Leaving Home: Philo of Alexandria on the Exodus.

For Jewish-Hellenistic authors writing in Egypt, the Exodus story posed unique challenges. After all, to them Egypt was, as Philo of Alexandria states, their fatherland. How do these authors come to terms with the biblical story of liberation from Egyptian slavery and the longing for the promised land? In this chapter I am taking a close look at Philo’s detailed discussion of the Exodus and locate it within the larger context of Jewish-Hellenistic literature (Wisdom of Solomon, Ezekiel’s Exagoge). In Philo’s rewriting of the Exodus the destination of the journey is barely mentioned. Contrary to the biblical narrative, in the scene of the burning bush, as retold by Philo, God does not tell Moses where to go. Philo’s main concern is what happens in Egypt: both in biblical times and in his own days. The Exodus is nevertheless important to Philo: He reads the story allegorically as a journey from the land of the body to the realms of the mind. Such a symbolic reading permitted him to control the meaning of the Exodus and to stay, literally and figuratively, in Egypt.

Adolescent Meaning Making of Past Experience

This study examined the meaning making processes of self-defining memories in adolescents, as well as how they co-construct the narratives of these events with their parents. The sample consisted of 53 students, aged 12-14, who came in for recorded laboratory sessions to discuss self-defining memories with their parents. These sessions were later coded on levels of meaning making and co-construction. These codes were, then, analyzed with the adolescents’ questionnaire scores regarding friendship quality, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors. The data revealed that adolescents and parents were both rated higher for more complex levels of meaning making and that those rated higher for more complex meaning making abilities had better friendship qualities. The implications of these findings were discussed in terms of their importance for parents supporting their children’s emotional expressivity, narrative abilities, and meaning making strategies.

The function of math5 and myocilin in mammalian eye development and disease

Complex molecular events underlie vertebrate eye development and disease. The eye is composed of two major tissue types: the anterior and posterior segments. During development, the retinal progenitor cells differentiate into six neuronal and one non-neuronal cell types. These cell types later organize into the distinct laminar structure of the mature retina which occupies the posterior segment. In the developed anterior segment, both the ciliary body and trabecular meshwork regulate intraocular pressure created by the aqueous humor. The disruption in intraocular pressure can lead to a blinding condition called glaucoma. To characterize molecular mechanisms governing retinal development and glaucoma, two separate mouse knockout lines carrying mutations in math5 and myocilin were subjected to a series of in vivo analyses. ^ Math5 is a murine homologue of Drosophila atonal , a bHLH proneural gene essential for the formation of photoreceptor cells. The expression of math5 coincides with the onset of retinal ganglion cell differentiation. The targeted deletion of mouse math5 revealed that a null mutation inhibits the formation of a majority of the retinal ganglion cells. The mutation also interferes with the normal development of other retinal cell types such as amacrine, bipolar and photoreceptor cells. These results suggest that math5 is a proneural gene responsible for differentiation of retinal ganglion cells and may also have a role in normal development of other neuronal cell types within the retina. ^ Myocilin has two unique protein coding regions bearing homology to non-muscle myosin of Dictyostelium discoideum and to olfactomedin, an extracellular matrix molecule first described in the olfactory epithelium of the bullfrog. Recently, autosomal dominant forms of myocilin mutations have been found in individuals with primary open-angle glaucoma. The genetic linkage to glaucoma suggests a role of myocilin in normal intraocular pressure and ocular function. However, the analysis of mice heterozygous and homozygous for a targeted null mutation in myocilin indicates that it is dispensable for normal intraocular pressure or ocular function. Additionally, the lack of a discernable phenotype in both heterozygous and null mice suggests that haploinsufficiency is not a critical mechanism for MYOC-associated glaucoma in humans. Instead, disease-causing mutations likely act by gain of function. ^ In summary, these studies provide novel insights into the embryonic development of the vertebrate retina, and also begin to uncover the molecular mechanisms responsible for the pathogenesis of glaucoma. ^

What Happens in the Links? Framing Judgment in Context

Scholars of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales have focused much of their research on the interpretation of individual tales in the collection. The meaning behind these tales is clearly important to the work as a whole, as the Tales discuss grand themes that run throughout human life. The choice of themes and arguments in each pilgrim’s tale can also reflect back on the pilgrim’s own motivations and ideas. However, in searching for some greater meaning for Chaucer’s collection, it is important not to leave out the framework within which the tales exist. The links that join the tales to one another, arguably the portions of the piece that are the most original to Chaucer, do not always receive the same kind of attention that is focused on the most popular tales. In a work that is so complex, with its layered narration and interactions between tale and teller, the tales cannot possibly stand on their own, containing all of the meaning behind the work. The links have the potential to be particularly revealing in terms of how the audience should read the entire story of Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrimage, because they ground the tales in specific circumstances.

The illness experience of persons with Parkinson's Disease

Background. Parkinson's disease is a chronic, progressive, age-related, neurodegenerative disorder with no known cause or promising cure. While substantial information is known about the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease, little is known about the illness experience of persons living with the disease. The purpose of this study was to understand how persons with Parkinson's disease construct their illness experience and manage living with their illness on a daily basis. ^ Method. A qualitative study with an ethnographic approach employed the strategies of participant observations and fieldwork. Field data were generated from a two year exposure to two Parkinson's disease support groups in east Texas. Open-ended semi-structured interviews with seven men and seven women with Parkinson's disease were also conducted. These data were combined and analyzed using thematic analysis. ^ Findings. The illness experience is described through the metaphor "Sailing the Sea in The Eye of the Storm." This metaphor served as the overarching theme that covered the two interacting content themes of the voyage of Daily Negotiations in the Midst of Uncertainty and Reconstruction of the Self with Parkinson's Disease. Daily negotiations incorporated navigating daily activities with the uncertainty of both the progression and daily vicissitudes of the disease. Participants described their symptoms as progressive imprisonment that interfered with daily activities. The progressive nature of the disease required the participants to reconstruct their perceptions of themselves. Reconstructing the self involved the paradoxical balancing of preserving the self while simultaneously releasing aspects of the former self to reconstruct the self with Parkinson's disease. This process was reflected in four exemplars: I Know Me." "It's Still Me," "See Me." and "Remember Me." ^ Conclusions. This qualitative study illuminated the struggle of persons in dealing with the uncertainties and fluctuations of Parkinson's disease and the process of reconstructing their perceptions of themselves. The meaning and reconstruction of the illness experience expressed by participants will inform understanding beyond the disease itself to the illness experience that these participants must deal with on a daily basis. ^

The social construction of infant mortality: From grassroots to medicalization

Infant mortality as a problematic situation has been recognized for some 130 years in one form or another. It has undergone various changes in its empirical dimensions relative to whom we study within the population, what we study--low birth-weight vs. pre-term births--and how we study it--whether demographically or medically. An analysis of the process by which the condition was raised by claims makers as an intolerable situation among America's urban residents reveals that demographic and medical data were sparse. Nonetheless, a judgement about the meaning and significance of the condition was made, and that interpretation led to the promulgation of systems to both document and address the condition as it has come to be defined.^ This investigation depicts the historical context and natural history of infant mortality as one of a number of social problems that came to be defined through the interplay among groups and individuals making claims and how their claims came to the public policy agenda as worthy of collective resources--who won, who lost and why. The process of social definition focuses attention on the claims makers and the ways they contrast the meaning, origins and remedies for this troubling condition. The historical context becomes the frame of reference for understanding the actions of the claims makers and the meaning and significance they attached to the problem.^ We purport that "context" provides a closer reality than disjoined "value free" accounts. Context provides the evidence for the definition, who participated in the process, why and by what means.^ The role of women in the definitional process reveals the differences in approaches utilized by the women of the settlement house reform movement and African-American women working at the grass-roots. Much of the work done by these two groups provided options to the problem's remedy; however, their differences paved the way to our current (principally medically-oriented) definition and its inherent limitations. ^

Molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of cell polarity and genome stability by the p21 -activated kinase, Shk1, in the fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe

The essential p21-activated kinase (PAK), Shk1, is a critical component of a Ras/Cdc42/PAK complex required for cell viability, normal cell polarity, proper regulation of cytoskeletal dynamics, and sexual differentiation in the fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe. While cellular functions of PAKs have been described in eukaryotes from yeasts to mammals, the molecular mechanisms of PAK regulation and function are poorly understood. This study has characterized a novel Shk1 inhibitor, Skb15, and, in addition, identified the cell polarity regulator, Tea1, as a potential biological substrate of Shk1 in S. pombe. Skb15 is a highly conserved WD repeat protein that was discovered from a two-hybrid screen for proteins that interact with the catalytic domain of Shk1. Molecular data indicate that Skb15 negatively regulates Shk1 kinase activity in S. pombe cells. A null mutation in the skb15 gene is lethal and results in deregulation of actin polymerization and localization, microtubule biogenesis, and the cytokinetic machinery, as well as a substantial uncoupling of these processes from the cell cycle. Loss of Skb15 function is suppressed by partial loss of Shk1, demonstrating that negative regulation of Shk1 by Skb15 is required for proper execution of cytoskeletal remodeling and cytokinetic functions. A mouse homolog of Skb15 can substitute for its counterpart in fission yeast, demonstrating that Skb15 protein function has been substantially conserved through evolution. ^ Our laboratory has recently demonstrated that Shk1, in addition to regulating actin cytoskeletal organization, is required for proper regulation of microtubule dynamics in S. pombe cells. The Shk1 protein localizes to interphase and mitotic microtubules, the septum-forming region, and cell ends. This pattern of localization overlaps with that of the cell polarity regulator, Tea1, in S. pombe cells. The tea1 gene was identified by Paul Nurse's laboratory from a screen for genes involved in the control of cell morphogenesis in S. pombe. In contrast to wild type S. pombe cells, which are rod shaped, tea1 null cells are often bent and/or branched in shape. The Tea1 protein localizes to the cell ends, like Shk1, and the growing tips of interphase microtubules. Thus, experiments were performed to investigate whether Tea1 interacts with Shk1. The tea1 null mutation strongly suppresses the loss of function of Skb15, an essential inhibitor of Shk1 function. All defects associated with the skb15 mutation, including defects in F-actin organization, septation, spindle elongation, and chromosome segregation, are suppressed by tea1Δ, suggesting that Tea1 may function in these diverse processes. Consistent with a role for Tea1 in cytokinesis, tea1Δ cells have a modest cell separation defect that is greatly exacerbated by a shk1 mutation and, like Shk1, Tea1 localizes to the septation site. Molecular analyses showed that Tea1 phosphorylation is significantly dependent on Shk1 function in vivo and that bacterially expressed Tea1 protein is directly phosphorylated by recombinant Shk1 kinase in vitro. Taken together, these results identify Tea1 as a potential biological substrate of Shk1 in S. pombe. ^ In summary, this study provides new insights into a conserved regulatory mechanism for PAKs, and also begins to uncover the molecular mechanisms by which the Ras/Cdc42/PAK complex regulates the microtubule and actin cytoskeletons and cell growth polarization in fission yeast. ^

OntoTag - A Linguistic and Ontological Annotation Model Suitable for the Semantic Web

OntoTag - A Linguistic and Ontological Annotation Model Suitable for the Semantic Web 1. INTRODUCTION. LINGUISTIC TOOLS AND ANNOTATIONS: THEIR LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Computational Linguistics is already a consolidated research area. It builds upon the results of other two major ones, namely Linguistics and Computer Science and Engineering, and it aims at developing computational models of human language (or natural language, as it is termed in this area). Possibly, its most well-known applications are the different tools developed so far for processing human language, such as machine translation systems and speech recognizers or dictation programs. These tools for processing human language are commonly referred to as linguistic tools. Apart from the examples mentioned above, there are also other types of linguistic tools that perhaps are not so well-known, but on which most of the other applications of Computational Linguistics are built. These other types of linguistic tools comprise POS taggers, natural language parsers and semantic taggers, amongst others. All of them can be termed linguistic annotation tools. Linguistic annotation tools are important assets. In fact, POS and semantic taggers (and, to a lesser extent, also natural language parsers) have become critical resources for the computer applications that process natural language. Hence, any computer application that has to analyse a text automatically and ‘intelligently’ will include at least a module for POS tagging. The more an application needs to ‘understand’ the meaning of the text it processes, the more linguistic tools and/or modules it will incorporate and integrate. However, linguistic annotation tools have still some limitations, which can be summarised as follows: 1. Normally, they perform annotations only at a certain linguistic level (that is, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, etc.). 2. They usually introduce a certain rate of errors and ambiguities when tagging. This error rate ranges from 10 percent up to 50 percent of the units annotated for unrestricted, general texts. 3. Their annotations are most frequently formulated in terms of an annotation schema designed and implemented ad hoc. A priori, it seems that the interoperation and the integration of several linguistic tools into an appropriate software architecture could most likely solve the limitations stated in (1). Besides, integrating several linguistic annotation tools and making them interoperate could also minimise the limitation stated in (2). Nevertheless, in the latter case, all these tools should produce annotations for a common level, which would have to be combined in order to correct their corresponding errors and inaccuracies. Yet, the limitation stated in (3) prevents both types of integration and interoperation from being easily achieved. In addition, most high-level annotation tools rely on other lower-level annotation tools and their outputs to generate their own ones. For example, sense-tagging tools (operating at the semantic level) often use POS taggers (operating at a lower level, i.e., the morphosyntactic) to identify the grammatical category of the word or lexical unit they are annotating. Accordingly, if a faulty or inaccurate low-level annotation tool is to be used by other higher-level one in its process, the errors and inaccuracies of the former should be minimised in advance. Otherwise, these errors and inaccuracies would be transferred to (and even magnified in) the annotations of the high-level annotation tool. Therefore, it would be quite useful to find a way to (i) correct or, at least, reduce the errors and the inaccuracies of lower-level linguistic tools; (ii) unify the annotation schemas of different linguistic annotation tools or, more generally speaking, make these tools (as well as their annotations) interoperate. Clearly, solving (i) and (ii) should ease the automatic annotation of web pages by means of linguistic tools, and their transformation into Semantic Web pages (Berners-Lee, Hendler and Lassila, 2001). Yet, as stated above, (ii) is a type of interoperability problem. There again, ontologies (Gruber, 1993; Borst, 1997) have been successfully applied thus far to solve several interoperability problems. Hence, ontologies should help solve also the problems and limitations of linguistic annotation tools aforementioned. Thus, to summarise, the main aim of the present work was to combine somehow these separated approaches, mechanisms and tools for annotation from Linguistics and Ontological Engineering (and the Semantic Web) in a sort of hybrid (linguistic and ontological) annotation model, suitable for both areas. This hybrid (semantic) annotation model should (a) benefit from the advances, models, techniques, mechanisms and tools of these two areas; (b) minimise (and even solve, when possible) some of the problems found in each of them; and (c) be suitable for the Semantic Web. The concrete goals that helped attain this aim are presented in the following section. 2. GOALS OF THE PRESENT WORK As mentioned above, the main goal of this work was to specify a hybrid (that is, linguistically-motivated and ontology-based) model of annotation suitable for the Semantic Web (i.e. it had to produce a semantic annotation of web page contents). This entailed that the tags included in the annotations of the model had to (1) represent linguistic concepts (or linguistic categories, as they are termed in ISO/DCR (2008)), in order for this model to be linguistically-motivated; (2) be ontological terms (i.e., use an ontological vocabulary), in order for the model to be ontology-based; and (3) be structured (linked) as a collection of ontology-based triples, as in the usual Semantic Web languages (namely RDF(S) and OWL), in order for the model to be considered suitable for the Semantic Web. Besides, to be useful for the Semantic Web, this model should provide a way to automate the annotation of web pages. As for the present work, this requirement involved reusing the linguistic annotation tools purchased by the OEG research group (http://www.oeg-upm.net), but solving beforehand (or, at least, minimising) some of their limitations. Therefore, this model had to minimise these limitations by means of the integration of several linguistic annotation tools into a common architecture. Since this integration required the interoperation of tools and their annotations, ontologies were proposed as the main technological component to make them effectively interoperate. From the very beginning, it seemed that the formalisation of the elements and the knowledge underlying linguistic annotations within an appropriate set of ontologies would be a great step forward towards the formulation of such a model (henceforth referred to as OntoTag). Obviously, first, to combine the results of the linguistic annotation tools that operated at the same level, their annotation schemas had to be unified (or, preferably, standardised) in advance. This entailed the unification (id. standardisation) of their tags (both their representation and their meaning), and their format or syntax. Second, to merge the results of the linguistic annotation tools operating at different levels, their respective annotation schemas had to be (a) made interoperable and (b) integrated. And third, in order for the resulting annotations to suit the Semantic Web, they had to be specified by means of an ontology-based vocabulary, and structured by means of ontology-based triples, as hinted above. Therefore, a new annotation scheme had to be devised, based both on ontologies and on this type of triples, which allowed for the combination and the integration of the annotations of any set of linguistic annotation tools. This annotation scheme was considered a fundamental part of the model proposed here, and its development was, accordingly, another major objective of the present work. All these goals, aims and objectives could be re-stated more clearly as follows: Goal 1: Development of a set of ontologies for the formalisation of the linguistic knowledge relating linguistic annotation. Sub-goal 1.1: Ontological formalisation of the EAGLES (1996a; 1996b) de facto standards for morphosyntactic and syntactic annotation, in a way that helps respect the triple structure recommended for annotations in these works (which is isomorphic to the triple structures used in the context of the Semantic Web). Sub-goal 1.2: Incorporation into this preliminary ontological formalisation of other existing standards and standard proposals relating the levels mentioned above, such as those currently under development within ISO/TC 37 (the ISO Technical Committee dealing with Terminology, which deals also with linguistic resources and annotations). Sub-goal 1.3: Generalisation and extension of the recommendations in EAGLES (1996a; 1996b) and ISO/TC 37 to the semantic level, for which no ISO/TC 37 standards have been developed yet. Sub-goal 1.4: Ontological formalisation of the generalisations and/or extensions obtained in the previous sub-goal as generalisations and/or extensions of the corresponding ontology (or ontologies). Sub-goal 1.5: Ontological formalisation of the knowledge required to link, combine and unite the knowledge represented in the previously developed ontology (or ontologies). Goal 2: Development of OntoTag’s annotation scheme, a standard-based abstract scheme for the hybrid (linguistically-motivated and ontological-based) annotation of texts. Sub-goal 2.1: Development of the standard-based morphosyntactic annotation level of OntoTag’s scheme. This level should include, and possibly extend, the recommendations of EAGLES (1996a) and also the recommendations included in the ISO/MAF (2008) standard draft. Sub-goal 2.2: Development of the standard-based syntactic annotation level of the hybrid abstract scheme. This level should include, and possibly extend, the recommendations of EAGLES (1996b) and the ISO/SynAF (2010) standard draft. Sub-goal 2.3: Development of the standard-based semantic annotation level of OntoTag’s (abstract) scheme. Sub-goal 2.4: Development of the mechanisms for a convenient integration of the three annotation levels already mentioned. These mechanisms should take into account the recommendations included in the ISO/LAF (2009) standard draft. Goal 3: Design of OntoTag’s (abstract) annotation architecture, an abstract architecture for the hybrid (semantic) annotation of texts (i) that facilitates the integration and interoperation of different linguistic annotation tools, and (ii) whose results comply with OntoTag’s annotation scheme. Sub-goal 3.1: Specification of the decanting processes that allow for the classification and separation, according to their corresponding levels, of the results of the linguistic tools annotating at several different levels. Sub-goal 3.2: Specification of the standardisation processes that allow (a) complying with the standardisation requirements of OntoTag’s annotation scheme, as well as (b) combining the results of those linguistic tools that share some level of annotation. Sub-goal 3.3: Specification of the merging processes that allow for the combination of the output annotations and the interoperation of those linguistic tools that share some level of annotation. Sub-goal 3.4: Specification of the merge processes that allow for the integration of the results and the interoperation of those tools performing their annotations at different levels. Goal 4: Generation of OntoTagger’s schema, a concrete instance of OntoTag’s abstract scheme for a concrete set of linguistic annotations. These linguistic annotations result from the tools and the resources available in the research group, namely • Bitext’s DataLexica (http://www.bitext.com/EN/datalexica.asp), • LACELL’s (POS) tagger (http://www.um.es/grupos/grupo-lacell/quees.php), • Connexor’s FDG (http://www.connexor.eu/technology/machinese/glossary/fdg/), and • EuroWordNet (Vossen et al., 1998). This schema should help evaluate OntoTag’s underlying hypotheses, stated below. Consequently, it should implement, at least, those levels of the abstract scheme dealing with the annotations of the set of tools considered in this implementation. This includes the morphosyntactic, the syntactic and the semantic levels. Goal 5: Implementation of OntoTagger’s configuration, a concrete instance of OntoTag’s abstract architecture for this set of linguistic tools and annotations. This configuration (1) had to use the schema generated in the previous goal; and (2) should help support or refute the hypotheses of this work as well (see the next section). Sub-goal 5.1: Implementation of the decanting processes that facilitate the classification and separation of the results of those linguistic resources that provide annotations at several different levels (on the one hand, LACELL’s tagger operates at the morphosyntactic level and, minimally, also at the semantic level; on the other hand, FDG operates at the morphosyntactic and the syntactic levels and, minimally, at the semantic level as well). Sub-goal 5.2: Implementation of the standardisation processes that allow (i) specifying the results of those linguistic tools that share some level of annotation according to the requirements of OntoTagger’s schema, as well as (ii) combining these shared level results. In particular, all the tools selected perform morphosyntactic annotations and they had to be conveniently combined by means of these processes. Sub-goal 5.3: Implementation of the merging processes that allow for the combination (and possibly the improvement) of the annotations and the interoperation of the tools that share some level of annotation (in particular, those relating the morphosyntactic level, as in the previous sub-goal). Sub-goal 5.4: Implementation of the merging processes that allow for the integration of the different standardised and combined annotations aforementioned, relating all the levels considered. Sub-goal 5.5: Improvement of the semantic level of this configuration by adding a named entity recognition, (sub-)classification and annotation subsystem, which also uses the named entities annotated to populate a domain ontology, in order to provide a concrete application of the present work in the two areas involved (the Semantic Web and Corpus Linguistics). 3. MAIN RESULTS: ASSESSMENT OF ONTOTAG’S UNDERLYING HYPOTHESES The model developed in the present thesis tries to shed some light on (i) whether linguistic annotation tools can effectively interoperate; (ii) whether their results can be combined and integrated; and, if they can, (iii) how they can, respectively, interoperate and be combined and integrated. Accordingly, several hypotheses had to be supported (or rejected) by the development of the OntoTag model and OntoTagger (its implementation). The hypotheses underlying OntoTag are surveyed below. Only one of the hypotheses (H.6) was rejected; the other five could be confirmed. H.1 The annotations of different levels (or layers) can be integrated into a sort of overall, comprehensive, multilayer and multilevel annotation, so that their elements can complement and refer to each other. • CONFIRMED by the development of: o OntoTag’s annotation scheme, o OntoTag’s annotation architecture, o OntoTagger’s (XML, RDF, OWL) annotation schemas, o OntoTagger’s configuration. H.2 Tool-dependent annotations can be mapped onto a sort of tool-independent annotations and, thus, can be standardised. • CONFIRMED by means of the standardisation phase incorporated into OntoTag and OntoTagger for the annotations yielded by the tools. H.3 Standardisation should ease: H.3.1: The interoperation of linguistic tools. H.3.2: The comparison, combination (at the same level and layer) and integration (at different levels or layers) of annotations. • H.3 was CONFIRMED by means of the development of OntoTagger’s ontology-based configuration: o Interoperation, comparison, combination and integration of the annotations of three different linguistic tools (Connexor’s FDG, Bitext’s DataLexica and LACELL’s tagger); o Integration of EuroWordNet-based, domain-ontology-based and named entity annotations at the semantic level. o Integration of morphosyntactic, syntactic and semantic annotations. H.4 Ontologies and Semantic Web technologies (can) play a crucial role in the standardisation of linguistic annotations, by providing consensual vocabularies and standardised formats for annotation (e.g., RDF triples). • CONFIRMED by means of the development of OntoTagger’s RDF-triple-based annotation schemas. H.5 The rate of errors introduced by a linguistic tool at a given level, when annotating, can be reduced automatically by contrasting and combining its results with the ones coming from other tools, operating at the same level. However, these other tools might be built following a different technological (stochastic vs. rule-based, for example) or theoretical (dependency vs. HPS-grammar-based, for instance) approach. • CONFIRMED by the results yielded by the evaluation of OntoTagger. H.6 Each linguistic level can be managed and annotated independently. • REJECTED: OntoTagger’s experiments and the dependencies observed among the morphosyntactic annotations, and between them and the syntactic annotations. In fact, Hypothesis H.6 was already rejected when OntoTag’s ontologies were developed. We observed then that several linguistic units stand on an interface between levels, belonging thereby to both of them (such as morphosyntactic units, which belong to both the morphological level and the syntactic level). Therefore, the annotations of these levels overlap and cannot be handled independently when merged into a unique multileveled annotation. 4. OTHER MAIN RESULTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS First, interoperability is a hot topic for both the linguistic annotation community and the whole Computer Science field. The specification (and implementation) of OntoTag’s architecture for the combination and integration of linguistic (annotation) tools and annotations by means of ontologies shows a way to make these different linguistic annotation tools and annotations interoperate in practice. Second, as mentioned above, the elements involved in linguistic annotation were formalised in a set (or network) of ontologies (OntoTag’s linguistic ontologies). • On the one hand, OntoTag’s network of ontologies consists of − The Linguistic Unit Ontology (LUO), which includes a mostly hierarchical formalisation of the different types of linguistic elements (i.e., units) identifiable in a written text; − The Linguistic Attribute Ontology (LAO), which includes also a mostly hierarchical formalisation of the different types of features that characterise the linguistic units included in the LUO; − The Linguistic Value Ontology (LVO), which includes the corresponding formalisation of the different values that the attributes in the LAO can take; − The OIO (OntoTag’s Integration Ontology), which  Includes the knowledge required to link, combine and unite the knowledge represented in the LUO, the LAO and the LVO;  Can be viewed as a knowledge representation ontology that describes the most elementary vocabulary used in the area of annotation. • On the other hand, OntoTag’s ontologies incorporate the knowledge included in the different standards and recommendations for linguistic annotation released so far, such as those developed within the EAGLES and the SIMPLE European projects or by the ISO/TC 37 committee: − As far as morphosyntactic annotations are concerned, OntoTag’s ontologies formalise the terms in the EAGLES (1996a) recommendations and their corresponding terms within the ISO Morphosyntactic Annotation Framework (ISO/MAF, 2008) standard; − As for syntactic annotations, OntoTag’s ontologies incorporate the terms in the EAGLES (1996b) recommendations and their corresponding terms within the ISO Syntactic Annotation Framework (ISO/SynAF, 2010) standard draft; − Regarding semantic annotations, OntoTag’s ontologies generalise and extend the recommendations in EAGLES (1996a; 1996b) and, since no stable standards or standard drafts have been released for semantic annotation by ISO/TC 37 yet, they incorporate the terms in SIMPLE (2000) instead; − The terms coming from all these recommendations and standards were supplemented by those within the ISO Data Category Registry (ISO/DCR, 2008) and also of the ISO Linguistic Annotation Framework (ISO/LAF, 2009) standard draft when developing OntoTag’s ontologies. Third, we showed that the combination of the results of tools annotating at the same level can yield better results (both in precision and in recall) than each tool separately. In particular, 1. OntoTagger clearly outperformed two of the tools integrated into its configuration, namely DataLexica and FDG in all the combination sub-phases in which they overlapped (i.e. POS tagging, lemma annotation and morphological feature annotation). As far as the remaining tool is concerned, i.e. LACELL’s tagger, it was also outperformed by OntoTagger in POS tagging and lemma annotation, and it did not behave better than OntoTagger in the morphological feature annotation layer. 2. As an immediate result, this implies that a) This type of combination architecture configurations can be applied in order to improve significantly the accuracy of linguistic annotations; and b) Concerning the morphosyntactic level, this could be regarded as a way of constructing more robust and more accurate POS tagging systems. Fourth, Semantic Web annotations are usually performed by humans or else by machine learning systems. Both of them leave much to be desired: the former, with respect to their annotation rate; the latter, with respect to their (average) precision and recall. In this work, we showed how linguistic tools can be wrapped in order to annotate automatically Semantic Web pages using ontologies. This entails their fast, robust and accurate semantic annotation. As a way of example, as mentioned in Sub-goal 5.5, we developed a particular OntoTagger module for the recognition, classification and labelling of named entities, according to the MUC and ACE tagsets (Chinchor, 1997; Doddington et al., 2004). These tagsets were further specified by means of a domain ontology, namely the Cinema Named Entities Ontology (CNEO). This module was applied to the automatic annotation of ten different web pages containing cinema reviews (that is, around 5000 words). In addition, the named entities annotated with this module were also labelled as instances (or individuals) of the classes included in the CNEO and, then, were used to populate this domain ontology. • The statistical results obtained from the evaluation of this particular module of OntoTagger can be summarised as follows. On the one hand, as far as recall (R) is concerned, (R.1) the lowest value was 76,40% (for file 7); (R.2) the highest value was 97, 50% (for file 3); and (R.3) the average value was 88,73%. On the other hand, as far as the precision rate (P) is concerned, (P.1) its minimum was 93,75% (for file 4); (R.2) its maximum was 100% (for files 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10); and (R.3) its average value was 98,99%. • These results, which apply to the tasks of named entity annotation and ontology population, are extraordinary good for both of them. They can be explained on the basis of the high accuracy of the annotations provided by OntoTagger at the lower levels (mainly at the morphosyntactic level). However, they should be conveniently qualified, since they might be too domain- and/or language-dependent. It should be further experimented how our approach works in a different domain or a different language, such as French, English, or German. • In any case, the results of this application of Human Language Technologies to Ontology Population (and, accordingly, to Ontological Engineering) seem very promising and encouraging in order for these two areas to collaborate and complement each other in the area of semantic annotation. Fifth, as shown in the State of the Art of this work, there are different approaches and models for the semantic annotation of texts, but all of them focus on a particular view of the semantic level. Clearly, all these approaches and models should be integrated in order to bear a coherent and joint semantic annotation level. OntoTag shows how (i) these semantic annotation layers could be integrated together; and (ii) they could be integrated with the annotations associated to other annotation levels. Sixth, we identified some recommendations, best practices and lessons learned for annotation standardisation, interoperation and merge. They show how standardisation (via ontologies, in this case) enables the combination, integration and interoperation of different linguistic tools and their annotations into a multilayered (or multileveled) linguistic annotation, which is one of the hot topics in the area of Linguistic Annotation. And last but not least, OntoTag’s annotation scheme and OntoTagger’s annotation schemas show a way to formalise and annotate coherently and uniformly the different units and features associated to the different levels and layers of linguistic annotation. This is a great scientific step ahead towards the global standardisation of this area, which is the aim of ISO/TC 37 (in particular, Subcommittee 4, dealing with the standardisation of linguistic annotations and resources).

Educational innovation applied in the UNESCO chair of mining and industrial heritage

The “Innovatio Educativa Tertio Millennio” group has been 10 years developing educational innovation techniques, actually has reached the level of teaching on the technical teachers has developed, and share them with other groups, that can implement them in their teaching activities. UNESCO Chair of Mining and Industrial Heritage has been years working on heritage, and on the one hand teaching in conservation and maintenance of heritage, and on the other doing raise awareness of the meaning of heritage, the social value and as must be managed effectively. Recently these two groups work together, thus is spreading in a much more effective manner the concepts of heritage, its meaning, its value, and how to manage it and provide effective protection. On one hand being a work of dissemination based on internet and on radio broadcasting, and on the other one of teaching based on educational innovation, and courses, conferences, and face-to-face seminars or distance platforms.

Semantic neology in the domain of videogames in Spanish

The aim of this paper is to discuss the meaning of five neologisms in the domain of videogames in Spanish: título, aventura, personaje, plataforma, and rol. Our study focuses on a special type of neologism since the Spanish terms we deal with here are not strictly new words; they are what have been called sense neologisms or neosemanticisms, that is, old words taking a new sense in a different domain. These words were identified as new concepts after a process of analysis based on contextual evidence. This study of neology is based on the analysis of a corpus of press articles evaluating videogames published by the Spanish newspaper El País from 1998 to 2008. The analysis of the instances of use of domain specific terms in the corpus revealed that they acquired new senses different to those they have in other domains where they are also used. The paper explains the process of discovering the specialized meaning these words have developed in the domain of videogames and how the analysis of collocational behavior helps in the process of discovering the new sense and in the design of the definition provided.

Semantic Neology in the Domain of Videogames in Spanish.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the meaning of five neologisms in the domain of videogames in Spanish: título, aventura, personaje, plataforma, and rol. Our study focuses on a special type of neologism since the Spanish terms we deal with here are not strictly new words; they are what have been called sense neologisms or neosemanticisms, that is, old words taking a new sense in a different domain. These words were identified as new concepts after a process of analysis based on contextual evidence. This study of neology is based on the analysis of a corpus of press articles evaluating videogames published by the Spanish newspaper El País from 1998 to 2008. The analysis of the instances of use of domain specific terms in the corpus revealed that they acquired new senses different to those they have in other domains where they are also used. The paper explains the process of discovering the specialized meaning these words have developed in the domain of videogames and how the analysis of collocational behavior helps in the process of discovering the new sense and in the design of the definition provided. RESUMEN: En este trabajo se presentan cinco neologismos del ámbito del videojuego en español: “título”, “aventura”, “personaje”, “plataforma” y “rol”. Se trata de un tipo especial de neologismo, conocido también como “neologismo semántico” o “neosemanticismo”, ya que son palabras ya existentes en la lengua que adquieren un nuevo significado. Los nuevos significados que adquieren estos términos en el ámbito del videojuego se establecieron tras el análisis del contexto de uso en un corpus periodístico de críticas de videojuegos. Este corpus recoge las críticas de videojuegos publicadas por el periódico El País entre 1998 y 2008. El análisis de los casos de uso de los términos en el corpus de videojuegos reveló que adquirían un nuevo significado diferente al de su uso en otros ámbitos o en el lenguaje general. El artículo describe cada uno de los neologismos y el proceso de análisis contextual que conduce a descubrir el nuevo significado y elaborar su definición.

Naturaleza, ética, y arquitectura: Autenticidad y criterios éticos que integran el desarrollo de una arquitectura más sostenible = Nature, ethics and architecture: Authenticity and ethics criteria that integrate the development of a more sustainable architecture

La ecología no solamente ha puesto de manifiesto problemas ambientales, sino que ha confirmado la necesidad de una nueva armonía entre los propios seres humanos y de éstos con la naturaleza y con todos los seres que la habitan. Es necesario un nuevo contrato que determine nuestras relaciones con la Naturaleza (Serrs1), y una nueva Ética para nuestras vidas (Guattari2). La ética medioambiental nos ha dado una visión universal y supra-generacional de la gestión de la naturaleza y como consecuencia, una nueva forma de construir nuestra ‘segunda’ Naturaleza, que es la arquitectura. ¿Qué es lo esencial que esta nueva ética exige para la arquitectura? Este es un momento crucial para reconsiderar los objetivos de la arquitectura, porque lo ‘eco’ está produciendo grandes cambios. ¿Implica esta era post-ecológica una particular ética, es decir, referida a sus fines y medios? ¿Porqué, para qué, para quién, cómo debemos hacer la arquitectura de nuestro tiempo? Es momento de afrontar críticamente el discurso de la eco-arquitectura, e incluso de repensar los propios límites de la arquitectura. El desarrollo actual del conocimiento medioambiental es esencialmente técnico y utilitario, pero ¿es el reto solamente técnico?¿Es suficiente la suma de lo medioambiental-social-económico-cultural para definirla? ¿Hay claves que nos puedan dar la dimensión ética de esta aproximación técnica-empírica? ¿Sabemos lo que estamos haciendo cuando aplicamos este conocimiento? Y, sobre todo, ¿cuál es el sentido de lo que estamos haciendo? La tesis que se propone puede resumirse: De acuerdo con el actual conocimiento que tenemos de la Naturaleza, la Arquitectura de nuestro tiempo deber reconsiderar sus fines y medios, puesto que la ética medioambiental está definiendo nuevos objetivos. Para fundamentar y profundizar en esta afirmación la tesis analiza cómo son hoy día las relaciones entre Ética-Naturaleza-Arquitectura (Fig.1), lo que facilitará las claves de cuáles son los criterios éticos (en cuanto a fines y medios) que deben definir la arquitectura del tiempo de la ecología. ABSTRACT Ecology shows us not only environmental problems; it shows that we need a new balance and harmony between individuals, beings, communities and Nature. We need a new contract with Nature according to Serres576, and a new Ethics for our lives according to Guattari577. Environmental ethics have given us a universal and supra-generational vision of the management of our Nature and, as a consequence, a new way to construct our ‘second’ nature, which is architecture. What is essential for this new architecture that the new ethics demand? This is a critical moment to reconsider the object of architecture, because the ‘eco’ is making significant changes in it. Are there any specifically ethical concerns (ends and means) in the post-ecological era? Why, for what, for whom, how should we make architecture in our times? This is the time to approach the eco-architectural discourse critically and to question the current boundaries of architecture itself: Where is eco-architecture going? The current development of environmental knowledge is essentially technical and utilitarian, but it is its technical aspect the only challenge? Is the sum of environmental-social-economic aspects enough to define it? Are there any clues which can give an ethical sense to this technical-empirical approach? Do we know what we are doing when we apply this knowledge? And overall, what is the meaning of what we are doing? Exploring this subject, this thesis makes a statement: In accordance with the actual knowledge of Nature, Architecture of our time must reconsider its ends and means, since the environmental ethics is defining new objectives. To support that, the thesis analyzes what the relationships between Ethics –Nature- Architecture (Fig. 53) are like nowadays, this will provide the clues of which ethical criteria (ends and means) must architecture of an ecological era define.

Strong Connectivity in Directed Hypergraphs and its Application to the Atomic Decomposition of Ontologies

Los hipergrafos dirigidos se han empleado en problemas relacionados con lógica proposicional, bases de datos relacionales, linguística computacional y aprendizaje automático. Los hipergrafos dirigidos han sido también utilizados como alternativa a los grafos (bipartitos) dirigidos para facilitar el estudio de las interacciones entre componentes de sistemas complejos que no pueden ser fácilmente modelados usando exclusivamente relaciones binarias. En este contexto, este tipo de representación es conocida como hiper-redes. Un hipergrafo dirigido es una generalización de un grafo dirigido especialmente adecuado para la representación de relaciones de muchos a muchos. Mientras que una arista en un grafo dirigido define una relación entre dos de sus nodos, una hiperarista en un hipergrafo dirigido define una relación entre dos conjuntos de sus nodos. La conexión fuerte es una relación de equivalencia que divide el conjunto de nodos de un hipergrafo dirigido en particiones y cada partición define una clase de equivalencia conocida como componente fuertemente conexo. El estudio de los componentes fuertemente conexos de un hipergrafo dirigido puede ayudar a conseguir una mejor comprensión de la estructura de este tipo de hipergrafos cuando su tamaño es considerable. En el caso de grafo dirigidos, existen algoritmos muy eficientes para el cálculo de los componentes fuertemente conexos en grafos de gran tamaño. Gracias a estos algoritmos, se ha podido averiguar que la estructura de la WWW tiene forma de “pajarita”, donde más del 70% del los nodos están distribuidos en tres grandes conjuntos y uno de ellos es un componente fuertemente conexo. Este tipo de estructura ha sido también observada en redes complejas en otras áreas como la biología. Estudios de naturaleza similar no han podido ser realizados en hipergrafos dirigidos porque no existe algoritmos capaces de calcular los componentes fuertemente conexos de este tipo de hipergrafos. En esta tesis doctoral, hemos investigado como calcular los componentes fuertemente conexos de un hipergrafo dirigido. En concreto, hemos desarrollado dos algoritmos para este problema y hemos determinado que son correctos y cuál es su complejidad computacional. Ambos algoritmos han sido evaluados empíricamente para comparar sus tiempos de ejecución. Para la evaluación, hemos producido una selección de hipergrafos dirigidos generados de forma aleatoria inspirados en modelos muy conocidos de grafos aleatorios como Erdos-Renyi, Newman-Watts-Strogatz and Barabasi-Albert. Varias optimizaciones para ambos algoritmos han sido implementadas y analizadas en la tesis. En concreto, colapsar los componentes fuertemente conexos del grafo dirigido que se puede construir eliminando ciertas hiperaristas complejas del hipergrafo dirigido original, mejora notablemente los tiempos de ejecucion de los algoritmos para varios de los hipergrafos utilizados en la evaluación. Aparte de los ejemplos de aplicación mencionados anteriormente, los hipergrafos dirigidos han sido también empleados en el área de representación de conocimiento. En concreto, este tipo de hipergrafos se han usado para el cálculo de módulos de ontologías. Una ontología puede ser definida como un conjunto de axiomas que especifican formalmente un conjunto de símbolos y sus relaciones, mientras que un modulo puede ser entendido como un subconjunto de axiomas de la ontología que recoge todo el conocimiento que almacena la ontología sobre un conjunto especifico de símbolos y sus relaciones. En la tesis nos hemos centrado solamente en módulos que han sido calculados usando la técnica de localidad sintáctica. Debido a que las ontologías pueden ser muy grandes, el cálculo de módulos puede facilitar las tareas de re-utilización y mantenimiento de dichas ontologías. Sin embargo, analizar todos los posibles módulos de una ontología es, en general, muy costoso porque el numero de módulos crece de forma exponencial con respecto al número de símbolos y de axiomas de la ontología. Afortunadamente, los axiomas de una ontología pueden ser divididos en particiones conocidas como átomos. Cada átomo representa un conjunto máximo de axiomas que siempre aparecen juntos en un modulo. La decomposición atómica de una ontología es definida como un grafo dirigido de tal forma que cada nodo del grafo corresponde con un átomo y cada arista define una dependencia entre una pareja de átomos. En esta tesis introducimos el concepto de“axiom dependency hypergraph” que generaliza el concepto de descomposición atómica de una ontología. Un modulo en una ontología correspondería con un componente conexo en este tipo de hipergrafos y un átomo de una ontología con un componente fuertemente conexo. Hemos adaptado la implementación de nuestros algoritmos para que funcionen también con axiom dependency hypergraphs y poder de esa forma calcular los átomos de una ontología. Para demostrar la viabilidad de esta idea, hemos incorporado nuestros algoritmos en una aplicación que hemos desarrollado para la extracción de módulos y la descomposición atómica de ontologías. A la aplicación la hemos llamado HyS y hemos estudiado sus tiempos de ejecución usando una selección de ontologías muy conocidas del área biomédica, la mayoría disponibles en el portal de Internet NCBO. Los resultados de la evaluación muestran que los tiempos de ejecución de HyS son mucho mejores que las aplicaciones más rápidas conocidas. ABSTRACT Directed hypergraphs are an intuitive modelling formalism that have been used in problems related to propositional logic, relational databases, computational linguistic and machine learning. Directed hypergraphs are also presented as an alternative to directed (bipartite) graphs to facilitate the study of the interactions between components of complex systems that cannot naturally be modelled as binary relations. In this context, they are known as hyper-networks. A directed hypergraph is a generalization of a directed graph suitable for representing many-to-many relationships. While an edge in a directed graph defines a relation between two nodes of the graph, a hyperedge in a directed hypergraph defines a relation between two sets of nodes. Strong-connectivity is an equivalence relation that induces a partition of the set of nodes of a directed hypergraph into strongly-connected components. These components can be collapsed into single nodes. As result, the size of the original hypergraph can significantly be reduced if the strongly-connected components have many nodes. This approach might contribute to better understand how the nodes of a hypergraph are connected, in particular when the hypergraphs are large. In the case of directed graphs, there are efficient algorithms that can be used to compute the strongly-connected components of large graphs. For instance, it has been shown that the macroscopic structure of the World Wide Web can be represented as a “bow-tie” diagram where more than 70% of the nodes are distributed into three large sets and one of these sets is a large strongly-connected component. This particular structure has been also observed in complex networks in other fields such as, e.g., biology. Similar studies cannot be conducted in a directed hypergraph because there does not exist any algorithm for computing the strongly-connected components of the hypergraph. In this thesis, we investigate ways to compute the strongly-connected components of directed hypergraphs. We present two new algorithms and we show their correctness and computational complexity. One of these algorithms is inspired by Tarjan’s algorithm for directed graphs. The second algorithm follows a simple approach to compute the stronglyconnected components. This approach is based on the fact that two nodes of a graph that are strongly-connected can also reach the same nodes. In other words, the connected component of each node is the same. Both algorithms are empirically evaluated to compare their performances. To this end, we have produced a selection of random directed hypergraphs inspired by existent and well-known random graphs models like Erd˝os-Renyi and Newman-Watts-Strogatz. Besides the application examples that we mentioned earlier, directed hypergraphs have also been employed in the field of knowledge representation. In particular, they have been used to compute the modules of an ontology. An ontology is defined as a collection of axioms that provides a formal specification of a set of terms and their relationships; and a module is a subset of an ontology that completely captures the meaning of certain terms as defined in the ontology. In particular, we focus on the modules computed using the notion of syntactic locality. As ontologies can be very large, the computation of modules facilitates the reuse and maintenance of these ontologies. Analysing all modules of an ontology, however, is in general not feasible as the number of modules grows exponentially in the number of terms and axioms of the ontology. Nevertheless, the modules can succinctly be represented using the Atomic Decomposition of an ontology. Using this representation, an ontology can be partitioned into atoms, which are maximal sets of axioms that co-occur in every module. The Atomic Decomposition is then defined as a directed graph such that each node correspond to an atom and each edge represents a dependency relation between two atoms. In this thesis, we introduce the notion of an axiom dependency hypergraph which is a generalization of the atomic decomposition of an ontology. A module in the ontology corresponds to a connected component in the hypergraph, and the atoms of the ontology to the strongly-connected components. We apply our algorithms for directed hypergraphs to axiom dependency hypergraphs and in this manner, we compute the atoms of an ontology. To demonstrate the viability of this approach, we have implemented the algorithms in the application HyS which computes the modules of ontologies and calculate their atomic decomposition. In the thesis, we provide an experimental evaluation of HyS with a selection of large and prominent biomedical ontologies, most of which are available in the NCBO Bioportal. HyS outperforms state-of-the-art implementations in the tasks of extracting modules and computing the atomic decomposition of these ontologies.

La memoria en el proceso creativo de Juan Muñoz = Memory in the creative process of Juan Muñoz

Esta tesis integra un estudio reflexivo sobre la relación de dependencia entre la creación y la memoria a través del análisis de la última obra del escultor Juan Muñoz: Double Bind (Tate Modern, Londres, 2001). Desde esta posición es obligado replantear el análisis de la obra, lo que hace necesario su estudio cubriendo el mayor espectro posible de información accesible más allá de la obra en sí, para aproximarse a la convergencia entre memoria y creación. La perspectiva de análisis propuesta abre camino a nuevas consideraciones so¬bre la relevancia del conocimiento en el desarrollo del proceso creativo. Este análisis no debe tan sólo suponer una aportación al conocimiento del trabajo de Juan Muñoz. Debe también desprenderse de él la innegable participación y necesaria lectura del pasado en el presente. La amnesia de los tiempos pasados impide completar el atlas de imágenes en las que se apoya la creación impidiendo el conocimiento del origen de las fuentes de inspi¬ración y las bases de la creación de una determinada obra. Este hecho limita y distorsiona sus posibles interpretaciones. Pretendo un acercamiento al entendimiento de la forma de mirar y de crear a través del tiempo que es memoria. La memoria tiene un cometido de crucial importancia para la actividad mental y juega un papel fundamental en la conducta y en la creación. La obra es el resultado de la búsqueda de una idea que exprese algo que el creador no puede ex¬presar de otra manera. Es la necesidad de expresar las ideas mediante un lenguaje que se desarrolla en el tiempo y en el espacio, reflejo del ser que responde al pensamiento. Es una forma de experiencia donde subyacen las sendas del pasado y donde se plantea el futuro. Sólo el creador accede a la obra desde dentro, el observador llega a ella desde el exterior y mediante su propia subjetividad. Las obras son formas de experiencia de sus autores, comunicar el mensaje de dicha experiencia supone por tanto interpretar. Persiguiendo la necesidad de saber y entender, pretender explicar el sentido de una cosa implica una apreciación intencionada asociada al entendimiento del intérprete. Las obras son produc¬tos que portan un mensaje y que contienen en su estructura las trazas del tiempo vivido por su creador. Si se quiere adquirir un acercamiento que represente la posición de un autor, será necesario no solo mirar a través de ella, si no introducirse en el contexto de su historia. Mirar hacia atrás, hacia la profundidad del presente para tener conciencia del pensamiento presente y futuro. Recorrer de este modo la instalación Double Bind de Juan Muñoz proporciona una síntesis de sus preocupaciones e intereses a la vez que aporta un conocimiento no necesariamente inmediato, pero relevante y trascendente de la obra, su creador y la historia. ABSTRACT This thesis comprises a reflective study of the dependence relationship between creation and memory through the analysis of the latest work by the sculptor Juan Muñoz: Double Bind (Tate Modern, London, 2001). From this position, it is mandatory to rethink the analysis of the work, making it necessary to cover the widest possible range of information available beyond the work itself, in order to obtain a closer view of the convergence between memory and creation. The proposed analytical approach opens up new considerations on the relevance of knowledge during the development of the creative process. This analysis should not only make a contribution to the knowledge of the work of Juan Muñoz. It should also infer the undeniable involvement and the necessary reading of the past in the present. Amnesia regarding past makes it impossible to complete the atlas of images on which the creation is based, blocking knowledge of the origin of the sources of inspiration and the basis for the creation of a specific work. This fact limits and distorts its possible interpretations. My intention is an approach to how to understand memory as the way of looking and creating over time. Memory has a crucial role to mental activity and plays a key role in behaviour and creation. The work is the result of finding an idea that expresses something that the creator can not express otherwise. It is the need to express ideas by means of a language that develops throughout time and space, a reflection of the being that responds to the thought. It is a way of experience underlying the paths of the past and where the future is set out. Only the creator can access the work from the inside. The observer sees it from the outside and in accordance with his/her own subjectivity. The works form a part of the experience of their authors, thus implying the interpretation of the message of their experience being passed on. The pursuit of knowledge and understanding, and trying to explain the meaning of something implies a deliberate appreciation associated with the understanding of the interpreter. The works are products bearing a message and containing in their structure traces of the time lived by their creator. If one wants to come close to what the author’s posture represents, it will not only be necessary to penetrate it, but also to introduce oneself into the context of its history. Take a look back, towards the depth of the present in order to become aware of present and future thinking. To go across the installation of Double Bind by Juan Muñoz in this way offers a synthesis of his concerns and interests while also providing a not necessarily immediate knowledge, but one which is relevant and important to the work, its creator and history.

Anatomy of word and sentence meaning

Reading and listening involve complex psychological processes that recruit many brain areas. The anatomy of processing English words has been studied by a variety of imaging methods. Although there is widespread agreement on the general anatomical areas involved in comprehending words, there are still disputes about the computations that go on in these areas. Examination of the time relations (circuitry) among these anatomical areas can aid in understanding their computations. In this paper, we concentrate on tasks that involve obtaining the meaning of a word in isolation or in relation to a sentence. Our current data support a finding in the literature that frontal semantic areas are active well before posterior areas. We use the subject’s attention to amplify relevant brain areas involved either in semantic classification or in judging the relation of the word to a sentence to test the hypothesis that frontal areas are concerned with lexical semantics and posterior areas are more involved in comprehension of propositions that involve several words.