“Hold infinity in the palm of your hand.” A functional description of time expressions through fingers based on Chinese Sign Language naturalistic data

This paper investigates the relationship between fingers and time representations in naturalistic Chinese Sign Language (CSL). Based on a CSL Corpus (Shanghai Variant, 2016–), we offer a thorough description of finger configurations for time expressions from 63 deaf signers, including three main types: digital, numeral incorporation, and points-to-fingers. The former two were further divided into vertical and horizontal fingers according to the orientation of fingertips. The results showed that there were interconnections between finger representations, numbers, ordering, and time in CSL. Vertical fingers were mainly used to quantify time units, whereas horizontal fingers were mostly used for sequencing or ordering events, and their forms could be influenced by Chinese number characters and the vertical writing direction. Furthermore, the use of points-to-fingers (e.g., pointing to the thumb, index, or little finger) formed temporal connectives in CSL and could be patterned to put a conversation in order. Additionally, CSL adopted similar linguistic forms in sequential time and adverbs of reason (e.g., cause and effect: events that happened earlier and events that happen later). Such a cause-and-effect relationship was a special type of temporal sequence. In conclusion, fingers are essential for time representation in CSL and their forms are biologically and culturally shaped.

EXPRESS: The vertical space-time association

The space-time interaction suggests a left-to-right directionality in the mind’s representation of elapsing time. However, studies showing a possible vertical time representation are scarce and contradictory. In Experiment 1, 32 participants had to judge the duration (200, 300, 500 or 600 milliseconds) of the target stimulus that appeared at the top, centre, or bottom of the screen, compared to a reference stimulus (400 milliseconds) always appeared in the centre of the screen. In Experiment 2, 32 participants were administered with the same procedure, but the reference stimulus appeared at the top, centre, or bottom of the screen and the target stimulus was fixed in the centre location. In both experiments, a space-time interaction was found with an association between short durations and bottom response key as well as between long durations and top key. The evidence of a vertical mental timeline was further confirmed by the distance effect with a lower level of performance for durations close to that of the reference stimulus. The results suggest a bottom-to-top mapping of time representation, more in line with the metaphor “more is up”.

Do You Approach Positive Events or Do They Approach You? Linking Event Valence and Time Representations in a Dutch Sample

In order to think and talk about time, people often use the ego- or time-moving representation. In the ego-moving representation, the self travels through a temporal landscape, leaving past events behind and approaching future events; in the time-moving representation, the self is stationary and temporal events pass by. Several studies contest to the psychological ramifications of these two representations by, inter alia, demonstrating a link between them and event valence. These studies have, however, been limited to English speakers, even though language has been found to affect time representation. The present study therefore replicated Margolies and Crawford’s (2008) experiment on event valence and time representation amongst speakers of Dutch. Unlike Margolies and Crawford (2008), we do not find that positive valence leads to the endorsement of an ego-moving statement. Future studies will need to determine the ways through which language might moderate the relation between event valence and time representation.

The categorical use of a continuous time representation

The abstract concept of time is mentally represented as a spatially oriented line, with the past associated with the left space and the future associated with the right. Although the line is supposed to be continuous, most available evidence is also consistent with a categorical representation that only discriminates between past and future. The aim of the present study was to test the continuous or categorical nature of the mental timeline. Italian participants judged the temporal reference of 20 temporal expressions by pressing keys on either the left or the right. In Experiment 1 (N = 32), all words were presented at the center of the screen. In Experiment 2 (N = 32), each word was presented on the screen in a central, left, or right position. In Experiment 3 (N = 32), all text was mirror-reversed. In all experiments, participants were asked to place the 20 temporal expressions on a 10-cm line. The results showed a clear Spatial–TEmporal Association of Response Codes (STEARC) effect which did not vary in strength depending on the location of the temporal expressions on the line. However, there was also a clear Distance effect: latencies were slower for words that were closer to the present than further away. We conclude that the mental timeline is a continuous representation that can be used in a categorical way when an explicit past vs. future discrimination is required by the task.

Company's Decision on Virtual Exhibition During Covid-19 Pandemic

The exhibition is one of the promotional tools that increase company branding, product brand as well as awareness of direct sales. Exhibitions are considered investment activities carried out by companies. During pandemic Covid-19, offline exhibitions are impossible to be hosted. As alternative to hosted exhibitions by using virtual or online platforms. However, there is still a need to study to evaluate which factors have a stronger influence and relationship on the exhibition decision. The data analysis method used is multinomial logistic regression analysis. The results showed that the quality of the exhibition, popularity, time, representation, and price determine the company's decision to join an exhibition. It concludes that the company's decision is influenced by these factors 65% and three factors are having a significant influence for joining the exhibition.

Emotional Effects Induced by the Application of a Cosmetic Product: A Real-Time Electrophysiological Evaluation

Well-being is an essential concept in cosmetics, but its complexity makes it very difficult to measure. The goal of the present study was to use electroencephalography (EEG) to compare the emotions induced by the application of two cosmetic products, and to offer to the experimenter a real-time representation of the participants’ emotional state. Fifteen female subjects participated in a cross-over study. Two cosmetic products of similar consistency were compared and applied from the dominant hand to the non-dominant hand. During the application, the neural activity of each participant was recorded with EEG. We found that the most appreciated product was the one that induced emotions with the most positive valence and the higher arousal, as recorded by EEG. Moreover, the videos recorded of each participant allowed us to attest to the differences in emotion processing for each product in real-time. This exploratory study shows that EEG can be successfully used to assess the emotions induced by the application of a cosmetic product, and in real-time. This technique could be a useful adjunct to other methods of examining emotions, such as observational experiments, surveys, and questionnaires.

Forensic Analysis of Time Markers of Digital Recordings

The article presents the results of summarizing expert practice on the examination of the features of digital video and sound recordings, which make it possible to determine the time of file creation and date of the recorded events. The author introduces the concept of “time marker” and proposes the classification of time markers in the file name, time attributes, and metadata by form and source of origin. The basic principles of time representation by various file systems are stated. The relationships between different time markers for original records and records made in other ways are analyzed. The article provides examples of using time markers to diagnose the method of making a record.Various types of time markers that are part of the recorded signal are considered. It is shown which of the recorded events can act as time markers. The author also analyses the possibility of dating using astronomical events. Differences between absolute and relative dating are considered concerning the study of audio and video files. Conclusions are drawn about the significance of the study of time markers for diagnosing the method of making a signalogram, performing relative or absolute dating of recorded events, or technological processes of making a signalogram.

Evolution of Genre Parameters of Documentary Text (Exemplified by References)

The article considers reference as an information-and-assessment document, the dynamics of reference transformation is viewed from documentary linguistics angle. The research is carried out on the material of reference given to applicants in the field of education; the documents belong to different chronological periods (Soviet period (wartime): 1941–1945; Soviet period: 1970–1990s; modern period: 2015–2020). The functional purpose of the document was determined and the composition and content structure of its text was analyzed. Speech means representing the main genre characteristics of the text of reference have been identified; they are presented at three levels of the hierarchy, taking into account their interconnection and significance as genre-forming parameters: addresser/addressee and function; information, structure and dominant modality; space and time. The author reveals the regularities of text formation, as well as genre peculiarities of the text, determined by social and linguistic factors. When analyzing the genre parameters of the document, the fact that the properties of the text are influenced by the specifics of the communication situation is taken into account. It was shown that social changes caused a shift in the nature of the information transmitted by the document; affected the structure and dominant modality of the text, space and time representation. Extralinguistic determination of speech organization of documentary text is demonstrated. It was established that speech representation of genre parameters is associated with the implementation of informational and presentation functions of the document.

A spectral-in-time Newton–Krylov method for nonlinear PDE-constrained optimization

We devise a method for nonlinear time-dependent partial-differential-equation-constrained optimization problems that uses a spectral-in-time representation of the residual, combined with a Newton–Krylov method to drive the residual to zero. We also propose a preconditioner to accelerate this scheme. Numerical results indicate that this method can achieve fast and accurate solution of nonlinear problems for a range of mesh sizes and problem parameters. The numbers of outer Newton and inner Krylov iterations required to reach the attainable accuracy of a spatial discretization are robust with respect to the number of collocation points in time and also do not change substantially when other problem parameters are varied.