Natural Language and Sub-Languages with Controlled Vocabularies

2017 ◽  
pp. 25-38
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Controlled Vocabulary ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Folk Biology ◽  
Time Specific ◽  
Folk Taxonomies ◽  
Over Time

This chapter describe differences between natural languages and special-purpose languages, where certain words used to describe observed regularities and patterns, acquire over time specific meanings that differ from their ‘ordinary' meanings in the language. Folk taxonomies, encoded in languages of peoples who occupy narrow ecological niches, serve an existential need of encoding knowledge important for survival. While folk biology developed taxonomies based on the human sensory system, modern biology evolves by including observational data from molecular biology collected with modern bio-chemical tools – scientific ‘extensions' of the human sensory system. In contrast to general language, the controlled vocabulary in ‘specialist discourse', also referred to by linguists as ‘sublanguage' and ‘Language for Special Purposes' (LSP) allows specialists to communicate in precisely defined terms and to avoid ambiguity in discussing specific conceptual situations

scholarly journals Patterns of anxiety and distress over 12 months following participation in HPV primary screening

2021 ◽  
pp. sextrans-2020-054780
Author(s):  
Laura A V Marlow ◽  
Emily McBride ◽  
Deborah Ridout ◽  
Alice S Forster ◽  
Henry Kitchener ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Positive Result ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Cervical Screening ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Abnormal Cytology ◽  
Normal Cytology ◽  
Time Specific ◽  
Over Time

ObjectivesMany countries are now using primary human papillomavirus (HPV) testing for cervical screening, testing for high-risk HPV and using cytology as triage. An HPV-positive result can have an adverse psychological impact, at least in the short term. In this paper, we explore the psychological impact of primary HPV screening over 12 months.MethodsWomen were surveyed soon after receiving their results (n=1133) and 6 (n=762) and 12 months (n=537) later. Primary outcomes were anxiety (Short-Form State Anxiety Inventory-6) and distress (General Health Questionnaire-12). Secondary outcomes included concern, worry about cervical cancer and reassurance. Mixed-effects regression models were used to explore differences at each time point and change over time across four groups according to their baseline result: control (HPV negative/HPV cleared/normal cytology and not tested for HPV); HPV positive with normal cytology; HPV positive with abnormal cytology; and HPV persistent (ie, second consecutive HPV-positive result).ResultsWomen who were HPV positive with abnormal cytology had the highest anxiety scores at baseline (mean=42.2, SD: 15.0), but this had declined by 12 months (mean=37.0, SD: 11.7) and was closer to being within the ‘normal’ range (scores between 34 and 36 are considered ‘normal’). This group also had the highest distress at baseline (mean=3.3, SD: 3.8, scores of 3+ indicate case-level distress), but the lowest distress at 12 months (mean=1.9, SD: 3.1). At 6 and 12 months, there were no between-group differences in anxiety or distress for any HPV-positive result group when compared with the control group. The control group were less concerned and more reassured about their result at 6 and 12 months than the HPV-positive with normal cytology group.ConclusionsOur findings suggest the initial adverse impact of an HPV-positive screening result on anxiety and distress diminishes over time. Specific concerns about the result may be longer lasting and efforts should be made to address them.

Synaesthesia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Polina Dimova
Keyword(s):  
Sensory System ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
High Pitch ◽  
Shared Experience ◽  
Perceptual Condition ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
One To One ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Stimulation Of

Synaesthesia is the confusion or conflation of sensory modalities, where one sense is experienced or described in terms of another as in Charles Baudelaire’s simile "perfumes sweet as oboes, green as prairies." Synaesthesia captures an already existing tendency in language to blend the senses as in "sweet melody," "velvety voice," or "loud colors," and psychologists have conducted studies that show our shared experience of weak audiovisual associations between low pitch and darker colors, or high pitch and lighter colors. In a strictly neurological sense, synaesthesia is a perceptual condition in which the stimulation of one sensory system (for example, hearing) triggers sensations in another sensory system (for example, vision). Cross-sensory associations form one-to-one correspondences that are stable, delicately nuanced, and highly individual. For instance, a synaesthete may experience the timbre of violins as lime green, or the pitch A as burgundy. Synaesthetic associations occur as involuntary, automatic, and emotional responses to sensory stimuli. They persist throughout life and often aid memory: some synaesthetes reliably remember historical dates thanks to their color-to-number associations. The prevalence of synaesthesia has been contested over time, with varying ratios of synaesthetes to nonsynaesthetes of 1 in 2,000, 1 in 100 for colored letters and numbers in recent studies, and even 1 in 23 for all types of synaesthesia.

scholarly journals Maximising the Edges of Natural and Human Systems: The Case for Sociotones

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7203
Author(s):  
May East
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Biological Communities ◽  
Applied Ecology ◽  
Multiple Spatial Scales ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
Over Time

In many fields of fundamental and applied ecology, the transition or edge between two distinct biological communities is known as ‘ecotone’. The ecotone concept was first introduced in the early 20th century, describing the edge between two ecological systems which disappear in a transition zone but in opposite directions. This paper examines the evolution of the concept and its different applications over time. It explores the characteristics of ecotones as biodiverse enriched ecological niches occurring at multiple spatial scales. The paper goes further by proposing the concept of sociotone or social systems in tension, first by postulating a series of principles through which many possible interpretations may arise and secondly, by describing the societal interface where diverse worldviews, intentions and experiences meet. The concept is tested against a territory of social tensions between newcomers and stakeholders in Sicily providing evidence of a field of dynamic socio-economic transformations and prospects. The paper concludes by positioning sociotone as a possible framework to realise the systemic potential of multicultural globalised societies.

scholarly journals The development of small settlements in the industrial plant - city model - based on the examples of Nowa Dęba and Nowa Sarzyna

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 00079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Sikora
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Plant ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Small Cities ◽  
Industrial Facilities ◽  
Industrial Plants ◽  
Spatial Changes ◽  
City Model ◽  
Post War ◽  
Time Specific ◽  
Over Time

Double-purpose industrial plant-settlement complexes (city) are fairly popular urban combinations; especially so during the inter-war and post-war industrial periods, when through a decision by the central authorities, industrial facilities were located in specific areas which were then developed over time. Specific cases of such complexes are two small cities built from scratch around growing industrial plants. The article presents certain functional and spatial changes in two urban centers: Nowa Dęba and Nowa Sarzyna, which are located in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship.

Applications of Neutrality

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jody Azzouni
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Truth Values ◽  
Over Time

Advantages of the neutrality approach to natural languages are sketched. Paradigmatic ontological debates are described (about entities such as God or Bigfoot), and it is shown how the neutral approach can accommodate requirements on such debates, such as both parties understanding the claims of the other parties but disagreeing on the truth values of certain sentences that are nevertheless understood in common. There are also puzzles about how individuals are supposed to think about particular nonexistent beings over time, or how more than one individual can think about the same nonexistent being. It’s shown how the neutralist approach can accommodate this by focusing, in particular, on Geach’s Hob-Nob puzzle. Pretense approaches to fictional talk are undermined by showing that they prevent expression of needed claims we make about entities.

scholarly journals Food Webs Over Time: Evaluating the Variability of Degree Distribution on Ecological Networks

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela N Lopez ◽  
Patricio A Camus ◽  
Nelson Valdivia ◽  
Sergio A Estay
Keyword(s):  
Food Webs ◽  
Functional Form ◽  
Exponential Model ◽  
Ecological Networks ◽  
Specific Interactions ◽  
Distribution Models ◽  
Networks Analysis ◽  
Topological Characteristics ◽  
Time Specific ◽  
Over Time

AbstractAlthough networks analysis has moved from static to dynamic, ecological networks are still analyzed as time-aggregated units where time-specific interactions are aggregated into one single network. As a result, several questions arise such as what is the functional form of and how variable is the topology of time-specific versus time-aggregated ecological networks? Furthermore, it is yet unknown to what extent the structure of time-aggregated networks is representative of the dynamics of the community. Here, we compared the topology of time-specific and time-aggregated networks by analyzing a set of intertidal networks containing more than 1,000 interactions, and assessed the spatiotemporal dynamics of their degree distributions. By fitting different distribution models, we found that the out-degree distributions of seasonal and time-aggregated networks were best described by an exponential model while the in-degree distributions were best described by a discrete generalized beta model. The degree distributions of the seasonal networks were highly temporally variable and are significantly different from those of time-aggregated networks. We observed that seasonal degree distributions converged toward time-aggregated network distributions after 1.5 years of sampling. Our results highlight the importance of understanding the dynamics of ecological networks, which can show topological characteristics significantly different from those of time-aggregated networks.

scholarly journals Trajectories of Distress Following the Great East Japan Earthquake: A Multiwave Prospective Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1062-1068
Author(s):  
Robin Goodwin ◽  
Kemmyo Sugiyama ◽  
Shaojing Sun ◽  
Masahito Takahashi ◽  
Jun Aida
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Growth Mixture Modeling ◽  
Mixture Modeling ◽  
Great East Japan Earthquake ◽  
Targeted Intervention ◽  
Growth Mixture ◽  
Recovery Group ◽  
Time Specific ◽  
Over Time

The March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear leak were complex traumas. We examined psychological distress in the years following the earthquake using growth mixture modeling to classify responses from 2,599 linked respondents (2012–2016). We identified four classes of trajectories following the disaster: resilient (76% of respondents), delayed distress (8%), recovery (8%), and chronic distress (7%). Compared with the resilient class, other class members were less likely to be female and had less social support. Survivors in the recovery group were more likely to live in prefabricated housing. Although distress has decreased over time, specific populations continue to require targeted intervention.

Evolutionary biology and epistemology

2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 11-19
Author(s):  
Aleksej Tarasjev
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Epistemology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Epistemological Basis

Foundation and further development of modern biology raised many epistemological questions and biology was often criticized on that ground. There has been attempts, especially after emergence of molecular biology, to reduce biology to physics and chemistry. Epistemological basis of modern biology were also under ideologically motivated attacks from various positions. On the other hand, there were also attempts to reduce psychology and social sciences to biology. Finally, there were attempts to biologize epistemology itself through so-called evolutionary epistemology. Concise presentation of all that aspects of relationship between epistemology and biology is given.

Extending Vocabularies: The Rack and the Weeds

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liam Quin
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Controlled Vocabulary ◽  
Markup Languages ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Over Time

In its simplest form a vocabulary is simply a set of words and phrases with predefined meanings. In this paper the term is used to mean a controlled vocabulary and, in particular, a controlled vocabulary in the context of computer markup languages such as XML or JSON or SGML. Vocabularies are created in specific contexts and for specific purposes. Like all human constructs they are flawed and need to be repaired and changed over time; as people use vocabularies they also gain understanding of the limitations in them and often want to extend them. Understanding these processes involves an understanding of the human needs involved: the social contexts in which people interact with and around the vocabularies. This paper characterizes some of these contexts and their properties, and in the light of this characterization describes changes to vocabularies, both successful and unsuccessful.

LSJ and the Diachronic Taxonomy of the Greek Vocabulary

2019 ◽  
pp. 288-298
Author(s):  
James Clackson
Keyword(s):  
Life Form ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Folk Taxonomies ◽  
Over Time

This chapter presents a survey of Greek terms for living beings. The Greek vocabulary is recorded for over a three thousand year time-span, and through reconstruction of the immediate ancestor of Greek, Proto-Indo-European, it is possible to go back further still. Examination of the different classificatory terms in Greek, with their ancestry, thus allows us to test some of the hypotheses proposed by linguistic ethnobotanists. One such hypothesis concerns the effect on the terms for animals made by the development from a hunter-gatherer to a sedentary, agricultural lifestyle: Brown (2000) claims that taxonomies ‘of hunter gatherers tend to only have only one level, consisting entirely of generic classes’, and that over time ‘folk taxonomies have tended to expand up and down, adding more inclusive life-form and less inclusive specific classes to pre-existing generic categories’. The chapter sketches out the sort of contribution Greek can make to such debates.

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