EXPRESS: Similarities and Differences in Understanding Negative and Affirmative Counterfactuals and Causal Assertions: Evidence from Eye-Tracking

Two eye-tracking experiments compared affirmative and negative counterfactuals, “if she had (not) arrived early, she would (not) have bought roses” and affirmative and negative causal assertions, “Because she arrived (did not arrive) early, she bought (did not buy) roses”. When participants heard a counterfactual, they looked on screen at words corresponding to its conjecture (“roses”), and its presupposed facts (“no roses”), whereas for a causal assertion, they looked only at words corresponding to the facts. For counterfactuals, they looked at the conjecture first, and later the presupposed facts, and at the latter more than the former. The effect was more pronounced for negative counterfactuals than affirmative ones because the negative counterfactual’s presupposed facts identify a specific item (“she bought roses”), whereas the affirmative counterfactual’s presupposed facts do not (“she did not buy roses”). Hence, when participants were given a binary context, “she did not know whether to buy roses or carnations”, they looked primarily at the presupposed facts for both sorts of counterfactuals. We discuss the implications for theories of negation, the dual meaning of counterfactuals, and their relation to causal assertions.

The History of for example and for instance as Markers of Exemplification, Selection and Argumentation (1600-1999)

This article analyses the use of the example markers for example and for instance in exemplifying, selective and argumentative constructions. Of these three uses, exemplification—twofold sequences with a first general unit or hyperonym and a second more specific item or hyponym—has received recurrent attention in the literature, whereas selection—constructions where the first element is omitted—and argumentation—the use of example markers to connect whole chunks of discourse—have long been ignored. The present study, using data from ARCHER 3.2, shows that the three uses have coexisted since at least the second half of the seventeenth century and that argumentation prevails in both British and American English. Moreover, example markers are very productive in certain genres, such as science, sermons and advertising. Additionally, even though the primary function of example markers is to introduce their scope domain, they have developed different pragmatic values that bring them closer to the category of discourse markers. Thus, for example, their use as mitigators makes them an optimal tool for smoothing interaction and hence reducing the risk of offending our interlocutor.

Verification of the measuring properties and content validity of a computer based MST test for the estimation of mathematics skills in Grade 10

The research is aimed at the construction of a multi-level adaptive test (MST), for the evaluation of the mathematical skills of Italian students of Grade 10, and was carried out in collaboration with Invalsi for a PhD study of "La Sapienza" University of Rome. The research started from the definition of the construct to be measured, taking into account both national and international references. A specific item bank was then built. The test was administered to a sample of 4132 students. The experiment confirmed the advantages of an MST model. Interesting results emerged by comparing the adaptive part of the main paths with a linear tests consisting of the same number of items and administered to a sample of pre-test students and comparing the MST test with a simulated linear test, built on the same item bank and with the same numer of item of MST test.

Deep Learning Chatbot using Python

Many organizationsare executing Chatbots to address client inquiries and contact clients. As indicated by Mindshare, 63% of shoppers would consider utilizing a chatbot when visiting a business or brand's site. One of the fundamental AI chatbot benefits is that it can convey moment satisfaction. Individuals would much preferabl y visit online over set aside the effort to call an organization's 800-number.During these difficult Situations it is hard for individuals to go to the stores to purchase something, to emergency clinicfor a little clinical test, finding support for an item that you purchased and so forth So these sorts of easier errands, which don't require actual presence, can be supplanted by chatbots. So we will make a chatbot, which when given reasonable purpose documents dependent on a specific item or necessities, can prepare on it utilizing various Layers Neural Networks and make a model. Utilizing this model our chatbot can answer client inquiries

Comparison of Different Technologies for Soft Robotics Grippers

Soft grippers have experienced a growing interest due to their considerable flexibility that allows them to grasp a variety of objects, in contrast to hard grippers, which are designed for a specific item. One of their most remarkable characteristics is the ability to manipulate soft objects without damaging them. This, together with their wide range of applications and the use of novels materials and technologies, renders them a very robust device. In this paper, we present a comparison of different technologies for soft robotics grippers. We fabricated and tested four grippers. Two use pneumatic actuation (the gripper with chambered fingers and the jamming gripper), while the other two employ electromechanical actuation (the tendon driver gripper and the gripper with passive structure). For the experiments, a group of twelve objects with different mechanical and geometrical properties have been selected. Furthermore, we analyzed the effect of the environmental conditions on the grippers, by testing each object in three different environments: normal, humid, and dusty. The aim of this comparative study is to show the different performances of different grippers tested under the same conditions. Our findings indicate that we can highlight that the mechanical gripper with a passive structure shows greater robustness.

Culture Specific Item Analysis in Determining the Translator Ideology in the �The Necklace� Short Story

Translator has a choice in translating text which contains cultural and social background of source language. It determines the translators ideology toward their stance in introducing or maintaining the culture language. The ideology of translator can be seen through one of the ways which is they translating the CSI of source text. The translation techniques is used to examine the CSI could identify the ideology they choose. This research aims to examine the translator ideology through CSI analysis in the translation text from English to Indonesian of short story The Necklace. This research used descriptive qualitative method. The result shows that the translator tends to choose domestication ideology since the setting, theme and plot of the story makes the target reader feels relatable experience while reading it. Therefore, translator used translation techniques which contributed to maintenance the readability, equivalency, and acceptability of the source text.