A synchronic lexical study of the Ede language continuum of West Africa: The effects of different similarity judgment criteria

In the context of a synchronic lexical study of the Ede varieties of West Africa, this paper investigates whether the use of different criteria sets to judge the similarity of lexical features in different language varieties yields matching conclusions regarding the relative relationships and clustering of the investigated varieties and thus leads to similar recommendations for further sociolinguistic research. Word lists elicited in 28 Ede varieties were analyzed with the inspection method. To explore the effects of different similarity judgment criteria, two different similarity judgment criteria sets were applied to the elicited data to identify similar lexical items. The quantification of these similarity decisions led to the computation of two similarity matrices which were subsequently analyzed by means of correlation analysis and multidimensional scaling. The findings of this analysis suggest compatible conclusions regarding the relative relationships and clustering of the investigated Ede varieties. However, the matching clustering results do not necessarily lead to the same recommendations for more in-depth sociolinguistic research, when interpreted in terms of an absolute lexical similarity threshold. The indicated ambiguities suggest the usefulness of focusing on the relative, rather than absolute in establishing recommendations for further sociolinguistic research.

Modellgestützte und hierarchische Prozesskettenbetrachtung für die additive Fertigung

Additive Fertigungsverfahren eignen sich für die wirtschaftliche Herstellung von Bauteilen im Bereich kleiner bis mittlerer Stückzahlen, da keine Formen oder Spezialwerkzeuge notwendig sind. Die erzielbaren Eigenschaften sind oftmals bereits ausreichend, um einen Einsatz auch in Serienanwendungen zu ermöglichen. Verbunden mit den Vorteilen der Technologie bezüglich einer hohen Flexibilität, sowohl während der Konstruktion als auch der Fertigung, können sich durch eine konsequente Nutzung finanzielle Einsparmöglichkeiten entlang des gesamten Produktlebenszyklus ergeben. Bezüglich der Wirtschaftlichkeit der Verfahren herrscht oftmals noch Unklarheit, da geeignete Methoden fehlen, um diese zu bewerten. Bestehende Methoden und Werkzeuge zur Bewertung der Wirtschaftlichkeit konventioneller Fertigungsverfahren sind dabei für die additive Fertigung nicht direkt nutzbar. In dem Artikel wird eine Methode zur modellgestützten Abbildung einer gesamten additiven Fertigungskette vorgestellt, welche auch die Wechselwirkungen zwischen den einzelnen Prozesskettengliedern berücksichtigen soll. Eine konkrete Aussage bezüglich der Wirtschaftlichkeit der additiven Fertigung soll somit ermöglicht werden.

Google Books and Fair Use: A Tale of Two Copyrights?

On 14 November 2013, the US District Court of the Southern District of New York issued a major ruling in favour of the Google Books project, concluding that Google’s unauthorized scanning and indexing of millions of copyrighted books in the collections of participating libraries and subsequently making snippets of these works available online through the “Google Books” search tool qualifies as a fair use under section 107 USCA. After assuming that Google’s actions constitute a prima facie case of copyright infringement, Judge Chin examined the four factors in section 107 USCA and concluded in favour of fair use on the grounds that the project provides “significant public benefits,” that the unauthorized use of copyrighted works (a search tool of scanned full-text books) is “highly transformative” and that it does not supersede or supplant these works. The fair use defence also excluded Google’s liability for making copies of scanned books available to the libraries (as well as under secondary liability since library actions were also found to be protected by fair use): it is aimed at enhancing lawful uses of the digitized books by the libraries for the advancement of the arts and sciences. A previous ruling by the same court of 22 March 2011 had rejected a settlement agreement proposed by the parties, on the grounds that it was “not fair, adequate, and reasonable”. The Authors Guild has appealed the ruling.