Comprehending Comprehensible Input (CI): Some Observations

Most people who use the word ‘Latin’ as the name of a language in antiquity (not Medieval or Neo-Latin therefore) seem unaware that Latin was a continuum made up of many different varieties, Classical Latin (which they identify with Latin) being only one of them. So when they talk of spoken Latin they mean spoken Classical Latin, no other variety from antiquity being available that is suitable to be spoken. This is ironic on two counts. First, the overwhelming majority of native Latin speakers did not speak Classical Latin at all. Secondly, the small minority of people who did speak it did not do so routinely as a language of everyday conversation, but only on certain formal occasions and in certain public situations. They spoke routinely the appropriate form of their first language, the form that was used by a social, cultural and educational elite. This was not Classical Latin, which was not an acquired form of Latin but one that was learned as if it were a second language. What the language they did speak routinely was like we do not know, and no doubt it comprised several different registers, as languages do. Whether they realise it or not, people who engage in informal conversations in formal Classical Latin today are not re-enacting any authentic experience that was to be had in the ancient world.

Rewriting the History of Connexive Logic

The “official” history of connexive logic was written in 2012 by Storrs McCall who argued that connexive logic was founded by ancient logicians like Aristotle, Chrysippus, and Boethius; that it was further developed by medieval logicians like Abelard, Kilwardby, and Paul of Venice; and that it was rediscovered in the 19th and twentieth century by Lewis Carroll, Hugh MacColl, Frank P. Ramsey, and Everett J. Nelson. From 1960 onwards, connexive logic was finally transformed into non-classical calculi which partly concur with systems of relevance logic and paraconsistent logic. In this paper it will be argued that McCall’s historical analysis is fundamentally mistaken since it doesn’t take into account two versions of connexivism. While “humble” connexivism maintains that connexive properties (like the condition that no proposition implies its own negation) only apply to “normal” (e.g., self-consistent) antecedents, “hardcore” connexivism insists that they also hold for “abnormal” propositions. It is shown that the overwhelming majority of the forerunners of connexive logic were only “humble” connexivists. Their ideas concerning (“humbly”) connexive implication don’t give rise, however, to anything like a non-classical logic.

Omani Adolescent Information Behaviour During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Omani adolescents' information behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic is a new interesting topic in the Omani literature. Since the suspension of face-to-face classes in the Sultanate of Oman, Omani adolescents have depended on Wikipedia, blogs, friends, TikTok, and social media to satisfy their crave for information about the virus. This study aims at finding out Omani adolescents' demographic characteristics when obtaining and disseminating pandemic-related content online, their information needs, and the sources of information they use during COVID-19. It is a descriptive study in which a Google survey was used to collect data from 1000 adolescents at different grades in Omani schools. An overwhelming majority of the participants were females (72%) compared to 28% males. Findings indicate that Omani adolescents display distinct traits in terms of their gender, age, grade, and governance. In addition, the study has found that Omani adolescents have several information needs during COVID-19, among which is the educational need.

Dilbert Moments

Developing and delivering a project to an agreed schedule is fundamentally what project managers do. There is still an ongoing debate about schedule delays. This research investigates the development of schedules through semi-structured in-depth interviews. The findings reveal that half of the respondents believe that delays reported in the media are not real and should be attributed to scope changes. IT project managers estimating techniques include bottom-up estimates, analogy, and expert judgement. Impeding factors reported for the development of realistic schedules were technical (e.g. honest mistakes) and political (e.g. completion dates imposed by the sponsor). Respondents did not mention any psychological factors, although most were aware of optimism bias. However, they were not familiar with approaches to mitigate its impacts. Yet, when these techniques were mentioned, the overwhelming majority agreed that these mitigation approaches would change their schedule estimate.

Workers Gain Formal Political Power

Industrialization and urbanization during the nineteenth century brought workers physically together, where they could organize and petition through strikes and revolts for better wages, shorter working hours, limits to child labor, safer working conditions, education for their children, and most importantly, the franchise. Although inequality continued to increase, conditions for workers and their families began improving. Workers gained formal political power within government. Yet although workers acquired the vote and with it the potential for dramatically rewriting the rules of the game (because they held the overwhelming majority of votes), elites’ ideology was effective in convincing them to restrain their political muscle. Nevertheless, elites’ monopoly control over the political sphere had been broken. As a result, they could no longer as readily use violence to put down worker demands. Their retention of disproportionate shares of income, wealth, and privilege would depend more fully upon the persuasiveness of their ideology.

The System of Modern Russian Specialized Sports Internet Media

The beginning of the XXI century is characterized by the emergence of new media and the development of the Internet space by traditional media. A large number of sports publications have moved to an online format. This article examined the system of Russian specialized sports online media. The study analyzed the one hundred most popular specialized sports online media. We studied the following independent variables: the amount of materials per day/ per week; monthly number of visitors; official registration as a media; period of existence. The research found that the system of Russian specialized sports online media includes specialized professional online media, specialized mass online media, club Internet media, sites of sports federations, fan sites, communication and statistical platforms. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of Internet resources are not officially registered media, although they perform all the functions of media and have the same goal. In conclusion, it can be highlighted that specialized sports sites are divided into the most popular, relatively popular and unpopular in relation to sports.

Questionnaire Background on the Hognose Snake (Heterodon nasicus) Breeders’ Awareness of the Risk of Being Bitten

Several cases of Heterodon nasicus bites producing various symptoms have already been described. In this paper, a survey was conducted among Polish breeders of this species, where 47.7% of the respondents admitted that their snakes had tried to bite them, and 31.4% fed their snakes with their bare hands. When asked whether they feared being bitten by this snake during daily handling, an overwhelming majority of the respondents declared (74% of total negative responses, n = 63) that they were not afraid of being bitten. Based on the popularity of H. nasicus as a pet animal, it can only be assumed that the magnitude of accidental bites is much greater than that reported in published case reports. Therefore, it is important to try to educate pet breeders to report such cases and pay attention to the use of appropriate handling methods during contact with snake food and during feeding.

Results of Cluster Analysis of Semantic Features “What is the Person’s Gender? and “What is the Person’s Appearance?” for the Stimulus “Flirting Person””

The present work continues a series of studies concerning ludic competence/ playfulness by means of psycholinguistic instruments and is devoted to description of the behaviour pattern of the ludic position “Diplomat”, which corresponds to flirting as one of the components of playfulness. The key research method is psycholinguistic experiment whose main stage is the controlled association experiment (CAE) with the stimulus “flirting person”. The sample consisted of 215 young respondents (age 21-35). The instructions for the controlled association experiment was developed in the frame of the parametric concept of I.A. Sternin. 23 questions (semantic features) were formulated. They were recognized as relevant to communication for the stimulus “flirting person” and allowed to obtain the material for describing the behaviour pattern of ludic position Diplomat (“flirting person”) reflecting the reality of linguistic consciousness of native speakers. This study presents the results of cluster analysis of two association fields built for the following semantic features: “What is the person’s gender?” and “What is the person’s appearance?”. The results of cluster analysis of the association field built for the semantic feature “What is the person’s gender?” indicate that in the linguistic consciousness of the inhabitants of Ukraine, the overwhelming majority of respondents (93%) accept the binary concept of gender, for 3% of respondents gender does not matter, and only one respondent considers the transgender identity. The analysis of the association field built for the semantic feature “What is the person’s appearance?” allows us to assert that the absolute majority of respondents (78%) demonstrates an emotionally positive attitude towards “flirting person”.

Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression among Epileptic patients in selected Hospitals, Rohtak. Haryana

Background: Epilepsy is a common neurological condition associated with recurrent and unpredictable seizures associated with significant psychological and social consequences. People with epilepsy (PWE) are more vulnerable to psychiatric illnesses: rates of psychiatric illness are 9% higher among PWE than in the general population and rates of depression, 22% higher. Aim of the Study: to assess the prevalence of anxiety and depression among epileptic patients. Methodology: Non-experimental descriptive survey research design was adopted in this study. data were collected from 100 outpatients who were visiting Vashishtha Neuro Care in City Rohtak, Haryana. Convenience sampling technique was adopted to recruit samples. Data were collected through GAD – 7 Spitzer et al., (2006) and Neurological Disorder Depression Inventory for Epilepsy. (NDDI – E) David E Friedman (2009), Collected data were analysed by means of descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: An overwhelming majority of the samples mild 72 (72.00%) have mild level of anxiety. Similarly, with regard to depression an overwhelming majority of the samples mild 54 (54.00%) have mild level of depression. High correlation was there between anxiety and depression (r = 0.785). There was a statistically significant association between anxiety and residence (ꭓ2 = 7.451, ‘P’ value 0.024). Statistically significant associations were also present between depression and the demographic variables such as past history of medical illness, substance abuse and hospitalization. Conclusion: Our study findings revealed anxiety was more than depression among clients with epilepsy. There was also high correlation among the comorbidities. More attention should be paid to incorporating anxiety and depression screening and treatment into existing epilepsy programs and to revising treatment guidelines of epileptic clients.

A Content Analysis of American Primetime Television: A 20-Year Update of the National Television Violence Studies

This article provides a 20-year, apples-to-apples update of the National Television Violence Studies. Using the same sampling procedures and codebook, we coded 765 primetime television programs and movies airing on 21 broadcast and cable networks. Results suggest the prevalence of violence has increased slightly, but the number of programs saturated with violence has experienced a more significant increase. This appears to be driven by an influx of highly violent movies airing in primetime on cable channels. Although some contextual variables suggest slight improvements in terms of negative consequences for violence, the overwhelming majority of violent television programs and movies do not feature anti-violence themes. Implications for social cognitive, cultivation, schema, transportation, and media vividness theories are discussed.