylight in work environments. The results illustrate both similarities and disjunctions between two groups of participants regarding the selected daylight terms and characterizations. The results also indicate the need to augment current planning practices with a qualitative multi-disciplinary approach to create more pleasant working environments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fırat Kurt

: Oligopeptide transporter 3 (OPT3) proteins are one of the subsets of OPT clade, yet little is known about these transporters. Therefore, homolog OPT3 proteins in several plant species were investigated and characterized using bioinformatical tools. Motif and co-expression analyses showed that OPT3 proteins may be involved in both biotic and abiotic stress responses as well as growth and developmental processes. AtOPT3 usually seemed to take part in Fe homeostasis whereas ZmOPT3 putatively interacted with proteins involved in various biological processes from plant defense system to stress responses. Glutathione (GSH), as a putative alternative chelating agent, was used in the AtOPT3 and ZmOPT3 docking analyses to identify their putative binding residues. The information given in this study will contribute to the understanding of OPT3 proteins’ interactions in various pathways and to the selection of potential ligands for OPT3s.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (23) ◽  
pp. 5209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Gonzalez-Rodriguez ◽  
Jose L. Ramon ◽  
Vicente Morell ◽  
Gabriel J. Garcia ◽  
Jorge Pomares ◽  
...  

The main goal of this study is to evaluate how to optimally select the best vibrotactile pattern to be used in a closed loop control of upper limb myoelectric prostheses as a feedback of the exerted force. To that end, we assessed both the selection of actuation patterns and the effects of the selection of frequency and amplitude parameters to discriminate between different feedback levels. A single vibrotactile actuator has been used to deliver the vibrations to subjects participating in the experiments. The results show no difference between pattern shapes in terms of feedback perception. Similarly, changes in amplitude level do not reflect significant improvement compared to changes in frequency. However, decreasing the number of feedback levels increases the accuracy of feedback perception and subject-specific variations are high for particular participants, showing that a fine-tuning of the parameters is necessary in a real-time application to upper limb prosthetics. In future works, the effects of training, location, and number of actuators will be assessed. This optimized selection will be tested in a real-time proportional myocontrol of a prosthetic hand.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilian M. N. Kebaya ◽  
Dalton Wamalwa ◽  
Nyambura Kariuki ◽  
Bashir Admani ◽  
Philip Ayieko ◽  
...  

Abstract Background HIV is a major contributor to infant mortality. A significant gap remains between the uptake of infant and maternal antiretroviral regimens and only a minority of HIV-exposed infants receives prophylaxis and safe infant feeding. Losses to follow-up of HIV-exposed infants are associated with shortcomings of facility-based PMTCT models with weak community support of linkages. Use of mobile phones offers an opportunity for improving care and promoting retention assessed by timely attendance of scheduled appointments for the mother-baby pairs and achievement of an HIV-free generation. The objective of this study was to compare self-reported adherence to infant Nevirapine (NVP) prophylaxis and retention in care assessed by timely attendance of scheduled appointments over 10 weeks in HIV exposed infants randomized to 2-weekly mobile phone calls (intervention) versus no phone calls (control). Methods In this open label randomized controlled study, one hundred and fifty HIV infected women drawn from 3 health facilities in Western Kenya and their infants were randomly assigned to receive either phone-based reminders on PMTCT messages or standard health care messages (no calls) within 24 h of delivery. Women in the intervention arm continued to receive fortnightly phone calls. At 6- and 10-weeks following randomization we collected data on infant adherence to Nevirapine, mode of infant feeding, early HIV testing and retention in care in both study arms. All analyses were intention to treat. Results At 6 weeks follow-up, 90.7% (n = 68) of participants receiving phone calls reported adherence to infant NVP prophylaxis, compared with 72% (n = 54) of participants in the control group (p = 0.005). Participants in the intervention arm were also significantly more likely to remain in care than participants in the control group [78.7% (n = 59) vs. 58.7% (n = 44), p = 0.009 at 6 weeks and 69.3% (n = 52) vs. 37.3% (n = 28), p < 0.001 at 10 weeks]. Conclusions These results suggest that phone calls are potentially an important tool to improve adherence to infant NVP prophylaxis and retention in care for HIV-exposed infants. Trial registration PACTR202007654729602. Registered 6 June 2018 - Retrospectively registered, https://pactr.samrc.ac.za/TrialDisplay.aspx?TrialID=3449


Safety ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Miroslava Mikusova ◽  
Joanna Wachnicka ◽  
Joanna Zukowska

The topic of the use of mobile devices and headphones on pedestrian crossings is much less explored in comparison to the use of the mobile phone while driving. Recent years have seen many discussions on this issue, especially in foreign countries. The Slovak Republic, however, has not been giving it enough attention (and it is not mentioned in the National Road Safety Plan for the Slovak Republic from 2011 to 2020). This paper aims to draw attention to this issue. It presents basic outputs of a pilot study on pedestrian safety, with a focus on the use of mobile devices and headphones at selected non-signalized pedestrian crossings in three Slovak cities. Overall, 9% of pedestrians used headphones or mobile devices at observed pedestrian crossings (4% of them used headphones, 1% used headphones and at same time used their mobile phone, 2% made phone calls and 2% used their mobile phones). While these numbers can be considered relatively low, the study proved that during weekdays every 2 min someone was using the crossing without fully focusing on crossing the road safely. Another main finding was that although the safety risk at pedestrian crossings is increased by factors such as rush hour traffic or reduced visibility, pedestrian behavior related to the use of mobile phones and headphones does not change. A safety assessment was also carried out at the crossings. The results show that pedestrian behavior is not affected by the level of safety of the crossing (e.g., visibility of the crossing for drivers). The results of the presented analysis suggest that action is needed to change that. Due to the lack of information about accidents involving pedestrians using mobile phones and headsets when crossing the road, no relevant statistical data could be analyzed. The dataset collected can be used as a basis for further investigation or comparisons with other countries of the relevant indicators. In future work, we would like to include a pedestrian–driver interaction factor focusing on driver speed behavior in relation to pedestrians (who are on or are about to step onto a pedestrian crossing) and identify critical situations caused by improper behavior of drivers and/or pedestrians. This will help to understand speed adjustment problems related to pedestrian crossings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Syed Wasif Abbas Hamdani ◽  
Haider Abbas ◽  
Abdul Rehman Janjua ◽  
Waleed Bin Shahid ◽  
Muhammad Faisal Amjad ◽  
...  

Cyber threats have been growing tremendously in recent years. There are significant advancements in the threat space that have led towards an essential need for the strengthening of digital infrastructure security. Better security can be achieved by fine-tuning system parameters to the best and optimized security levels. For the protection of infrastructure and information systems, several guidelines have been provided by well-known organizations in the form of cybersecurity standards. Since security vulnerabilities incur a very high degree of financial, reputational, informational, and organizational security compromise, it is imperative that a baseline for standard compliance be established. The selection of security standards and extracting requirements from those standards in an organizational context is a tedious task. This article presents a detailed literature review, a comprehensive analysis of various cybersecurity standards, and statistics of cyber-attacks related to operating systems (OS). In addition to that, an explicit comparison between the frameworks, tools, and software available for OS compliance testing is provided. An in-depth analysis of the most common software solutions ensuring compliance with certain cybersecurity standards is also presented. Finally, based on the cybersecurity standards under consideration, a comprehensive set of minimum requirements is proposed for OS hardening and a few open research challenges are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alena Zhdanava ◽  
Surinderpal Kaur ◽  
Kumaran Rajandran

Abstract Ecolinguistics studies the interactions between language and ecology. It investigates whether the stories created by language are destructive or beneficial to all the constituents of the environment. In search of positive stories for our environment, this article focuses on vegan campaigns which generally bring awareness about veganism that, in turn, advocates protection of nonhuman animals and abstention from their exploitation. Nonhuman animals are part of the ecosystem and the way they are portrayed in language may determine the relationship between human and nonhuman animals. As vegan campaigns refer to nonhuman animals as sentient living beings, it is important to analyze whether the language and image of these campaigns articulate their purposes and create beneficial stories for nonhuman species. This article explores the stories regarding nonhuman animals in 27 posters of the vegan campaign “Go Vegan World” and examines how these stories are shaped and whether they are aligned with vegan values. The study is approached from an ecolinguistic perspective with a focus on multimodality where the language was analyzed through van Leeuwen’s Social Actor and Social Action theory, and the image was analyzed with Kress and van Leeuwen’s Grammar of Visual Design. Further, the analysis involves the ecosophy defined as a personal ecological philosophy of relationships between human and nonhuman animals, plants, and the physical environment. The findings suggest that the campaign language and image shape three stories: salience where nonhuman animals are individuals with their own feelings and lives; conviction that nonhuman animals matter as much as humans; ideology where biocentrism is promoted. By comparing these stories with the article’s ecosophy, an ecolinguistic analysis showed that they are largely beneficial in representing nonhuman animals as sentient living beings who are equal to humans.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 1602-1618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibault Robin ◽  
Julien Mariethoz ◽  
Frédérique Lisacek

A key point in achieving accurate intact glycopeptide identification is the definition of the glycan composition file that is used to match experimental with theoretical masses by a glycoproteomics search engine. At present, these files are mainly built from searching the literature and/or querying data sources focused on posttranslational modifications. Most glycoproteomics search engines include a default composition file that is readily used when processing MS data. We introduce here a glycan composition visualizing and comparative tool associated with the GlyConnect database and called GlyConnect Compozitor. It offers a web interface through which the database can be queried to bring out contextual information relative to a set of glycan compositions. The tool takes advantage of compositions being related to one another through shared monosaccharide counts and outputs interactive graphs summarizing information searched in the database. These results provide a guide for selecting or deselecting compositions in a file in order to reflect the context of a study as closely as possible. They also confirm the consistency of a set of compositions based on the content of the GlyConnect database. As part of the tool collection of the Glycomics@ExPASy initiative, Compozitor is hosted at https://glyconnect.expasy.org/compozitor/ where it can be run as a web application. It is also directly accessible from the GlyConnect database.


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