The principle of least effort within the hierarchy of linguistic preferences: external evidence from English

The thesis is an investigation of the principle of least effort (Zipf 1949 [1972]). The principle is simple (all effort should be least) and universal (it governs the totality of human behavior). Since the principle is also functional, the thesis adopts a functional theory of language as its theoretical framework, i.e. Natural Linguistics. The explanatory system of Natural Linguistics posits that higher principles govern preferences, which, in turn, manifest themselves as concrete, specific processes in a given language. Therefore, the thesis’ aim is to investigate the principle of least effort on the basis of external evidence from English. The investigation falls into the three following strands: the investigation of the principle itself, the investigation of its application in articulatory effort and the investigation of its application in phonological processes. The structure of the thesis reflects the division of its broad aims. The first part of the thesis presents its theoretical background (Chapter One and Chapter Two), the second part of the thesis deals with application of least effort in articulatory effort (Chapter Three and Chapter Four), whereas the third part discusses the principle of least effort in phonological processes (Chapter Five and Chapter Six). Chapter One serves as an introduction, examining various aspects of the principle of least effort such as its history, literature, operation and motivation. It overviews various names which denote least effort, explains the origins of the principle and reviews the literature devoted to the principle of least effort in a chronological order. The chapter also discusses the nature and operation of the principle, providing numerous examples of the principle at work. It emphasizes the universal character of the principle from the linguistic field (low-level phonetic processes and language universals) and the non-linguistic ones (physics, biology, psychology and cognitive sciences), proving that the principle governs human behavior and choices. Chapter Two provides the theoretical background of the thesis in terms of its theoretical framework and discusses the terms used in the thesis’ title, i.e. hierarchy and preference. It justifies the selection of Natural Linguistics as the thesis’ theoretical framework by outlining its major assumptions and demonstrating its explanatory power. As far as the concepts of hierarchy and preference are concerned, the chapter provides their definitions and reviews their various understandings via decision theories and linguistic preference-based theories. Since the thesis investigates the principle of least effort in language and speech, Chapter Three considers the articulatory aspect of effort. It reviews the notion of easy and difficult sounds and discusses the concept of articulatory effort, overviewing its literature as well as various understandings in a chronological fashion. The chapter also presents the concept of articulatory gestures within the framework of Articulatory Phonology. The thesis’ aim is to investigate the principle of least effort on the basis of external evidence, therefore Chapters Four and Six provide evidence in terms of three experiments, text message studies (Chapter Four) and phonological processes in English (Chapter Six). Chapter Four contains evidence for the principle of least effort in articulation on the basis of experiments. It describes the experiments in terms of their predictions and methodology. In particular, it discusses the adopted measure of effort established by means of the effort parameters as well as their status. The statistical methods of the experiments are also clarified. The chapter reports on the results of the experiments, presenting them in a graphical way and discusses their relation to the tested predictions. Chapter Four establishes a hierarchy of speakers’ preferences with reference to articulatory effort (Figures 30, 31). The thesis investigates the principle of least effort in phonological processes, thus Chapter Five is devoted to the discussion of phonological processes in Natural Phonology. The chapter explains the general nature and motivation of processes as well as the development of processes in child language. It also discusses the organization of processes in terms of their typology as well as the order in which processes apply. The chapter characterizes the semantic properties of processes and overviews Luschützky’s (1997) contribution to NP with respect to processes in terms of their typology and incorporation of articulatory gestures in the concept of a process. Chapter Six investigates phonological processes. In particular, it identifies the issues of lenition/fortition definition and process typology by presenting the current approaches to process definitions and their typology. Since the chapter concludes that no coherent definition of lenition/fortition exists, it develops alternative lenition/fortition definitions. The chapter also revises the typology of phonological processes under effort management, which is an extended version of the principle of least effort. Chapter Seven concludes the thesis with a list of the concepts discussed in the thesis, enumerates the proposals made by the thesis in discussing the concepts and presents some questions for future research which have emerged in the course of investigation. The chapter also specifies the extent to which the investigation of the principle of least effort is a meaningful contribution to phonology.

Separating deviant and non-deviant sexual preferences with a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation task

Forskning visar att avvikande sexuell preferens (ASP) är en av de mest centrala prediktorerna för återfall i sexualbrott. Eftersom det är viktigt att det i juridiskt beslutsfattande och behandling av sexualförbrytare finns valida och standardiserade verktyg att tillgå för bedömning av ASP, har forskningen under de senaste åren fokuserats på uppmärksamhetsbaserade metoder. Syftet med avhandlingen var att förbättra uppmärksamhetsbaserade metoder genom utvecklingen av en s.k. Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (dtRSVP) metod för att identifiera ASP. Innan vi testade sampel med sexualbrottslingar så genomförde vi tre studier för att kalibrera förfarandena. I dessa studier undersökte vi möjligheten att differentiera mellan homosexuella och heterosexuella män och hur enkelt deltagarna kunde fuska. Dessutom skapade vi en ny uppsättning standardiserade stimuli för bedömningen av pedofilt sexuellt intresse (Virtual People Set, VPS). I skapandet av stimuli togs de etiska och juridiska problemen i beaktande så långt som möjligt. När vi använde dtRSVP som mätningsförfarande för att skilja åt sexuellläggning i ett sampel av homosexuella och heterosexuella män fann vi att sexuellt relevanta stimuli påverkade informationsbehandlingen på ett förutsägbart sätt. Förfarandet hade en god förmåga att skilja sexuella preferenser mellan grupperna och förfarandet var svårt att påverka genom att fuska. När vi använde dtRSVP som mätningsförfarande för att identifiera avvikande sexuell läggning bland dömda sexbrottslingar fann vi att de visade en annorlunda bearbetning av sexuella stimuli jämfört med andra deltagare och att dessa skillnader var i de förväntade riktningarna. Det var däremot svårt att dra några slutsatser angående denna mätmetods förmåga att skilja mellan grupperna pedofiler och icke-pedofiler. Slutligen fann vi att VPS verkar vara ett användbart stimuluspaket för experimentell forskning om pedofilt sexuellt intresse. ---------------------------------------------------- Tutkimuksien mukaan poikkeava seksuaalinen mieltymys (PSM) on yksi seksuaalirikoksen uusimisen keskeisimmistä ennustajista. Oikeudellisessa päätöksenteossa ja seksuaalirikollisten hoidossa on tärkeää, että on käytettävissä kelvollisia ja standardisoituja välineitä PSM:n arvioinnissa. Sen vuoksi on tutkimuksissa viime vuosina keskitytty huomaavaisuuteen perustuviin menetelmiin. Tämän tutkielman tarkoitus oli parantaa huomaavaisuuteen perustuvia menetelmiä kehittämällä nk. Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (dtRSVP) menetelmän. Kalibroidakseen menettelytapoja suoritettiin kolme tutkimusta ennen kuin tutkittiin koeryhmää, johon kuuluvat seksuaalirikollisia. Näissä tutkimuksissa tutkittiin mahdollisuutta erotella homoseksuaalisia ja heteroseksuaalisia miehiä ja tutkittiin missä määrin osallistujien oli helppo huiputtaa. Sen lisäksi, pedofiilisen seksuaalisen mieltymyksen arviointia varten kehitettiin uutta sarjaa standardisoituja virikkeitä (Virtual People Set, VPS). Kehitettäessä virikkeitä otettiin mahdollisimman pitkälti huomioon eettisiä ja oikeudellisia ongelmia. Käytettäessä dtRSVP mittausmenetelmää erotellakseen homo- ja heteroseksuaalista suuntautumista havaitsimme, että seksuaaliset virikkeet vaikuttivat tietojenkäsittelyyn ennustettavalla tavalla. Menettelytavan avulla pystyttiin erotella koeryhmässä olevia seksuaalisia mieltymyksiä ja menettelytapaan oli vaikeaa vaikuttaa huijaamalla. Käytettäessä dtRSVP mittausmenetelmää tunnistaakseen poikkeavaa seksuaalista mieltymystä tuomittujen seksuaalirikollisten keskenään havaitsimme, että he osoittivat erilaista käsittelyä seksuaalisista virikkeistä toisiin osallistujiin verrattuna ja tulokset olivat ennustettavia. Silti oli vaikeaa tehdä johtopäätöksiä mittausmenetelmän kyvystä erotella ryhmiä pedofiilisiä ja ei-pedofiilisiä miehiä. Lopuksi havaitsimme, että VPS näyttää olevan käyttökelpoinen stimulussarja pedofiilisen seksuaalisen mieltymyksen kokeellisissa tutkimuksissa.

Experiences of COPD patients with existing smoking cessation programs and their preferences for improvement - a qualitative analysis

BACKGROUND: Smoking is a major risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). For current smokers who are diagnosed with COPD, their first treatment option is to stop smoking. Motivation is necessary for long-term smoking cessation; therefore, when designing smoking cessation programs, the patients' needs and preferences should be considered. We focused on COPD patients' experiences with existing smoking cessation programs and evaluated their preferences for the improvement of these programs. METHODS: We conducted 18 guideline-based interviews with COPD patients between April and June 2014 in Germany. Each patient with COPD, who was a current or past smoker and had made at least one attempt to quit smoking in the past 5 years, was included in the study. We audiotaped, verbatim transcribed, and evaluated the interviews, using content analysis. RESULTS: The patients had broad and different experiences with pharmaceutical, behavioral, and alternative approaches that supported or negatively influenced the smoking cessation process. Pharmaceuticals were viewed as an expensive alternative with many side effects although they helped to stop cravings for a few moments. Furthermore, the bad structure and impersonal content of the seminars for smoking cessation negatively influenced group cohesion, and therefore degrading the patients' motivation to stop smoking. Alternative methods, such as acupuncture and hypnosis were mostly ineffective in smoking cessation, but in some cases, served as motivational strategies. CONCLUSION: Negative experiences with smoking cessation were explained by the patients' lack of motivation or resolution. Other negative experiences, such as the structure of seminars for smoking cessation and the high price of pharmaceuticals should be addressed through policy changes to increase the patients' motivation to quit smoking.

Other-Regarding Preferences in General Equilibrium

We study competitive market outcomes in economies where agents have other-regarding preferences. We identify a separability condition on monotone preferences that is necessary and sufficient for one’s own demand to be independent of the allocations and characteristics of other agents in the economy. Given separability, it is impossible to identify other-regarding preferences from market behavior: agents be- have as if they had classical preferences that depend only on own consumption in competitive equilibrium. If preferences, in addition, depend only on the final allocation of consumption in society, the Sec- ond Welfare Theorem holds as long as an increase in resources can be distributed such that all agents are better off. Nevertheless, the First Welfare Theorem generally does not hold. Allowing agents to care about their own consumption and the distribution of consump- tion possibilities in the economy, we provide a condition under which agents have no incentive to make direct transfers, and show that this condition implies that competitive equilibria are efficient given prices.

Perceived benefits, motivations and preferences for foreign language learning by older adults. Insights from an initiative in Cuenca, Ecuador

El presente estudio analiza las percepciones y actitudes que tienen los adultos mayores de la ciudad de Cuenca, Ecuador hacia el aprendizaje del inglés. Un total de 151 adultos mayores (con edad promedio de 70.3 años) respondió a un cuestionario con 50 ítems. Se llevó a cabo análisis factoriales, de regresión múltiple y cluster con el propósito de definir las dimensiones subyacentes en las percepciones, motivaciones y ambiciones de los adultos mayores para aprender un idioma extranjero, y su relación con las características sociodemográficas de los participantes. Los resultados señalan que el interés por estudiar un idioma extranjero está basado en la percepción de que aquello mejora la interacción social de las personas, su desarrollo personal, el funcionamiento y mantenimiento de la mente y memoria, y que activa y vuelve su vida más dinámica. Los resultados además revelaron que la principal motivación de los participantes para tomar un curso de inglés está relacionada con el potencial de usar este idioma en la vida diaria y el de leer profusamente en esa lengua extranjera. La duración del curso y la obtención de un certificado fueron factores determinantes que permitieron agrupar a los participantes en función de sus preferencias en lo que respecta al diseño práctico de un curso de inglés. Adicionalmente, la edad y el nivel de instrucción fueron variables determinantes de motivación que influyeron en la mayor parte de las respuestas dadas por los participantes.

Investigating Stakeholders’ Preferences for Coral Reef Research Funding in Florida

Abstract: Heavily used and highly valuable, the Florida Reef is one of the world's most threatened ecosystems. Stakeholders from a densely urbanized coastal region in proximity to the reef system recognize its degradation, but their comprehension of climate change and commitment to pay for sustainable management and research funding have been opaque. With an emphasis on recreational anglers, residential stakeholders were surveyed online about their marine activities, perceptions of resources and threats, and willingness to pay (WTP) for dedicated coral reef research funding in Florida. The majority of stakeholders are wealthy, well educated, and politically independent. Supermajorities favored the two scenarios of taxation for a Florida Coral Reef Research Fund, and the scenario with matching federal funds earned higher support. In regression analyses, several factors emerged as significant contributors to stakeholders’ preferences, and the four recurring factors in extended models were prioritizing the environment over the economy, donating to environmental causes, concern about coral reefs, and concern about climate change, with the latter indicating a recent shift of opinion. Status in terms of income and education were found insignificant, and surprisingly income was negatively correlated with WTP. Perceptions through lenses of environmental and emotional attachments appear to overwhelm conventional status-based factors. Applied statewide, the first scenario's extrapolated WTP (based on a sales tax rate of 2.9%) would generate $675 million annually, and the extrapolated WTP under the second scenario, with matching federal funds (based on a sales tax rate of 3.0%) would generate $1.4 billion. Keywords: willingness to pay, coral reef research, taxation, climate change, stakeholder, perceptions, Florida Reef, recreational fishing, anglers

Individual differences in preferences for recruitment websites

This study investigated individual differences in preferences for recruitment websites. Specifically, I expected that personality and ethnic identity would be related to individuals' preferences for corporate websites. A policy-capturing methodology was employed to determine the weight participants place on five website characteristics (i.e. navigability, information relevancy, diversity information, privacy, and contact). Regression and correlational analyses were employed with the five beta weights obtained from individual regression analyses and the other individual differences measures. Results from two samples (student and general population) revealed that, generally, individuals do not differ in the weight they place on different aspects of recruitment websites. However, this study is the first to investigate individual differences in preferences for recruitment websites. Thus, it seems premature to conclude that such differences do not exist. Given its uniqueness, hopefully this study will stimulate research that further elucidates the process by which individuals interpret and evaluate recruitment websites.

Preferences in the use of communication technology: the influence of the gender dimension among higher education students

This paper presents some of the findings of a nationwide study, which was designed for understanding aspects related to the use of Communication Technology (CT) among higher education students in Portugal. This descriptive and exploratory study essentially focused on gender issues, particularly on how they influence the students’ perception regarding the use of CT. The data collection method selected was online survey. The findings reveal, among other results, students’ preferences regarding CT use and gender differences in that context.

Economic preferences in the health setting. Three case studies concerning the needs of breast cancer patients, pain management in oncology and extreme end-of-life decisions

The thesis describes three studies concerning the role of the Economic Preference set investigated in the Global Preference Survey (GPS) in the following cases: 1) the needs of women with breast cancer; 2) pain undertreament in oncology; 3) legal status of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The analyses, based on regression techniques, were always conducted on the basis of aggregate data and revealed in all cases a possible role of the Economic Preferences studied, also resisting the concomitant effect of the other covariates that were considered from time to time. Regarding individual studies, the related conclusion are: 1) Economic Preferences appear to play a role in influencing the needs of women with breast cancer, albeit of non-trivial interpretation, statistically "resisting" the concomitant effect of the other independent variables considered. However, these results should be considered preliminary and need further confirmation, possibly with prospective studies conducted at the level of the individual; 2) the results show a good degree of internal consistency with regard to pro-social GPS scores, since they are all found to be non-statistically significant and united, albeit only weakly in trend, by a negative correlation with the % of pain undertreated patients. Sharper, at least statistically, is the role of Patience and Willingness to Take Risk, although of more complex empirical interpretation. 3) the results seem to indicate an obvious role of Economic Preferences, however difficult to interpret empirically. Less evidence, at least on the inferential level, emerged, however, regarding variables that, based on common sense, should play an even more obvious role than Economic Preferences in orienting attitudes toward euthanasia and assisted suicide, namely Healthcare System, Legal Origin, and Kinship Tightness; striking, in particular, is the inability to prove a role for the dominant religious orientation even with a simple bivariate analysis.

Digestive Peptidase Evolution In Holometabolous Insects Led To A Divergent Group Of Enzymes In Lepidoptera.

Trypsins and chymotrypsins are well-studied serine peptidases that cleave peptide bonds at the carboxyl side of basic and hydrophobic l-amino acids, respectively. These enzymes are largely responsible for the digestion of proteins. Three primary processes regulate the activity of these peptidases: secretion, precursor (zymogen) activation and substrate-binding site recognition. Here, we present a detailed phylogenetic analysis of trypsins and chymotrypsins in three orders of holometabolous insects and reveal divergent characteristics of Lepidoptera enzymes in comparison with those of Coleoptera and Diptera. In particular, trypsin subsite S1 was more hydrophilic in Lepidoptera than in Coleoptera and Diptera, whereas subsites S2-S4 were more hydrophobic, suggesting different substrate preferences. Furthermore, Lepidoptera displayed a lineage-specific trypsin group belonging only to the Noctuidae family. Evidence for facilitated trypsin auto-activation events were also observed in all the insect orders studied, with the characteristic zymogen activation motif complementary to the trypsin active site. In contrast, insect chymotrypsins did not seem to have a peculiar evolutionary history with respect to their mammal counterparts. Overall, our findings suggest that the need for fast digestion allowed holometabolous insects to evolve divergent groups of peptidases with high auto-activation rates, and highlight that the evolution of trypsins led to a most diverse group of enzymes in Lepidoptera.

Movimento humano em uma perspectiva psicossomática: estudos de Judith Kestenberg

This paper considers Judith Kestenberg's approach to the psychic contextualization of human body movements, presenting: 1) the main movement categories identified by Kestenberg and their meanings; 2) the relations (affinities and shocks) within these movement patterns; 3) the relations between the initial preferences of a child for certain rhythms of movements and his/her movement patterns in adult life. The aim of this research was to present Kestenberg's studies, which offer a necessary knowledge to those willing to comprehend human body movement in a therapeutic context.

O ambiente virtual de aprendizagem e sua incorporação na Unicamp

The text describes a study about the adoption of virtual learning environments and its consequences to the learning process of undergraduate students at the State University of Campinas - Unicamp. These environments can be incorporated in various ways into the academic daily life of students and teachers. One efficient way to promote the adoption of these environments, as observed by the Distance Learning support team, is to train teachers and students in their use. Two training alternatives are described in this text to instruct the academic community in the use of TelEduc, a freeware developed and coordinated by the NIED - Núcleo de Informática Aplicada à Educação (Center for Information Technology Applied to Education), and officially adopted by Unicamp. Training courses are offered in two ways - presence or distance learning - to suit each teacher's preferences. This article compares the two modes of training, showing their strong and weak points. The adoption of TelEduc and its direct consequences to the learning process are described in a study carried out with some engineering undergraduates at Unicamp. The authors' questions and the general views of teachers and students regarding the effectiveness of the use of TelEduc as a supporting tool to presence teaching are presented. This investigation revealed the importance of training teachers in the effective use of these environments.

Analise da auto-eficacia docente de professores de educação fisica

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Atividade diaria e (in)atividade fisica na sociedade indigena Terena : Aldeias Buriti e Corrego do Meio

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física