scholarly journals “Do you understand (me)?” negotiating mutual understanding by using gaze and environmentally coupled gestures between two deaf signing participants

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Sivunen ◽  
Elina Tapio

AbstractIn this paper we explore the use of multimodal and multilingual semiotic resources in interactions between two deaf signing participants, a researcher and an asylum seeker. The focus is on the use of gaze and environmentally coupled gestures. Drawing on multimodal analysis and linguistic ethnography, we demonstrate how gaze and environmentally coupled gestures are effective semiotic resources for reaching mutual understanding. The study provides insight into the challenges and opportunities (deaf) asylum seekers, researchers, and employees of reception centres or the state may encounter because of the asymmetrical language competencies. Our concern is that such asymmetrical situations may be created and maintained by ignoring visual and embodied resources in interaction and, in the case of deaf asylum seekers, by unrealistic expectations towards conventionalized forms of international sign.

Author(s):  
Mya Guarnieri Jaradat

The 33,000 African asylum seekers currently residing in Israel face a lack of legal status and receive no services from the state. The entire population is under pressure but those who have faced torture in the Sinai desert en route to Israel struggle with additional problems and have nowhere to turn for help. The story of Yaser Abdulla – an asylum seeker from Darfur who was tortured by Bedouin traffickers in the Sinai – illuminates the circumstances that pushed asylum seekers from their home, what they encounter on their way, and the situation they grapple with inside of Israel.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
H Hilderink

Abstract The four-year Public Health Foresight Study (VTV) provides insight into the most important societal challenges for public health and health care in the Netherlands. The seventh edition of the Dutch Public Health Foresight study was published in 2018, with an update in 2020. In this update a business-as-usual or Trend Scenario was developed using 2018 as a base year. In the trend scenario demographic and epidemiological projections have been used to depict the future trends regarding ageing, health, disease, health behaviors, health expenditures and health inequalities. Next, these trends are used to identify the most important future challenges and opportunities for public health. In the 2020 update, special attentions is given to climate change and the local living environment and their impacts and interaction with public health outcomes. Trends in lifestyle-related lifestyle show both positive (smoking prevalence) and negative (overweight prevalence) future developments. Dementia will be the leading cause of mortality and disease burden in 2040 by far. Health care expenditures will double by 2040, with cancers showing the most rapid growth of all disease groups. The insights of this study are directly used as input for the National Health Policy Memorandum and for the National Prevention Accord.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Ankur Lohachab ◽  
Saurabh Garg ◽  
Byeong Kang ◽  
Muhammad Bilal Amin ◽  
Junmin Lee ◽  
...  

Unprecedented attention towards blockchain technology is serving as a game-changer in fostering the development of blockchain-enabled distinctive frameworks. However, fragmentation unleashed by its underlying concepts hinders different stakeholders from effectively utilizing blockchain-supported services, resulting in the obstruction of its wide-scale adoption. To explore synergies among the isolated frameworks requires comprehensively studying inter-blockchain communication approaches. These approaches broadly come under the umbrella of Blockchain Interoperability (BI) notion, as it can facilitate a novel paradigm of an integrated blockchain ecosystem that connects state-of-the-art disparate blockchains. Currently, there is a lack of studies that comprehensively review BI, which works as a stumbling block in its development. Therefore, this article aims to articulate potential of BI by reviewing it from diverse perspectives. Beginning with a glance of blockchain architecture fundamentals, this article discusses its associated platforms, taxonomy, and consensus mechanisms. Subsequently, it argues about BI’s requirement by exemplifying its potential opportunities and application areas. Concerning BI, an architecture seems to be a missing link. Hence, this article introduces a layered architecture for the effective development of protocols and methods for interoperable blockchains. Furthermore, this article proposes an in-depth BI research taxonomy and provides an insight into the state-of-the-art projects. Finally, it determines possible open challenges and future research in the domain.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 20150098 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus J. Buehler ◽  
Guy M. Genin

Advances in multiscale models and computational power have enabled a broad toolset to predict how molecules, cells, tissues and organs behave and develop. A key theme in biological systems is the emergence of macroscale behaviour from collective behaviours across a range of length and timescales, and a key element of these models is therefore hierarchical simulation. However, this predictive capacity has far outstripped our ability to validate predictions experimentally, particularly when multiple hierarchical levels are involved. The state of the art represents careful integration of multiscale experiment and modelling, and yields not only validation, but also insights into deformation and relaxation mechanisms across scales. We present here a sampling of key results that highlight both challenges and opportunities for integrated multiscale experiment and modelling in biological systems.


2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 258-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Bowles

Clients undergo change as a function of engaging in a therapeutic experience. To date, little research into the residual effects of therapy have been completed using client-centred therapy. Some therapies provide didactic experiences to gain and practise skills and understandings so they can be recalled after the conclusion of therapy. Other therapies preclude such interventions and instead emphasise the insights of the client and the transformative therapeutic alliance to facilitate change. This research is an investigation of the possibility that client-centred therapy provides clients with experiences to allow insight into, and understanding of processes to optimally facilitate change through therapy. The aims of the research were to establish: whether factors known to enhance change in therapy increased for clients from the beginning to the end of therapy; whether the clinical group (n = 28; intervention) scores differed from a nonclinical group at both time points (n = 22; control); and establish whether gender differences were present. Analyses showed that nonclinical respondents’ scores at Times 1 and 2 were consistently higher on all factors compared with clinical respondents. The findings indicated that scores did not vary significantly between Time 1 and 2 for either the clinical or the nonclinical groups of respondents. The state/trait-like characteristics of the factors are discussed in reference to their application in therapeutic and applied settings.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Ilia Markov ◽  
Vivi Nastase ◽  
Carlo Strapparava

Abstract Native language identification (NLI)—the task of automatically identifying the native language (L1) of persons based on their writings in the second language (L2)—is based on the hypothesis that characteristics of L1 will surface and interfere in the production of texts in L2 to the extent that L1 is identifiable. We present an in-depth investigation of features that model a variety of linguistic phenomena potentially involved in native language interference in the context of the NLI task: the languages’ structuring of information through punctuation usage, emotion expression in language, and similarities of form with the L1 vocabulary through the use of anglicized words, cognates, and other misspellings. The results of experiments with different combinations of features in a variety of settings allow us to quantify the native language interference value of these linguistic phenomena and show how robust they are in cross-corpus experiments and with respect to proficiency in L2. These experiments provide a deeper insight into the NLI task, showing how native language interference explains the gap between baseline, corpus-independent features, and the state of the art that relies on features/representations that cover (indiscriminately) a variety of linguistic phenomena.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-49
Author(s):  
Paul Kucharski

My aim in this essay is to advance the state of scholarly discussion on the harms of genocide. The most obvious harms inflicted by every genocide are readily evident: the physical harm inflicted upon the victims of genocide and the moral harm that the perpetrators of genocide inflict upon themselves. Instead, I will focus on a kind of harm inflicted upon those who are neither victims nor perpetrators, on those who are outside observers, so to speak. My thesis will be that when a whole community or culture is eliminated, or even deeply wounded, the world loses an avenue for insight into the human condition. My argument is as follows. In order to understand human nature, and that which promotes its flourishing, we must certainly study individual human beings. But since human beings as rational and linguistic animals are in part constituted by the communities in which they live, the study of human nature should also involve the study of communities and cultures—both those that are well ordered and those that are not. No one community or culture has expressed all that can be said about the human way of existing and flourishing. And given that the unity and wholeness of human nature can only be glimpsed in a variety of communities and cultures, then part of the harm of genocide consists in the removal of a valuable avenue for human beings to better understand themselves.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (specjalny) ◽  
pp. 159-172
Author(s):  
Marcin Komańda

The establishment of the state of epidemic in Poland in March 2020 caused significant difficulties in accessing certain services or a total ban on their rendering. The fitness industry faced the inability to provide activity. This extraordinary situation forced entities in the fitness industry (including fitness clubs) to face a number of challenges related to surviving the closing period. These include, first of all, financial issues, the development of electronic business model components, as well as thinking about the conditions of running business after lifting the ban. The aim of the paper is to analyse the actions taken by the Polish fitness clubs during the lockdown period (13/03/2020-06/06/2020) caused by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). It covers recognizing the thinking of these clubs about the possibilities of acting despite these restrictions, as well as immediately after lifting restrictions on the service activities of this industry. The method of analysing the situation of the industry was based on two sources of information: a review of the literature and industry reports on the situation before the lockdown and media information presenting its state during the lockdown. The combination of information from both sources gave a unique insight into the justifications of the activities announced and undertaken by the Polish fitness club industry.


Author(s):  
Vasyl Ya. Tatsii ◽  
Yevhen M. Bilousov ◽  
Daryna S. Kosinova

The purpose of this article is to address current issues of doctrinal and legal security of economic security of the state with the actualisation of issues concerning the relationship between the concepts of “economic security” and “economic sovereignty” in their relationship and mutual understanding. The authors pay attention to the analysis of existing in the national legal doctrines of individual countries scientific approaches to the definition of “economic sovereignty”, clarify its main features, analyse the scientific approaches of domestic and foreign researchers to define the concept of “economic security” and on this basis own vision of the instrumental content of these definitions. It is argued that the concept of “economic sovereignty” is primary in relation to the concept of “economic security”. The article examines the national systems (models) of economic security of the state, including, in particular, American, Japanese, Chinese, models of institutional entities (in particular, the EU), models typical of countries with economies in transition. The authors found that Ukraine is characterised by a system (model) of economic security of countries with economies in transition, which is fragmented and inconsistent in its construction, which ultimately affects the state of economic security of the state as a whole. It was found that the main goal of Ukraine at this stage of its development in the context of building a national model of economic security is to create an effective system of means to overcome or minimise existing or potential threats, especially in the context of globalisation of trade and economic relations. The paper emphasises the need to borrow positive foreign experience of legal support of relations for the creation and implementation of national systems of economic security of the state to gradually transform Ukraine into an important participant in the processes of international economic security


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muireann Ní Raghallaigh ◽  
Liam Thornton

Ireland’s approach to after-care for ‘aged-out’ separated children is problematic. Currently, upon reaching the age of 18, most separated young people are moved to ‘direct provision’, despite the fact that the state can use discretionary powers to allow them to remain in foster care. Direct provision is the system Ireland adopts providing bed and board to asylum seekers, along with a weekly monetary payment. Separated young people in Ireland are in a vulnerable position after ageing out. Entry into the direct provision system, from a legal and social work perspective, is concerning. Utilising direct provision as a ‘form of aftercare’ emphasises governmental policy preferences that privilege the migrant status of aged-out separated children, as opposed to viewing this group as young people leaving care. In this article, utilising a cross-disciplinary approach, we provide the first systematic exploration of the system of aftercare for aged-out separated children in Ireland. In doing so, we posit two core reasons for why the aftercare system for aged-out separated children has developed as it has. First, doing so ensures that the state is consistent with its approach to asylum seekers more generally, in that it seeks to deter persons from claiming asylum in Ireland through utilisation of the direct provision system. Second, while the vulnerability of aged-out separated children is well-documented, the state (and others) ignore this vulnerability and are reluctant to offer additional aftercare supports beyond direct provision. This is due, we argue, to viewing aged-out separated children as having a lesser entitlement to rights than other care leavers, solely based on their migrant status.


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