Beyond facts – a survey and conceptualisation of claims in online discourse analysis

Analyzing statements of facts and claims in online discourse is subject of a multitude of research areas. Methods from natural language processing and computational linguistics help investigate issues such as the spread of biased narratives and falsehoods on the Web. Related tasks include fact-checking, stance detection and argumentation mining. Knowledge-based approaches, in particular works in knowledge base construction and augmentation, are concerned with mining, verifying and representing factual knowledge. While all these fields are concerned with strongly related notions, such as claims, facts and evidence, terminology and conceptualisations used across and within communities vary heavily, making it hard to assess commonalities and relations of related works and how research in one field may contribute to address problems in another. We survey the state-of-the-art from a range of fields in this interdisciplinary area across a range of research tasks. We assess varying definitions and propose a conceptual model – Open Claims – for claims and related notions that takes into consideration their inherent complexity, distinguishing between their meaning, linguistic representation and context. We also introduce an implementation of this model by using established vocabularies and discuss applications across various tasks related to online discourse analysis.

The Knowledge of General Dentists Regarding Trigeminal Neuralgia in Lahore- a Questionnaire Based Study

Objective: To assess and document the knowledge general dentists possess in relation to incidence, diagnosis and management of trigeminal neuralgia and its application in their practice. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey. The data collection tool was a piloted, self- designed, 14 item structured questionnaire that had questions regarding demographics, factual knowledge and practices of the participants. Hundred general dental practitioners were selected through purposive sampling in Lahore. Only general dentists were included in this survey and all other dental specialties were part of the exclusion criteria. Data was entered and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics® (Version 23). Results: Most practitioners responded that they were able to identify a patient with trigeminal neuralgia on the basis of diagnosis of exclusion. Carbamezapine was the drug of choice of pharmacological management or in case pharmacological management did not provide relief the patient was referred to an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Conclusion: It was concluded that general dentists had adequate knowledge and sound practices on management of Trigeminal Neuralgia. A need for multi-disciplinary approach and continued medical education (CME) was identified. Keywords: Dentists, Disease Management, Facial Pain, Neuralgia, Knowledge, Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN).

Job's Final Insight, Narratives, and the Brain

In continental philosophy of religion, the hermeneutics of narratives takes a central role. Analytic philosophy of religion, on the other hand, considers religious statements mostly as assertions of fact. It examines the logical form and semantics of religious statements, addresses their logical commitments, and examines their epistemological status. Using the example of a passage in the Book of Job, it is investigated whether the methods of analytic philosophy are also suitable for analyzing religious narratives. The question is explored whether there is a genuine form of knowledge, besides propositional factual knowledge, which is bound to the form of narration. Particular attention will be paid to the inter-personal pragmatic embeddedness of narratives. The connection between second-personal knowledge and narratives is examined. Using the historical example of Ignatius of Loyola's theory of religious knowledge, it is argued that propositional argumentative knowledge is only one form of religious knowledge among others. The others are second-personal and narrative in character. Having thus established this distinct form of knowledge, it is asked whether our best empirical knowledge of the neurophysiological basis of intuitive and non-argumentative cognition provides a foundation for better understanding inter-personal religious cognition within narratives.

HOTS in Reading Activities of Modules 1 to 5 Easy English for Package B

Package B uses a flexible learning principle. The learning process uses a modular learning system. Learning used the latest modules based on the 2013 Curriculum Equivalency Education. This study belongs to qualitative research. The research method is content analysis. This study attempts to analyze the incorporation of analyzing level and evaluating level in reading activities presented in Modules 1-5 Easy English for Package B by referring to Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. The research participants are three English Tutors of Package B. From 168 reading activities, there are 164 LOTS reading activities or 97% and only 4 HOTS reading activities or 3%. The detail is one analyzing reading activity in Module 3, one evaluating level reading activity in Module 1, one evaluating level reading activity in Module 2, and one evaluating level reading activity in Module 3. The knowledge dimensions found in HOTS reading activities are factual and conceptual. The details are a factual knowledge reading activity in Module 1 and three conceptual knowledge reading activities in Module 2 & 3. The result of this study is expected to benefit English tutors to improve or add supplementary materials and reading activities from other sources, the module's author to develop HOTS reading activities in the module, and further researcher to conduct research related to the effectiveness and development of reading activities.

On Life

Living things are truly strange objects. They stand squarely within the material world, but at the same time flaunt capacities that far exceed those of inanimate matter. Life is in some sense a singular phenomenon: astonishingly, all creatures from bacteria to elephants, redwoods and humans belong to a single enormous family. What life is, how living things work, how they mesh with the realm of physics and chemistry, and how they came to be as we find them—these are the questions that define the science of biology. A rational sense of the world requires finding in it a place for life. Many of the answers are known, but as knowledge expands relentlessly it becomes ever harder to grasp the phenomenon of life whole. This book aims to make the phenomenon of life intelligible to serious readers who are not professional biologists by giving them a sense of the biological landscape: presenting the principles as currently understood and the major issues that remain unresolved, as simply and concisely as may be. What emerges is a biology that is internally consistent and buttressed by a wealth of factual knowledge, but also inescapably historical and complex. The hallmark of life is organization, order that has purpose; and that sets biology apart from the physical sciences. Despite a century of spectacular progress the phenomenon of life remains tantalizingly beyond our grasp, bracketed by two stubborn mysteries: the origin of life at one end, the nature of mind at the other.

Department of documentary heritage objects as a scientific and cultural project (based on materials of history and modern activity of Korolenko Kharkiv State Scientific Library)

The scientific topicality. Library departments of documentary heritage objects, corresponding stocks and collections of documents which belong to movable heritage objects of national and world culture need special attention from the point of view of the history of their formation, the modern scientific organization and disclosure, that is the relevance of the subject of the present research. Problem statement. Modern scientific ideas concerning departments of documentary heritage objects at libraries need wide conceptual generalizations at an interdisciplinary level. Such approach offered in our article allows not to be limited only by factual knowledge, chronicle narratives, highly specialized observations and analytics. The methodology of this study are systemic and historical approaches and a problem analysis. The results. The article elucidates specific character of the subdivision of documentary heritage objects as one of the most important library cultural and scientific projects, describes conditions of genesis, the main stages of formation, peculiarities of functioning and development of such subdivision at Korolenko Kharkiv State Scientific Library, in particular in the modern socio-communicative environment. The novelty. The article proves that a characteristic feature of the activities of the department of documentary heritage objects at a scientific library is multi-functionality, and in the modern conditions such department combines in ifs activities functions of research, scientific and educational institutions, information center and production and service center. The practical significance. Offered and substantiated in the article conceptual view of library department of documentary heritage objects as a modern scientific and cultural project can be the basis for systematic work on improvement of such departments at scientific libraries of Ukraine.

Attitudes about Dementia in Different Stages of Adulthood

Research on attitudes toward dementia has often focused on younger and older adults; few studies have also included the age groups of established and middle adulthood. The current study utilized data from community-dwelling adults aged 18-95 (n=567) residing in two Midwestern states. Participants were divided into four age groups: emerging/young adulthood (ages 18-29), established adulthood (ages 30-45), middle adulthood (ages 46-64), and older adulthood (age 65+). ANOVA models were used to examine age group differences on the following outcomes: factual knowledge about dementia (total score on 14 true-false questions); attitudes toward dementia (total score on the 20-item Dementia Attitudes Scale); and a single item, “I am afraid of losing my memory” (rated on a 5-point scale). The effect of age group was significant in all models (p<0.01 for all). Emerging/young adults had significantly more knowledge about dementia, but less positive attitudes toward dementia, relative to established, middle-aged, and older adults. Attitudes and knowledge did not differ between established, middle-aged, and older adults. By contrast, older adults reported significantly more fear of memory loss than emerging/young, established, and middle-aged adults; fear did not differ between the latter three age groups. There were no significant interactions between age group and sex in any of the models. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Measuring public knowledge on nuclear weapons in the post-Cold War: dimensionality and measurement invariance across eight European countries

Research on public opinion and international security has extensively examined attitudes toward nuclear weapons, but the diffusion of basic knowledge about nuclear weapons among the everyday citizens has nevertheless been mostly missed. This study proposes a working definition and advances a measurement model of knowledge on nuclear weapons in the general public. It analyzes data from two novel surveys conducted in 2018 (N = 6559) and 2019 (N = 6227) where respondents from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom answered a web survey on attitudes and factual knowledge on nuclear weapons. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic models are used to examine the dimensionality and to assess the measurement invariance of a scale of knowledge about nuclear weapons. A bifactor measurement model, where a strong general factor represents the construct of interest and specific factors account for the presence of testlets due to questionnaire design, is established and validated. Configural, metric, and scalar invariance are established across the eight samples. The findings indicate that knowledge about nuclear weapons in the general, non-expert public can be reliably measured cross-nationally.

The Importance of Being Familiar: The Role of Semantic Knowledge in the Activation of Emotions and Factual Knowledge from Music in the Semantic Variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia

Background: The role of semantic knowledge in emotion recognition remains poorly understood. The semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) is a degenerative disorder characterized by progressive loss of semantic knowledge, while other cognitive abilities remain spared, at least in the early stages of the disease. The syndrome is therefore a reliable clinical model of semantic impairment allowing for testing the propositions made in theoretical models of emotion recognition. Objective: The main goal of this study was to investigate the role of semantic memory in the recognition of basic emotions conveyed by music in individuals with svPPA. Methods: The performance of 9 individuals with svPPA was compared to that of 32 control participants in tasks designed to investigate the ability: a) to differentiate between familiar and non-familiar musical excerpts, b) to associate semantic concepts to musical excerpts, and c) to recognize basic emotions conveyed by music. Results: Results revealed that individuals with svPPA showed preserved abilities to recognize familiar musical excerpts but impaired performance on the two other tasks. Moreover, recognition of basic emotions and association of musical excerpts with semantic concepts was significantly better for familiar than non-familiar musical excerpts in participants with svPPA. Conclusion: Results of this study have important implications for theoretical models of emotion recognition and music processing. They suggest that impairment of semantic memory in svPPA affects both the activation of emotions and factual knowledge from music and that this impairment is modulated by familiarity with musical tunes.