Political discourse analysis from the point of view of translation studies

Political discourse very often relies on translation. Political Discourse Analysis (PDA), however, has not yet taken full account of the phenomenon of translation. This paper argues that the disciplines of Translation Studies (TS) and PDA can benefit from closer cooperation. It starts by presenting examples of authentic translations of political texts, commenting on them from the point of view of TS. These examples concern political effects caused by specific translation solutions; the processes by which information is transferred via translation to another culture; and the structure and function of equally valid texts in their respective cultures. After a brief survey of the discipline of Translation Studies, the paper concludes with outlining scope for interdisciplinary cooperation between PDA and TS. This is illustrated with reference to an awareness of product features, multilingual texts, process analysis, and the politics of translation.

A developmental dissociation of view-dependent and view-invariant object recognition in adolescence

Spatial generalization skills in school children aged 8-16 were studied with regard to unfamiliar objects that had been previously learned in a cross-modal priming and learning paradigm. We observed a developmental dissociation with younger children recognizing objects only from previously learnt perspectives whereas older children generalized acquired object knowledge to new viewpoints as well. Haptic and - to a lesser extent - visual priming improved spatial generalization in all but the youngest children. The data supports the idea of dissociable, view-dependent and view-invariant object representations with different developmental trajectories that are subject to modulatory effects of priming. Late-developing areas in the parietal or the prefrontal cortex may account for the retarded onset of view-invariant object recognition. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The move to servitization (from a product service system point of view)

Product Service Systems (PSSs) emphasize the substitution of products with services. The term “Servitisation” was introduced by Sandra Vendermerwe in the 80s to represent the addition of services to increase a company’s competitive edge. Key to PSS, and Servitisation more generally, is the “informated product”. The informated product enables health monitoring of the product in use and can be key to a workable PSS. This paper reviews the evolution of servitisation and the associated business benefit. It also then reviews the concept of informated product reconfiguration techniques and remote services that enables PSS to be delivered.

Self-organising zooms for decentralised redundancy management in visual sensor networks

When visual sensor networks are composed of cameras which can adjust the zoom factor of their own lens, one must determine the optimal zoom levels for the cameras, for a given task. This gives rise to an important trade-off between the overlap of the different cameras’ fields of view, providing redundancy, and image quality. In an object tracking task, having multiple cameras observe the same area allows for quicker recovery, when a camera fails. In contrast having narrow zooms allow for a higher pixel count on regions of interest, leading to increased tracking confidence. In this paper we propose an approach for the self-organisation of redundancy in a distributed visual sensor network, based on decentralised multi-objective online learning using only local information to approximate the global state. We explore the impact of different zoom levels on these trade-offs, when tasking omnidirectional cameras, having perfect 360-degree view, with keeping track of a varying number of moving objects. We further show how employing decentralised reinforcement learning enables zoom configurations to be achieved dynamically at runtime according to an operator’s preference for maximising either the proportion of objects tracked, confidence associated with tracking, or redundancy in expectation of camera failure. We show that explicitly taking account of the level of overlap, even based only on local knowledge, improves resilience when cameras fail. Our results illustrate the trade-off between maintaining high confidence and object coverage, and maintaining redundancy, in anticipation of future failure. Our approach provides a fully tunable decentralised method for the self-organisation of redundancy in a changing environment, according to an operator’s preferences.

Effect of support and cultural intelligence on the adjustment and performance of expatriates and their family members in Malaysia

Theory suggests that people fear the unknown and no matter how experienced one is, the feelings of anxiety and uncertainty, if not managed well would affect how we view ourselves and how others view us. Hence, it is in human nature to engage in activities to help decipher behaviours that seem contrary to their beliefs and hinder the smooth-flowing of their work and daily activities. Building on these arguments, this research investigates the two types of support that are provided by multinational corporations (MNCs) and host country nationals (HCNs) to the expatriates and their family members whilst on international assignments in Malaysia as antecedents to their adjustment and performance in the host country. To complement the support provided, cultural intelligence (CQ) is investigated to explain the influence of cultural elements in facilitating adjustment and performance of the relocating families, especially to socially integrate into the host country. This research aims to investigate the influence of support and CQ on the adjustment and performance of expatriates in Malaysia. Path analyses are used to test the hypothesised relationships. The findings substantiate the pivotal roles that MNCs and HCNs play in helping the expatriates and their families acclimatise to the host country. This corroborates the norm of reciprocity where assistance or support rendered especially at the times when they were crucially needed would be reciprocated with positive behaviour deemed of equal value. Additionally, CQ is significantly positive in enhancing adjustment to the host country, which highlights the vital role that cultural awareness and knowledge play in enhancing effective intercultural communication and better execution of contextual performance. The research highlights the interdependence of the expatriates? multiple stakeholders (i.e. MNCs, HCNs, family members) in supporting the expatriates whilst on assignments. Finally, the findings reveal that the expatriate families do influence how the locals view the families and would be a great asset in initiating future communication between the expatriates and HCNs. The research contributes to the fields of intercultural adjustment and communication and also has key messages for policy makers.

Assessing visual fields for driving in patients with paracentral scotomata

Background: The binocular Esterman visual field test (EVFT) is the current visual field test for driving in the UK. Merging of monocular field tests (Integrated Visual Field, IVF) has been proposed as an alternative for glaucoma patients. Aims: To examine the level of agreement between the EVFT and IVF for patients with binocular paracentral scotomata, caused by either ophthalmological or neurological conditions, and to compare outcomes with useful field of view (UFOV) performance, a test of visual attention thought to be important in driving. Methods: 60 patients with binocular paracentral scotomata but normal visual acuity (VA) were recruited prospectively. Subjects completed and were classified as “pass” or “fail” for the EVFT, IVF and UFOV. Results: Good agreement occurred between the EVFT and IVF in classifying subjects as “pass” or “fail” (kappa?=?0.84). Classifications disagreed for four subjects with paracentral scotomata of neurological origin (three “passed” IVF yet “failed” EVFT). Mean UFOV scores did not differ between those who “passed” and those who “failed” both visual field tests (p?=?0.11). Agreement between the visual field tests and UFOV was limited (EVFT kappa?=?0.22, IVF kappa 0.32). Conclusions: Although the IVF and EVFT agree well in classifying visual fields with regard to legal fitness to drive in the UK, the IVF “passes” some individuals currently classed as unfit to drive due to paracentral scotomata of non-glaucomatous origin. The suitability of the UFOV for assessing crash risk in those with visual field loss is questionable.

Designing a safety management support system using open architecture databases: the requirements of information representation in the support of managers' risk-related decision-making

This research was conducted at the Space Research and Technology Centre o the European Space Agency at Noordvijk in the Netherlands. ESA is an international organisation that brings together a range of scientists, engineers and managers from 14 European member states. The motivation for the work was to enable decision-makers, in a culturally and technologically diverse organisation, to share information for the purpose of making decisions that are well informed about the risk-related aspects of the situations they seek to address. The research examined the use of decision support system DSS) technology to facilitate decision-making of this type. This involved identifying the technology available and its application to risk management. Decision-making is a complex activity that does not lend itself to exact measurement or precise understanding at a detailed level. In view of this, a prototype DSS was developed through which to understand the practical issues to be accommodated and to evaluate alternative approaches to supporting decision-making of this type. The problem of measuring the effect upon the quality of decisions has been approached through expert evaluation of the software developed. The practical orientation of this work was informed by a review of the relevant literature in decision-making, risk management, decision support and information technology. Communication and information technology unite the major the,es of this work. This allows correlation of the interests of the research with European public policy. The principles of communication were also considered in the topic of information visualisation - this emerging technology exploits flexible modes of human computer interaction (HCI) to improve the cognition of complex data. Risk management is itself an area characterised by complexity and risk visualisation is advocated for application in this field of endeavour. The thesis provides recommendations for future work in the fields of decision=making, DSS technology and risk management.

The integration of multi-source data to improve the classification of remotely sensed images

The number of remote sensing platforms and sensors rises almost every year, yet much work on the interpretation of land cover is still carried out using either single images or images from the same source taken at different dates. Two questions could be asked of this proliferation of images: can the information contained in different scenes be used to improve the classification accuracy and, what is the best way to combine the different imagery? Two of these multiple image sources are MODIS on the Terra platform and ETM+ on board Landsat7, which are suitably complementary. Daily MODIS images with 36 spectral bands in 250-1000 m spatial resolution and seven spectral bands of ETM+ with 30m and 16 days spatial and temporal resolution respectively are available. In the UK, cloud cover may mean that only a few ETM+ scenes may be available for any particular year and these may not be at the time of year of most interest. The MODIS data may provide information on land cover over the growing season, such as harvest dates, that is not present in the ETM+ data. Therefore, the primary objective of this work is to develop a methodology for the integration of medium spatial resolution Landsat ETM+ image, with multi-temporal, multi-spectral, low-resolution MODIS \Terra images, with the aim of improving the classification of agricultural land. Additionally other data may also be incorporated such as field boundaries from existing maps. When classifying agricultural land cover of the type seen in the UK, where crops are largely sown in homogenous fields with clear and often mapped boundaries, the classification is greatly improved using the mapped polygons and utilising the classification of the polygon as a whole as an apriori probability in classifying each individual pixel using a Bayesian approach. When dealing with multiple images from different platforms and dates it is highly unlikely that the pixels will be exactly co-registered and these pixels will contain a mixture of different real world land covers. Similarly the different atmospheric conditions prevailing during the different days will mean that the same emission from the ground will give rise to different sensor reception. Therefore, a method is presented with a model of the instantaneous field of view and atmospheric effects to enable different remote sensed data sources to be integrated.

How organizational cognitive neuroscience can deepen understanding of managerial decision-making:a review of the recent literature and future directions

There is growing interest in exploring the potential links between human biology and management and organization studies, which is bringing greater attention to bear on the place of mental processes in explaining human behaviour and effectiveness. The authors define this new field as organizational cognitive neuroscience (OCN), which is in the exploratory phase of its emergence and diffusion. It is clear that there are methodological debates and issues associated with OCN research, and the aim of this paper is to illuminate these concerns, and provide a roadmap for rigorous and relevant future work in the area. To this end, the current reach of OCN is investigated by the systematic review methodology, revealing three clusters of activity, covering the fields of economics, marketing and organizational behaviour. Among these clusters, organizational behaviour seems to be an outlier, owing to its far greater variety of empirical work, which the authors argue is largely a result of the plurality of research methods that have taken root within this field. Nevertheless, all three clusters contribute to a greater understanding of the biological mechanisms that mediate choice and decision-making. The paper concludes that OCN research has already provided important insights regarding the boundaries surrounding human freedom to act in various domains and, in turn, self-determination to influence the workplace. However, there is much to be done, and emerging research of significant interest is highlighted.