Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs v Al Masri

The case of Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs v Al Masri examines the legality of the continued, and possibly indefinite, detention of an asylum seeker - in determining whether mandatory detention was in fact 'mandatory', and legally so, the Federal Court had to examine the complexity between statute, the Constitution and fundamental rights and freedoms at stake.

Identifiability and definiteness in Chinese

This article explores how the pragmatic notion of identfiability is encoded in Chinese. It presents a detailed analysis of the distinctive linguistic devices, including lexical, morphological, and position in sentence, which are employed in Chinese to indicate the interpretation of referents in respect of identifiability. Of the major determiners in Chinese, demonstratives are developing uses of a definite article, and yi 'one' + classier has developed uses of an indefinite article, although morphologically and in some cases also functionally they have not yet been fully grammaticalized. What makes Chinese further different from languages like English is the interpretation in this regard of what are called indeterminate lexical encodings, which include bare NPs and cardinality expressions. They by themselves are neutral in respect of the interpretation of identifiability. For indeterminate expressions, there is a strong but seldom absolute correlation between the interpretation of identiability or nonidentfiability and their occurrence in different positions in a sentence. Unlike the cases with several other languages without articles like Czech, Hindi, and Indonesian, the features of definiteness and indefiniteness cannot be obligatorily and uniquely specified for nominal expressions in Chinese. The findings in this article lead to the conclusion that definiteness as a grammatical category defined in the narrow sense has not been fully developed in Chinese.

Mechanical effects of plant cell wall enzymes on cellulose/xyloglucan composites

Xyloglucan-acting enzymes are believed to have effects on type I primary plant cell wall mechanical properties. In order to get a better understanding of these effects, a range of enzymes with different in vitro modes of action were tested against cell wall analogues (bio-composite materials based on Acetobacter xylinus cellulose and xyloglucan). Tomato pericarp xyloglucan endo transglycosylase (tXET) and nasturtium seed xyloglucanase (nXGase) were produced heterologously in Pichia pastoris. Their action against the cell wall analogues was compared with that of a commercial preparation of Trichoderma endo-glucanase (EndoGase). Both 'hydrolytic' enzymes (nXGase and EndoGase) were able to depolymerise not only the cross-link xyloglucan fraction but also the surface-bound fraction. Consequent major changes in cellulose fibril architecture were observed. In mechanical terms, removal of xyloglucan cross-links from composites resulted in increased stiffness (at high strain) and decreased visco-elasticity with similar extensibility. On the other hand, true transglycosylase activity (tXET) did not affect the cellulose/xyloglucan ratio. No change in composite stiffness or extensibility resulted, but a significant increase in creep behaviour was observed in the presence of active tXET. These results provide direct in vitro evidence for the involvement of cell wall xyloglucan-specific enzymes in mechanical changes underlying plant cell wall re-modelling and growth processes. Mechanical consequences of tXET action are shown to be complimentary to those of cucumber expansin.

Obstacles to a totally functional programming style

"Totally functional programming" (TFP) advocates the complete replacement of symbolic representations for data by functions. TFP is motivated by observations from practice in language extensibility and functional programming. Its technical essence extends the role of "fold" functions in structuring functional programs to include methods that make comparisons on elements of data structures. The obstacles that currently prevent the immediate uptake of TFP as a style within functional programming equally indicate future research directions in the areas of theoretical foundations, supporting technical infrastructure, demonstrated practical applicability, and relationship to OOP.

Du tout au rien:libre-choix et polarité negative

This monograph proposes a general model for the analysis of polysemy. The underspecified content of polysemic items produces interpretations in relation with characterised contextual indicators. This ternary set of schematic representations applies to the meaning organisation of French indefinite qui que ce soit ('any'). Universal positive readings, existential and opposition readings are generated by modalised predicate, a modalised proposition and syntactically adjoined functions. "Affective" contexts yield a negative polarity interpretation, the interpretation is generated through concessive reasoning, which explains how scalar values can be evoked by an item representing arbitrary selection. Such contextual reasoning and characterised contextual indicators are the two modes for the calculation of the contextual interpretation of polysemous items.

Quelqu'un n'est pas venu

Received wisdom has it that positive polarity items such as someone are incompatible with negation (?*Someone didn't come). Yet negative contexts are attested with such items not only in their specific indefinite reading (e.g. There's someone who didn't come), but also in their non-specific reading (It isn't the case that someone came). It is the non-specific reading of indefinite quelqu'un as subject of a negative verb phrase which is analysed by the present paper. On the basis of a corpus of attested cases, it demonstrates that polemic contrast is the crucial condition of the considered interpretation. As quelqu'un is included within a presupposed proposition that is rejected as a whole by negation, negative contexts can accommodate an item which does not normally yield the interpretations negation does. Interpretation is thus presented as process of mutual adjustment between contextual readings allowed for by items, readings which can be modalised by discursive values.

Les forces et les faiblesses de l'indéfini n'importe qui

This paper proposes a semantic analysis of the French free-choice indefinite 'n’importe qui'. The semantics of the indefinite is organised as a ternary structure. The (1) abstract meaning underlies all uses of the item and acts as a principle of creative interpretation generation and comprehension. This principle is actualised via (2) discrete contextual features through to (3) contextual interpretations. Thus, the “existential” reading of 'n’importe qui' is derived by a veridical reading of the arbitrary selection of a qualitatively-marked occurrence from the set of human animates. The derivation of contextual readings from the enrichment by contextual cues of an underspecified meaning has a claim to an explanatory model of the semantics of grammatical polysemous items, and is certainly relevant to model-theoretic approaches in as much as formal semantic notions are intricately linked to the contextual interpretation of items. It is not 'n’importe qui' itself, but its contextual interpretations which may be weak or strong, and an homonymous treatment is not possible given the continuity of the quality and free-choice dimensions from one observed reading of n’importe qui to the next.

Adults with dyslexia exhibit large effects of crowding, increased dependence on cues, and detrimental effects of distractors in visual search tasks

Difficulties in visual attention are increasingly being linked to dyslexia. To date, the majority of studies have inferred functionality of attention from response times to stimuli presented for an indefinite duration. However, in paradigms that use reaction times to investigate the ability to orient attention, a delayed reaction time could also indicate difficulties in signal enhancement or noise exclusion once oriented. Thus, in order to investigate attention modulation and visual crowding effects in dyslexia, this study measured stimulus discrimination accuracy to rapidly presented displays. Adults with dyslexia (AwD) and controls discriminated the orientation of a target in an array of different numbers of - and differently spaced - vertically orientated distractors. Results showed that AwD: were disproportionately impacted by (i) close spacing and (ii) increased numbers of stimuli, (iii) did use pre-cues to modulate attention, but (iv) used cues less successfully to counter effects of increasing numbers of distractors. A greater dependence on pre-cues, larger effects of crowding and the impact of increased numbers of distractors all correlated significantly with measures of literacy. These findings extend previous studies of visual crowding of letters in dyslexia to non-complex stimuli. Overall, AwD do not use cues less, but they do use cues less successfully. We conclude that visual attention is an important factor to consider in the aetiology of dyslexia. The results challenge existing theoretical accounts of visual attention deficits, which alone are unable to comprehensively explain the pattern of findings demonstrated here.

Clinical decision support system for point of care use: ontology driven design and software implementation

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this research was to design a clinical decision support system (CDSS) that supports heterogeneous clinical decision problems and runs on multiple computing platforms. Meeting this objective required a novel design to create an extendable and easy to maintain clinical CDSS for point of care support. The proposed solution was evaluated in a proof of concept implementation. METHODS: Based on our earlier research with the design of a mobile CDSS for emergency triage we used ontology-driven design to represent essential components of a CDSS. Models of clinical decision problems were derived from the ontology and they were processed into executable applications during runtime. This allowed scaling applications' functionality to the capabilities of computing platforms. A prototype of the system was implemented using the extended client-server architecture and Web services to distribute the functions of the system and to make it operational in limited connectivity conditions. RESULTS: The proposed design provided a common framework that facilitated development of diversified clinical applications running seamlessly on a variety of computing platforms. It was prototyped for two clinical decision problems and settings (triage of acute pain in the emergency department and postoperative management of radical prostatectomy on the hospital ward) and implemented on two computing platforms-desktop and handheld computers. CONCLUSIONS: The requirement of the CDSS heterogeneity was satisfied with ontology-driven design. Processing of application models described with the help of ontological models allowed having a complex system running on multiple computing platforms with different capabilities. Finally, separation of models and runtime components contributed to improved extensibility and maintainability of the system.

On the Vertex Separation of Cactus Graphs

This paper is part of a work in progress whose goal is to construct a fast, practical algorithm for the vertex separation (VS) of cactus graphs. We prove a \main theorem for cacti", a necessary and sufficient condition for the VS of a cactus graph being k. Further, we investigate the ensuing ramifications that prevent the construction of an algorithm based on that theorem only.

Some Para-Hermitian Related Complex Structures and Non-existence of Semi-Riemannian Metric on Some Spheres

It is shown that the spheres S^(2n) (resp: S^k with k ≡ 1 mod 4) can be given neither an indefinite metric of any signature (resp: of signature (r, k − r) with 2 ≤ r ≤ k − 2) nor an almost paracomplex structure. Further for every given Riemannian metric on an almost para-Hermitian manifold with the associated 2-form φ one can construct an almost Hermitian structure (under certain conditions, two different almost Hermitian structures) whose associated 2-form(s) is φ.

Semantic Description of Web Services and Possibilities of BPEL4WS

The using of the upsurge of semantics web technologies gives a possibility for an increasing of the flexibility, extensibility and consistency of the existent industrial standards for modeling of web services. In the paper the types of semantic description of web services and the degree of their realization in BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services) respectively on the abstract and executable level are treated. The methods for using of BPEL4WS for the purposes of semantic web services in the direction of their semi-automatic integration are suggested.

Collocation, interpretation and explanation:the case of just any

This article discusses the question of compositionality by examining whether the indiscriminacy reading of the collocation of just with any can be shown to be a consequence of the schematic meaning-potential of each of these two items. A comparison of justwith other restrictive focus particles allows its schematic meaning to be defined as that of goodness of fit. Any is defined as representing an indefinite member of a set as extractable from the set in exactly the same way as each of the other members thereof. The collocation just any often gives rise to a scalar reading oriented towards the lowest value on the scale due to the fact that focus on the unconstrained extractability of a random indefinite item brings into consideration even marginal cases and the latter tend to be interpreted as situated on the lower end of the scale. The attention to low-end values also explains why just any is regularly found with the adjective old, the prepositional phrase at all and various devaluating expressions. It is concluded that the meanings of the component parts of this collocation do indeed account for the meaning of the whole, and that an appropriate methodology allows identification of linguistic meanings and their interrelations. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

Architecture of Extensible Computations Driven Systems

Никола Вълчанов, Тодорка Терзиева, Владимир Шкуртов, Антон Илиев - Една от основните области на приложения на компютърната информатика е автоматизирането на математическите изчисления. Информационните системи покриват различни области като счетоводство, електронно обучение/тестване, симулационни среди и т. н. Те работят с изчислителни библиотеки, които са специфични за обхвата на системата. Въпреки, че такива системи са перфектни и работят безпогрешно, ако не се поддържат остаряват. В тази работа описваме механизъм, който използва динамично библиотеките за изчисления и взема решение по време на изпълнение (интелигентно или интерактивно) за това как и кога те да се използват. Целта на тази статия е представяне на архитектура за системи, управлявани от изчисления. Тя се фокусира върху ползите от използването на правилните шаблони за дизайн с цел да се осигури разширяемост и намаляване на сложността.

A Note on the Extinction Problem for Controlled Multitype Branching Processes

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 60J80, 60J10.