Semiotic Analysis in the Study of Social Work

Research and professional practices have the joint aim of re-structuring the preconceived notions of reality. They both want to gain the understanding about social reality. Social workers use their professional competence in order to grasp the reality of their clients, while researchers’ pursuit is to open the secrecies of the research material. Development and research are now so intertwined and inherent in almost all professional practices that making distinctions between practising, developing and researching has become difficult and in many aspects irrelevant. Moving towards research-based practices is possible and it is easily applied within the framework of the qualitative research approach (Dominelli 2005, 235; Humphries 2005, 280). Social work can be understood as acts and speech acts crisscrossing between social workers and clients. When trying to catch the verbal and non-verbal hints of each others’ behaviour, the actors have to do a lot of interpretations in a more or less uncertain mental landscape. Our point of departure is the idea that the study of social work practices requires tools which effectively reveal the internal complexity of social work (see, for example, Adams & Dominelli & Payne 2005, 294 – 295). The boom of qualitative research methodologies in recent decades is associated with much profound the rupture in humanities, which is called the linguistic turn (Rorty 1967). The idea that language is not transparently mediating our perceptions and thoughts about reality, but on the contrary it constitutes it was new and even confusing to many social scientists. Nowadays we have got used to read research reports which have applied different branches of discursive analyses or narratologic or semiotic approaches. Although differences are sophisticated between those orientations they share the idea of the predominance of language. Despite the lively research work of today’s social work and the research-minded atmosphere of social work practice, semiotics has rarely applied in social work research. However, social work as a communicative practice concerns symbols, metaphors and all kinds of the representative structures of language. Those items are at the core of semiotics, the science of signs, and the science which examines people using signs in their mutual interaction and their endeavours to make the sense of the world they live in, their semiosis. When thinking of the practice of social work and doing the research of it, a number of interpretational levels ought to be passed before reaching the research phase in social work. First of all, social workers have to interpret their clients’ situations, which will be recorded in the files. In some very rare cases those past situations will be reflected in discussions or perhaps interviews or put under the scrutiny of some researcher in the future. Each and every new observation adds its own flavour to the mixture of meanings. Social workers have combined their observations with previous experience and professional knowledge, furthermore, the situation on hand also influences the reactions. In addition, the interpretations made by social workers over the course of their daily working routines are never limited to being part of the personal process of the social worker, but are also always inherently cultural. The work aiming at social change is defined by the presence of an initial situation, a specific goal, and the means and ways of achieving it, which are – or which should be – agreed upon by the social worker and the client in situation which is unique and at the same time socially-driven. Because of the inherent plot-based nature of social work, the practices related to it can be analysed as stories (see Dominelli 2005, 234), given, of course, that they are signifying and told by someone. The research of the practices is concentrating on impressions, perceptions, judgements, accounts, documents etc. All these multifarious elements can be scrutinized as textual corpora, but not whatever textual material. In semiotic analysis, the material studied is characterised as verbal or textual and loaded with meanings. We present a contribution of research methodology, semiotic analysis, which has to our mind at least implicitly references to the social work practices. Our examples of semiotic interpretation have been picked up from our dissertations (Laine 2005; Saurama 2002). The data are official documents from the archives of a child welfare agency and transcriptions of the interviews of shelter employees. These data can be defined as stories told by the social workers of what they have seen and felt. The official documents present only fragmentations and they are often written in passive form. (Saurama 2002, 70.) The interviews carried out in the shelters can be described as stories where the narrators are more familiar and known. The material is characterised by the interaction between the interviewer and interviewee. The levels of the story and the telling of the story become apparent when interviews or documents are examined with the use of semiotic tools. The roots of semiotic interpretation can be found in three different branches; the American pragmatism, Saussurean linguistics in Paris and the so called formalism in Moscow and Tartu; however in this paper we are engaged with the so called Parisian School of semiology which prominent figure was A. J. Greimas. The Finnish sociologists Pekka Sulkunen and Jukka Törrönen (1997a; 1997b) have further developed the ideas of Greimas in their studies on socio-semiotics, and we lean on their ideas. In semiotics social reality is conceived as a relationship between subjects, observations, and interpretations and it is seen mediated by natural language which is the most common sign system among human beings (Mounin 1985; de Saussure 2006; Sebeok 1986). Signification is an act of associating an abstract context (signified) to some physical instrument (signifier). These two elements together form the basic concept, the “sign”, which never constitutes any kind of meaning alone. The meaning will be comprised in a distinction process where signs are being related to other signs. In this chain of signs, the meaning becomes diverged from reality. (Greimas 1980, 28; Potter 1996, 70; de Saussure 2006, 46-48.) One interpretative tool is to think of speech as a surface under which deep structures – i.e. values and norms – exist (Greimas & Courtes 1982; Greimas 1987). To our mind semiotics is very much about playing with two different levels of text: the syntagmatic surface which is more or less faithful to the grammar, and the paradigmatic, semantic structure of values and norms hidden in the deeper meanings of interpretations. Semiotic analysis deals precisely with the level of meaning which exists under the surface, but the only way to reach those meanings is through the textual level, the written or spoken text. That is why the tools are needed. In our studies, we have used the semiotic square and the actant analysis. The former is based on the distinctions and the categorisations of meanings, and the latter on opening the plotting of narratives in order to reach the value structures.

Through the European Looking Glass: Citizenship Tests in the USA, Australia, and Canada

Discussing new or recently reformed citizenship tests in the USA, Australia, and Canada, this article asks whether they amount to a restrictive turn of new world citizenship, similar to recent developments in Europe. I argue that elements of a restrictive turn are noticeable in Australia and Canada, but only at the level of political rhetoric, not of law and policy, which remain liberal and inclusive. Much like in Europe, the restrictive turn is tantamount to Muslims and Islam moving to the center of the integration debate.

Moving along the mental time line influences the processing of future related words

Abstract concepts like numbers or time are thought to be represented in the more concrete domain of space and the sensorimotor system. For example, thinking of past or future events has a physical manifestation in backward or forward body sway, respectively. In the present study, we investigated the reverse effect: can passive whole-body motion influence the processing of temporal information? Participants were asked to categorize verbal stimuli to the concepts future or past while they were displaced forward and backward (Experiment 1), or upward and downward (Experiment 2). The results showed that future related verbal stimuli were categorized faster during forward as compared to backward motion. This finding supports the view that temporal events are represented along a mental time line and that the sensorimotor system is linked to that representation. We showed that body motion is not just an epiphenomenon of temporal thoughts. Passive whole-body motion can influence higher-order temporal cognition.

Transient Neonatal Zinc Deficiency Caused by a Heterozygous G87R Mutation in the Zinc Transporter ZnT-2 (SLC30A2) Gene in the Mother Highlighting the Importance of Zn (2+) for Normal Growth and Development

Suboptimal dietary zinc (Zn(2+)) intake is increasingly appreciated as an important public health issue. Zn(2+) is an essential mineral, and infants are particularly vulnerable to Zn(2+) deficiency, as they require large amounts of Zn(2+) for their normal growth and development. Although term infants are born with an important hepatic Zn(2+) storage, adequate Zn(2+) nutrition of infants mostly depends on breast milk or formula feeding, which contains an adequate amount of Zn(2+) to meet the infants' requirements. An exclusively breast-fed 6 months old infant suffering from Zn(2+) deficiency caused by an autosomal dominant negative G87R mutation in the Slc30a2 gene (encoding for the zinc transporter 2 (ZnT-2)) in the mother is reported. More than 20 zinc transporters characterized up to date, classified into two families (Slc30a/ZnT and Slc39a/Zip), reflect the complexity and importance of maintaining cellular Zn(2+) homeostasis and dynamics. The role of ZnTs is to reduce intracellular Zn(2+) by transporting it from the cytoplasm into various intracellular organelles and by moving Zn(2+) into extracellular space. Zips increase intracellular Zn(2+) by transporting it in the opposite direction. Thus the coordinated action of both is essential for the maintenance of Zn(2+) homeostasis in the cytoplasm, and accumulating evidence suggests that this is also true for the secretory pathway of growth hormone.

Seismic anisotropy in the Morcles nappe shear zone: Implications for seismic imaging of crustal scale shear zones

Microstructures and textures of calcite mylonites from the Morcles nappe large-scale shear zone in southwestern Switzerland develop principally as a function of 1) extrinsic physical parameters including temperature, stress, strain, strain rate and 2) intrinsic parameters, such as mineral composition. We collected rock samples at a single location from this shear zone, on which laboratory ultrasonic velocities, texture and microstructures were investigated and quantified. The samples had different concentration of secondary mineral phases (< 5 up to 40 vol.%). Measured seismic P wave anisotropy ranges from 6.5% for polyphase mylonites (~ 40 vol.%) to 18.4% in mylonites with < 5 vol.% secondary phases. Texture strength of calcite is the main factor governing the seismic P wave anisotropy. Measured S wave splitting is generally highest in the foliation plane, but its origin is more difficult to explain solely by calcite texture. Additional texture measurements were made on calcite mylonites with low concentration of secondary phases (≤ 10 vol.%) along the metamorphic gradient of the shear zone (15 km distance). A systematic increase in texture strength is observed moving from the frontal part of the shear zone (anchimetamorphism; 280 °C) to the higher temperature, basal part (greenschist facies; 350–400 °C). Calculated P wave velocities become increasingly anisotropic towards the high-strain part of the nappe, from an average of 5.8% in the frontal part to 13.2% in the root of the basal part. Secondary phases raise an additional complexity, and may act either to increase or decrease seismic anisotropy of shear zone mylonites. In light of our findings we reinterpret the origin of some seismically reflective layers in the Grône–Zweisimmen line in southwestern Switzerland (PNR20 Swiss National Research Program). We hypothesize that reflections originate in part from the lateral variation in textural and microstructural arrangement of calcite mylonites in shear zones.

Tracking the Flow of Information through the Hippocampal Formation in the Rat

The hippocampus receives input from upper levels of the association cortex and is implicated in many mnemonic processes, but the exact mechanisms by which it codes and stores information is an unresolved topic. This work examines the flow of information through the hippocampal formation while attempting to determine the computations that each of the hippocampal subfields performs in learning and memory. The formation, storage, and recall of hippocampal-dependent memories theoretically utilize an autoassociative attractor network that functions by implementing two competitive, yet complementary, processes. Pattern separation, hypothesized to occur in the dentate gyrus (DG), refers to the ability to decrease the similarity among incoming information by producing output patterns that overlap less than the inputs. In contrast, pattern completion, hypothesized to occur in the CA3 region, refers to the ability to reproduce a previously stored output pattern from a partial or degraded input pattern. Prior to addressing the functional role of the DG and CA3 subfields, the spatial firing properties of neurons in the dentate gyrus were examined. The principal cell of the dentate gyrus, the granule cell, has spatially selective place fields; however, the behavioral correlates of another excitatory cell, the mossy cell of the dentate polymorphic layer, are unknown. This report shows that putative mossy cells have spatially selective firing that consists of multiple fields similar to previously reported properties of granule cells. Other cells recorded from the DG had single place fields. Compared to cells with multiple fields, cells with single fields fired at a lower rate during sleep, were less likely to burst, and were more likely to be recorded simultaneously with a large population of neurons that were active during sleep and silent during behavior. These data suggest that single-field and multiple-field cells constitute at least two distinct cell classes in the DG. Based on these characteristics, we propose that putative mossy cells tend to fire in multiple, distinct locations in an environment, whereas putative granule cells tend to fire in single locations, similar to place fields of the CA1 and CA3 regions. Experimental evidence supporting the theories of pattern separation and pattern completion comes from both behavioral and electrophysiological tests. These studies specifically focused on the function of each subregion and made implicit assumptions about how environmental manipulations changed the representations encoded by the hippocampal inputs. However, the cell populations that provided these inputs were in most cases not directly examined. We conducted a series of studies to investigate the neural activity in the entorhinal cortex, dentate gyrus, and CA3 in the same experimental conditions, which allowed a direct comparison between the input and output representations. The results show that the dentate gyrus representation changes between the familiar and cue altered environments more than its input representations, whereas the CA3 representation changes less than its input representations. These findings are consistent with longstanding computational models proposing that (1) CA3 is an associative memory system performing pattern completion in order to recall previous memories from partial inputs, and (2) the dentate gyrus performs pattern separation to help store different memories in ways that reduce interference when the memories are subsequently recalled.

Development of micro-electrospray mass spectrometry for ultra high sensitivity and application in the study of drugs of abuse on endogenous \lbrack Met\rbrack $\sp5$-enkephalin release

A micro-electrospray interface was developed specifically for the neurobiological applications described in this dissertation. Incorporation of a unique nano-flow liquid chromatography micro-electrospray "needle" into the micro-electrospray interface (micro-ES/MS) increased the sensitivity of the mass spectrometric assay by $\sim$1000 fold and thus permitted the first analysis of specific neuroactive compounds in brain extracellular fluid collected by in vivo microdialysis (Md).^ Initial in vivo data presented deals with the pharmacodynamics of a novel GABA$\sb{\rm B}$ antagonist and the availability of the compound in its parent (unmetabolized) form to the brain of the anesthetized rat. Next, the first structurally specific endogenous release of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin was demonstrated in unanesthetized freely-moving animals (release of $\sim$6.5 fmole of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin into the dialysate by direct neuronal depolarization). The Md/micro-ES/MS system was used to test the acute effects of drugs of abuse on the endogenous release of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin from the globus pallidus/ventral pallidum brain region in rats. Four drugs known to be abused by man (morphine, cocaine, methamphetamine and diazepam) were tested. Morphine and cocaine both elicited a two-fold or more increase in the release of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin over vehicle controls. Diazepam elicited a small decrease in (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin levels and methamphetamine showed no significant effect on (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin. These results imply that (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin may be involved in the reward pathway of certain drugs of abuse. ^

Stage-dependent strategies of host invasion in the egg-larval parasitoid Chelonus inanitus.

Chelonus inanitus (Braconidae) is a solitary egg-larval parasitoid which lays its eggs into eggs of Spodoptera littoralis (Noctuidae); the parasitoid larva then develops in the haemocoel of the host larva. Host embryonic development lasts approx. 3.5 days while parasitoid embryonic development lasts approx. 16 h. All stages of host eggs can be successfully parasitized, and we show here that either the parasitoid larva or the wasp assures that the larva eventually is located in the host's haemocoel. (1) When freshly laid eggs, up to almost 1-day-old, are parasitized, the parasitoid hatches while still in the yolk and enters the host either after waiting or immediately through the dorsal opening. (2) When 1-2-day-old eggs are parasitized, the host embryo has accomplished final dorsal closure and is covered by an embryonic cuticle when the parasitoid hatches; in this case the parasitoid larva bores with its moving abdominal tip into the host. (3) When 2.5-3.5-day-old eggs are parasitized, the wasp oviposits directly into the haemocoel of the host embryo; from day 2 to 2.5 the embryo is still very small and the wasps, after probing, often restrain from oviposition for a few hours.

Kuroshio Intrusion and the Circulation in the South China Sea

The Princeton Ocean Model is used to study the circulation in the South China Sea (SCS) and its seasonal transition. Kuroshio enters ( leaves) the SCS through the southern ( northern) portion of the Luzon Strait. The annually averaged net volume flux through the Luzon Strait is similar to2 Sv into the SCS with seasonal reversals. The inflow season is from May to January with the maximum intrusion of Kuroshio water reaching the western SCS during fall in compensation of summertime surface offshore transport associated with coastal upwelling. From February to April the net transport reverses from the SCS to the Pacific. The intruded Kuroshio often forms an anticyclonic current loop west of the Luzon Strait. The current loop separates near the Dongsha Islands with the northward branch continuously feeding the South China Sea Warm Current (SCSWC) near the shelf break and the westward branch becoming the South China Sea Branch of Kuroshio on the slope, which is most apparent in the fall. The SCSWC appears from December to February on the seaward side of the shelf break, flowing eastward against the prevailing wind. Diagnosis shows that the onshore Ekman transport due to northeasterly monsoon generates upwelling when moving upslope, and the particular distributions of the density and sea level associated with the cross shelf motion supports the SCSWC.

Terrestrial Radar Interferometric Measurement of Hillslope Deformation and Atmospheric Disturbances in the Illgraben Debris-Flow Catchment, Switzerland

We describe a method for rapid identification and precise quantification of slope deformation using a portable radar interferometer. A rockslide with creep-like behavior was identified in the rugged and inaccessible headwaters of the Illgraben debris-flow catchment, located in the Central Swiss Alps. The estimated volume of the moving rock mass was approximately 0.5 x 10(6) m(3) with a maximum daily (3-D) displacement rate of 3 mm. Fast scene acquisition in the order of 6 s/scene led to uniquely precise mapping of spatial and temporal variability of atmospheric phase delay. Observations led to a simple qualitative model for prediction of atmospheric disturbances using a simple model for solar radiation, which can be used for advanced campaign planning for short observation periods (hours to days).

Structure and dynamics of hybrid zones at different stages of speciation in the common vole (Microtus arvalis)

The genetic structure and dynamics of hybrid zones provide crucial information for understanding the processes and mechanisms of evolutionary divergence and speciation. In general, higher levels of evolutionary divergence between taxa are more likely to be associated with reproductive isolation and may result in suppressed or strongly restricted hybridization. In this study, we examined two secondary contact zones between three deep evolutionary lineages in the common vole (Microtus arvalis). Differences in divergence times between the lineages can shed light on different stages of reproductive isolation and thus provide information on the ongoing speciation process in M. arvalis. We examined more than 800 individuals for mitochondrial (mtDNA), Y-chromosome and autosomal markers and used assignment and cline analysis methods to characterize the extent and direction of gene flow in the contact zones. Introgression of both autosomal and mtDNA markers in a relatively broad area of admixture indicates selectively neutral hybridization between the least-divergent lineages (Central and Eastern) without evidence for partial reproductive isolation. In contrast, a very narrow area of hybridization, shifts in marker clines and the quasi-absence of Y-chromosome introgression support a moving hybrid zone and unidirectional selection against male hybrids between the lineages with older divergence (Central and Western). Data from a replicate transect further support non-neutral processes in this hybrid zone and also suggest a role for landscape history in the movement and shaping of geneflow profiles.

Extratropical fronts in the lower troposphere-global perspectives obtained from two automated methods

In this study two commonly used automated methods to detect atmospheric fronts in the lower troposphere are compared in various synoptic situations. The first method is a thermal approach, relying on the gradient of equivalent potential temperature (TH), while the second method is based on temporal changes in the 10 m wind (WND). For a comprehensive objective comparison of the outputs of these methods of frontal identification, both schemes are firstly applied to an idealised strong baroclinic wave simulation in the absence of topography. Then, two case-studies (one in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and one in the Southern Hemisphere (SH)) were conducted to contrast fronts detected by the methods. Finally, we obtain global winter and summer frontal occurrence climatologies (derived from ERA-Interim for 1979–2012) and compare the structure of these. TH is able to identify cold and warm fronts in strong baroclinic cases that are in good agreement with manual analyses. WND is particularly suited for the detection of strongly elongated, meridionally oriented moving fronts, but has very limited ability to identify zonally oriented warm fronts. We note that the areas of the main TH frontal activity are shifted equatorwards compared to the WND patterns and are located upstream of regions of main WND front activity. The number of WND fronts in the NH shows more interseasonal variations than TH fronts, decreasing by more than 50% from winter to summer. In the SH there is a weaker seasonal variation of the number of observed WND fronts, however TH front activity reduces from summer (DJF) to winter (JJA). The main motivation is to give an overview of the performance of these methods, such that researchers can choose the appropriate one for their particular interest.

Higher Visual Functions in the Upper and Lower Visual Fields: a pilot study in healthy subjects

Visual perception is not identical in the upper and lower visual hemifields. The mechanisms behind this difference can be found at the retinal, cortical, or higher attentional level. In this study, a new visual test battery, that involves real-time comparisons of complex visual stimuli, such as shape of objects, and speed of moving dot patterns, in the upper and lower visual hemifields, is presented. This study represents, to our knowledge, the first to implement such a visual test battery in an immersive environment composed of a hemisphere, in order to present visual stimuli in precise regions of the visual field. Ten healthy volunteers were tested in this pilot study. The results showed a higher accuracy in the image matching when the visual test was performed in the lower visual hemifield.

Selective Transport of Zinc, Manganese, Nickel, Cobalt and Cadmium in the Root System and Transfer to the Leaves in Young Wheat Plants

• Background and Aims The uptake, translocation and redistribution of the heavy metals zinc, manganese, nickel, cobalt and cadmium are relevant for plant nutrition as well as for the quality of harvested plant products. The long-distance transport of these heavy metals within the root system and the release to the shoot in young wheat (Triticum aestivum ‘Arina’) plants were investigated. • Methods After the application of 65Zn, 54Mn, 63Ni, 57Co and 109Cd for 24 h to one seminal root (the other seminal roots being excised) of 54-h-old wheat seedlings, the labelled plants were incubated for several days in hydroponic culture on a medium without radionuclides. • Key Results The content of 65Zn decreased quickly in the labelled part of the root. After the transfer of 65Zn from the roots to the shoot, a further redistribution in the phloem from older to younger leaves was observed. In contrast to 65Zn, 109Cd was released more slowly from the roots to the leaves and was subsequently redistributed in the phloem to the youngest leaves only at trace levels. The content of 63Ni decreased quickly in the labelled part of the root, moving to the newly formed parts of the root system and also accumulating transiently in the expanding leaves. The 54Mn content decreased quickly in the labelled part of the root and increased simultaneously in leaf 1. A strong retention in the labelled part of the root was observed after supplying 57Co. • Conclusions The dynamics of redistribution of 65Zn, 54Mn, 63Ni, 57Co and 109Cd differed considerably. The rapid redistribution of 63Ni from older to younger leaves throughout the experiment indicated a high mobility in the phloem, while 54Mn was mobile only in the xylem and 57Co was retained in the labelled root without being loaded into the xylem.

Temporal trends in the systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis, and medical coding of sepsis.

BACKGROUND Recent reports using administrative claims data suggest the incidence of community- and hospital-onset sepsis is increasing. Whether this reflects changing epidemiology, more effective diagnostic methods, or changes in physician documentation and medical coding practices is unclear. METHODS We performed a temporal-trend study from 2008 to 2012 using administrative claims data and patient-level clinical data of adult patients admitted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. Temporal-trend and annual percent change were estimated using regression models with autoregressive integrated moving average errors. RESULTS We analyzed 62,261 inpatient admissions during the 5-year study period. 'Any SIRS' (i.e., SIRS on a single calendar day during the hospitalization) and 'multi-day SIRS' (i.e., SIRS on 3 or more calendar days), which both use patient-level data, and medical coding for sepsis (i.e., ICD-9-CM discharge diagnosis codes 995.91, 995.92, or 785.52) were present in 35.3 %, 17.3 %, and 3.3 % of admissions, respectively. The incidence of admissions coded for sepsis increased 9.7 % (95 % CI: 6.1, 13.4) per year, while the patient data-defined events of 'any SIRS' decreased by 1.8 % (95 % CI: -3.2, -0.5) and 'multi-day SIRS' did not change significantly over the study period. Clinically-defined sepsis (defined as SIRS plus bacteremia) and severe sepsis (defined as SIRS plus hypotension and bacteremia) decreased at statistically significant rates of 5.7 % (95 % CI: -9.0, -2.4) and 8.6 % (95 % CI: -4.4, -12.6) annually. All-cause mortality, SIRS mortality, and SIRS and clinically-defined sepsis case fatality did not change significantly during the study period. Sepsis mortality, based on ICD-9-CM codes, however, increased by 8.8 % (95 % CI: 1.9, 16.2) annually. CONCLUSIONS The incidence of sepsis, defined by ICD-9-CM codes, and sepsis mortality increased steadily without a concomitant increase in SIRS or clinically-defined sepsis. Our results highlight the need to develop strategies to integrate clinical patient-level data with administrative data to draw more accurate conclusions about the epidemiology of sepsis.