Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste

The phrase, “never let a crisis go to waste” may take frugality to a whole new level! That’s the sentiment of Lynda Applegate, Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, in a recent on-line article, Building Businesses in Turbulent Times.

Relationship Between Occlusion and Lisping in Children With Cleft Lip and Palate

Introduction: The literature suggests that individuals with history of cleft lip and palate who present with midfacial growth deficiency are at higher risk of presenting lisping. The relationship between distortions during production of linguoalveolar fricative sounds and the severity of malocclusion, however, has not been established for the population with cleft. Objective: To study the association between lisping and dental arch relationship. Methodology: Speech samples and dental arch casts were obtained from 106 children with operated unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) during the stage of mixed dentition and before orthodontic treatment. Videotaped productions of the phrase/u saci saiw sedu/were rated by speech-language pathologists for the identification of lisping during [s]. Dental arch casts were rated by orthodontists using the Goslon Yardstick and the Five-Year Index to establish dental arch relationship. Results: Multiple logistic regression showed no significant association between lisping and dento-occlusal index (p = .802) and age (p = .662). Substantial interjudge agreement during auditory-perceptual ratings was found (kappa = .63). Almost perfect agreement was found between orthodontists while establishing the dental arch relationship (kappa = .81). Discussion: This study failed to reveal an association between lisping and dental arch relationship in children with operated UCLP. Multiple variables may play a role in determining occurrence of lisping, warranting further investigation.

80 anos do Manifesto dos Pioneiros da Educação Nova: questões para debate

O artigo, produzido no âmbito das comemorações dos 80 anos de publicação do Manifesto dos Pioneiros da Educação Nova, interroga-se sobre a atualidade dessa carta. Para tanto, explora as condições históricas de emergência do documento, os significados atribuídos à Escola Nova no Brasil na década de 1930 e as contendas ocorridas na arena educacional no período. Além disso, discorre sobre as especificidades do movimento escolanovista brasileiro, procurando demonstrar que a Escola Nova constituiu-se no país como uma fórmula, com significados múltiplos e distintas apropriações produzidas no entrelaçamento de três vertentes: a pedagógica, a ideológica e a política. No que tange ao primeiro aspecto, a indefinição das fronteiras conceituais permitiu que a expressão Escola Nova aglutinasse diferentes educadores, católicos e liberais, em torno de princípios pedagógicos do ensino ativo. No segundo caso, a fórmula ofereceu-se como meio para a transformação da sociedade, servindo às finalidades divergentes dos grupos em litígio. Já na terceira acepção, tornou-se bandeira política, sendo capturada como signo de renovação do sistema educacional pelo Manifesto e por seus signatários. Assim, o documento emergiu como parte do jogo político pela disputa do controle do Estado e de suas dinâmicas, e, portanto, como elemento de coesão de uma frente de educadores que, a despeito de suas diferenças, articulava-se em torno de alguns objetivos comuns, como laicidade, gratuidade e obrigatoriedade da educação. Ademais, ele também foi representante de um grupo de intelectuais que abraçava um mesmo projeto de nação, ainda que com divergências internas.

Non-verbal markers of modality and evidentiality in MarENG

[EN] This article examines a variety of options for expressing speaker and writer stance in a subcorpus of MarENG, a maritime English learning tool sponsored by the EU (35,041 words). Non-verbal markers related to key areas of modal expression are presented; (1)epistemic adverbs and adverbial expressions, (2) epistemic adjectives, (3) deontic adjectives, (4) evidential adverbs, (5) evidential adjectives, (6) evidential interpersonal markers, and (7) single adverbials conveying the speaker’s attitudes, feelings or value judgments. The overall aim is to present an overview of how these non-verbal markers operate in this LSP genre.

El proemio a las Antigüedades romanas de Dionisio de Halicarnaso: apuntes para los primeros pasos del clasicismo historiográfico

[ES]Se examinan los criterios estructurales del proemio de las Antigüedades romanas de Dionisio de Halicarnaso con especial atención a su relación con los apuntes del autor sobre el proemio de Tucídides, y también los aspectos de construcción de la frase, para definir las pautas estilísticas del proemio y ubicarlo en la polémica literaria de su tiempo.

Labyrinthum capellae. Le "Annotationes in Marcianum" di Giovanni Scoto Eriugena e la fortuna del neoplatonismo cristiano

The labyrinthum Capella quoted in the title (from a Prudentius of Troyes epistle) represents the allegory of the studium of the liberal arts and the looking for knowledge in the early middle age. This is a capital problem in the early Christianity and, in general, for all the western world, concerning the relationship between faith and science. I studied the evolution of this subject from its birth to Carolingian age, focusing on the most relevant figures, for the western Europe, such Saint Augustine (De doctrina christiana), Martianus Capella (De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii) and Iohannes Scotus Eriugena (Annotationes in Marcianum). Clearly it emerges that there were two opposite ways about this relatioship. According to the first, the human being is capable of get a knowledge about God thanks to its own reason and logical thought processes (by the analysis of the nature as a Speculum Dei); on the other way, only the faith and the grace could give the man the possibility to perceive God, and the Bible is the only book men need to know. From late antiquity to Iohannes Scotus times, a few christian and pagan authors fall into line with first position (the neoplatonic one): Saint Augustine (first part of his life, then he retracted some of his views), Martianus, Calcidius and Macrobius. Other philosophers were not neoplatonic bat believed in the power of the studium: Boethius, Cassiodorus, Isidorus of Seville, Hrabanus Maurus and Lupus of Ferriéres. In order to get an idea of this conception, I finally focused the research on Iohannes Scotus Eriugena's Annotationes in Marcianum. I commented Eriugena's work phrase by phrase trying to catch the sense of his words, the reference, philosophical influences, to trace antecedents and its clouts to later middle age and Chartres school. In this scholastic text Eriugena comments the Capella's work and poses again the question of the studium to his students. Iohannes was a magister in schola Palatina during the time of Carl the Bald, he knew Saint Augustine works, and he knew Boethius, Calcidius, Macrobius, Isidorus and Cassiodorus ones too. He translated Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor. He had a neoplatonic view of Christianity and tried to harmonize the impossibility to know God to man's intellectual capability to get a glimpse of God through the study of the nature. According to this point of view, Eriugena's comment of Martianus Capella was no more a secondary work. It gets more and more importance to understand his research and his mystic, and to understand and really grasp the inner sense of his chief work Periphyseon.

Einflussfaktoren der Studienfachwahl im Wandel: eine empirische Untersuchung auf Basis des Studierendensurveys

„Wer studierte was wann und warum?“ Diese Formulierung impliziert die Fragestellung und die Themenbereiche der Arbeit, die einen Beitrag zur Diskussion von Bildungsentscheidungen auf gesellschaftlicher, organisationaler und individueller Ebene leistet. Ausgangspunkt der Analyse ist eine ausführliche theoretische Einbettung des Themas anhand verschiedener Konzepte und der Aufarbeitung des Forschungsstandes. Dabei werden sozialstrukturelle Merkmale, die Bedeutung von Lebensorientierungen und der Komplex der individuellen Motivationslagen diskutiert und u.a. in Bezug zur handlungstheoretischen Unterscheidung der Um-zu- und Weil-Motive von Alfred Schütz gesetzt. Dieses Konzept und die daraus resultierenden Hypothesen werden in einer quantitativ-empirischen Analyse untersucht. Datengrundlage ist das Studierendensurvey der AG Hochschulforschung der Uni Konstanz. Anhand von binären logistischen Regressionsanalysen werden bestimmte Einflussstrukturen und fachspezifische Profile ermittelt. Insbesondere die Konzeption der intrinsischen und extrinsischen Motivationen zeichnet dabei deutliche Unterscheidungen zwischen den Fächern. Auch in der Betrachtung des Zeitraumes 1985-2007 werden Veränderungen der Einflussstrukturen der Studienfachwahl deutlich, wie z.B. die schwindende Bedeutung der sozialen Herkunft für die Studienfachwahl zeigt. Abschließend wird der Zusammenhang der Einflussstrukturen der Studienfachwahl mit der Studienzufriedenheit analysiert. Auch für die Zufriedenheit von Studierenden und damit den Studienerfolg sind bestimmte Strukturen der Studienfachwahl von Bedeutung.

Automatic induction of lexical features

This thesis concerns artificially intelligent natural language processing systems that are capable of learning the properties of lexical items (properties like verbal valency or inflectional class membership) autonomously while they are fulfilling their tasks for which they have been deployed in the first place. Many of these tasks require a deep analysis of language input, which can be characterized as a mapping of utterances in a given input C to a set S of linguistically motivated structures with the help of linguistic information encoded in a grammar G and a lexicon L: G + L + C → S (1) The idea that underlies intelligent lexical acquisition systems is to modify this schematic formula in such a way that the system is able to exploit the information encoded in S to create a new, improved version of the lexicon: G + L + S → L' (2) Moreover, the thesis claims that a system can only be considered intelligent if it does not just make maximum usage of the learning opportunities in C, but if it is also able to revise falsely acquired lexical knowledge. So, one of the central elements in this work is the formulation of a couple of criteria for intelligent lexical acquisition systems subsumed under one paradigm: the Learn-Alpha design rule. The thesis describes the design and quality of a prototype for such a system, whose acquisition components have been developed from scratch and built on top of one of the state-of-the-art Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) processing systems. The quality of this prototype is investigated in a series of experiments, in which the system is fed with extracts of a large English corpus. While the idea of using machine-readable language input to automatically acquire lexical knowledge is not new, we are not aware of a system that fulfills Learn-Alpha and is able to deal with large corpora. To instance four major challenges of constructing such a system, it should be mentioned that a) the high number of possible structural descriptions caused by highly underspeci ed lexical entries demands for a parser with a very effective ambiguity management system, b) the automatic construction of concise lexical entries out of a bulk of observed lexical facts requires a special technique of data alignment, c) the reliability of these entries depends on the system's decision on whether it has seen 'enough' input and d) general properties of language might render some lexical features indeterminable if the system tries to acquire them with a too high precision. The cornerstone of this dissertation is the motivation and development of a general theory of automatic lexical acquisition that is applicable to every language and independent of any particular theory of grammar or lexicon. This work is divided into five chapters. The introductory chapter first contrasts three different and mutually incompatible approaches to (artificial) lexical acquisition: cue-based queries, head-lexicalized probabilistic context free grammars and learning by unification. Then the postulation of the Learn-Alpha design rule is presented. The second chapter outlines the theory that underlies Learn-Alpha and exposes all the related notions and concepts required for a proper understanding of artificial lexical acquisition. Chapter 3 develops the prototyped acquisition method, called ANALYZE-LEARN-REDUCE, a framework which implements Learn-Alpha. The fourth chapter presents the design and results of a bootstrapping experiment conducted on this prototype: lexeme detection, learning of verbal valency, categorization into nominal count/mass classes, selection of prepositions and sentential complements, among others. The thesis concludes with a review of the conclusions and motivation for further improvements as well as proposals for future research on the automatic induction of lexical features.

La lexiculture: un outil pour l'approche culturelle

La lexiculture a identifié la « charge culturelle des mots », ce qui permet de comprendre les jeux de mots dans la phrase, l'humour, l'allusion socioculturelle, l'ironie d'une langue. Le concept se montre à nous comme un concept fonctionnel et mobilisateur qui nous permet de voir autrement le monde, pour un avenir où langue et culture ne seront pas traitées comme deux entités étrangères entre elles.

The Politics of the "New North": Putting History and Geography at Stake in Arctic Futures

References to a “New North” have snowballed across popular media in the past 10 years. By invoking the phrase, scientists, policy analysts, journalists and others draw attention to the collision of global warming and global investment in the Arctic today and project a variety of futures for the region and the planet. While changes are apparent, the trope of a “New North” is not new. Discourses that appraised unfamiliar situations at the top of the world have recurred throughout the twentieth century. They have also accompanied attempts to cajole, conquer, civilize, consume, conserve and capitalize upon the far north. This article examines these politics of the “New North” by critically reading “New North” texts from the North American Arctic between 1910 and 2010. In each case, appeals to novelty drew from evaluations of the historical record and assessments of the Arctic’s shifting position in global affairs. “New North” authors pinpointed the ways science, state power, capital and technology transformed northern landscapes at different moments in time. They also licensed political and corporate influence in the region by delimiting the colonial legacies already apparent there. Given these tendencies, scholars need to approach the most recent iteration of the “New North” carefully without concealing or repeating the most troubling aspects of the Arctic’s past.

Al Cheit

As the cliche goes, you write what you know. Coming into this the phrase was worn-out, something said by readers who hadn't studied Roland Barthes and still couldn't tell the difference between the life of the author and that of the protagonist. But since then, I've changed my mind: writing what you know is a more efficient way of saying that in order to be a good writer, you must understand whatyou're writing about. This concept may seem rudimentary, but when I started writing Al Cheit, the truth is, I didn't understand my subject.

Critical review of the use of erythropoietin in the treatment of anaemia during therapy for chronic hepatitis C

Combined pegylated interferon (PegIFN) and ribavirin represents the standard therapy for patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC), which allows for sustained viral response (SVR) in up to 90% of patients depending on certain viral and host factors. Clinical studies have demonstrated the importance of adherence to therapy, that is, the ability of patients to tolerate and sustain a fully dosed therapy regimen. Adherence is markedly impaired by treatment-related adverse effects. In particular, haemolytic anaemia often requires dose reduction or termination of ribavirin treatment, which compromises treatment efficacy. Recent evidence points to a beneficial role of recombinant erythropoietin (EPO) in alleviating ribavirin-induced anaemia thereby improving quality of life, enabling higher ribavirin dosage and consequently improving SVR. However, no general consensus exists regarding the use of EPO for specific indications: its optimal dosing, treatment benefits and potential risks or cost efficiency. The Swiss Association for the Study of the Liver (SASL) has therefore organized an expert meeting to critically review and discuss the current evidence and to phrase recommendations for clinical practice. A consensus was reached recommending the use of EPO for patients infected with viral genotype 1 developing significant anaemia below 100 g/L haemoglobin and a haematocrit of <30% during standard therapy to improve quality of life and sustain optimal ribavirin dose. However, the evidence supporting its use in patients with pre-existing anaemia, non-1 viral genotypes, a former relapse or nonresponse, liver transplant recipients and cardiovascular or pulmonary disease is considered insufficient.

Must We Forgive?: Exploring the Limits and Possibilities of Forgiveness and Resentment

Conflict has marked civilization from Biblical times to the present day. Each of us, with our different and competing interests, and our desires to pursue those interests, have over time wronged another person. Not surprisingly then, forgiveness is a concern of individuals and groups¿communities, countries, religious groups, races¿yet it is a complex idea that philosophers, theologians, political scientists, and psychologists have grappled with. Some have argued that forgiveness is a therapeutic means for overcoming guilt, pain, and anger. Forgiveness is often portrayed as a coping mechanism¿how often we hear the phrase, ¿forgive and forget,¿ as an arrangement to help two parties surmount the complications of disagreement. But forgiveness is not simply a modus vivendi; the ability to forgive and conversely to ask for forgiveness, is counted as an admirable trait and virtue. This essay will explore the nature of forgiveness, which in Christian dogma is often posited as an unqualified virtue. The secular world has appropriated the Christian notion of forgiveness as such a virtue¿but are there instances wherein offering forgiveness is morally inappropriate or dangerous? I will consider the situations in which forgiveness, understood in this essay as the overcoming of resentment, may not be a virtue¿when perhaps maintaining resentment is as virtuous, if not more virtuous, than forgiving. I will explain the various ethical frameworks involved in understanding forgiveness as a virtue, and the relationship between them. I will argue that within Divine Command Theory forgiveness is a virtue¿and thus morally right¿because God commands it. This ethical system has established forgiveness as unconditional, an idea which has been adopted into popular culture. With virtue ethics in mind, which holds virtues to be those traits which benefit the person who possesses them, contributing to the good life, I will argue unqualified forgiveness is not always a virtue, as it will not always benefit the victim. Because there is no way to avoid wrongdoing, humans are confronted with the question of forgiveness with every indiscretion. Its limits, its possibilities, its relationship to one¿s character¿forgiveness is a concern of all people at some time if for no other reason than the plain fact that the past cannot be undone. I will be evaluating the idea of forgiveness as a virtue, in contrast to its counterpart, resentment. How can forgiveness be a response to evil, a way to renounce resentment, and a means of creating a positive self-narrative? And what happens when a sense of moral responsibility is impossible to reconcile with the Christian (and now, secularized imperative of) forgiveness? Is it ever not virtuous to forgive? In an attempt to answer that question I will argue that there are indeed times when forgiveness is not a virtue, specifically: when forgiveness compromises one¿s own self-respect; when it is not compatible with respect for the moral community; and when the offender is unapologetic. The kind of offense I have in mind is a dehumanizing one, one that intends to diminish another person¿s worth or humanity. These are moral injuries, to which I will argue resentment is a better response than forgiveness when the three qualifications cannot be met.

Comparative Analysis of Russian and French Prosodies: Theoretical, Experimental and Applied Aspects"

Experience shows that in teaching the pronunciation of a foreign language, it is the native syllable stereotype that resists correction most strongly. This is because the syllable is the basic unit of the perception and production of speech, and syllabic production is highly automatic and to some degree determines the prosody of speech at all levels: accent, rhythm, phrase, etc. The results of psycho-physiological studies show that the human acoustic analyser is a typical contemplator organ and new acoustic qualities are perceived through their inclusion into the already existing system of values characteristic to the mother tongue. This results in the adaptation of the perception and so production of foreign speech to native patterns. The less conscious the perception of the unit and the more 'primitive' its status, the greater the degree of its auditory assimilation, and the syllable is certainly among the less controllable linguistic units. The group carried out a complex investigation of the French and Russian languages at the level of syllable realisation, focusing on the stressed syllable of both open and closed types. The useful acoustic characteristics of the French/Russian syllable pattern were determined through identifying a typical syllable pattern within the system of each of the two languages, comparing these patterns to establish their contrasting features, and observing and systematising deviations from the pattern typical of the French/Russian language teaching situation. The components of the syllable pattern shown to need particular attention in teaching French pronunciation to Russian native speakers were intensity, fundamental frequency, and duration. The group then developed a method of correction which combines the auditory and visual canals of sound signal perception and tested this method with groups of Russian students of different levels.