Summarization of specialized discourse: the case of medical articles in Spanish

In this article, we present the current state of our work on a linguistically-motivated model for automatic summarization of medical articles in Spanish. The model takes into account the results of an empirical study which reveals that, on the one hand, domain-specific summarization criteria can often be derived from the summaries of domain specialists, and, on the other hand, adequate summarization strategies must be multidimensional, i.e., cover various types of linguistic clues. We take into account the textual, lexical, discursive, syntactic and communicative dimensions. This is novel in the field of summarization. The experiments carried out so far indicate that our model is suitable to provide high quality summarizations.

Relating two simultaneous events in discourse: the role of on-goingness devices in L1 Tunisian Arabic, L1 French and L2 French by Tunisian learners

Our PhD study focuses on the role of aspectual marking in expressing simultaneity of events in Tunisian Arabic as a first language, French as a first language, as well as in French as a second language by Tunisian learners at different acquisitional stages. We examine how the explicit markers of on-goingness qa:’id and «en train de» in Tunisian Arabic and in French respectively are used to express this temporal relation, in competition with the simple forms, the prefixed verb form in Tunisian Arabic and the présent de l’indicatif in French. We use a complex verbal task of retelling simultaneous events sharing an interval on the time axis based on eight videos presenting two situations happening in parallel. Two types of simultaneity are exploited: perfect simultaneity (when the two situations are parallel to each other) and inclusion (one situation is framed by the second one). Our informants in French and in Tunisian Arabic have two profiles, highly educated and low educated speakers. We show that the participants’ response to the retelling task varies according to their profiles, and so does their use of the on-goingness devices in the expression of simultaneity. The differences observed between the two profile groups are explained by the degree to which the speakers have developed a habit of responding to tasks. This is a skill typically acquired during schooling. We notice overall that the use of qa:’id as well as of «en train de» is less frequent in the data than the use of the simple forms. However, qa:’id as well as «en train de» are employed to play discursive roles that go beyond the proposition level. We postulate that despite the shared features between Tunisian Arabic and French regarding marking the concept of on-goingness, namely the presence of explicit lexical, not fully grammaticalised markers competing with other non-marked forms, the way they are used in the discourse of simultaneous events shows clear differences. We explain that «en train de» plays a more contrastive role than qa:’id and its use in discourse obeys a stricter rule. In cases of the inclusion type of simultaneity, it is used to construe the ‘framing’ event that encloses the second event. In construing perfectly simultaneneous events, and when both «en train de» and présent de l’indicatif are used, the proposition with «en train de» generally precedes the proposition with présent de l’indicatif, and not the other way around. qa:id obeys, but to a less strict rule as it can be used interchangeably with the simple form regardless of the order of propositions. The contrastive analysis of French L1 and L2 reveals learners’ deviations from natives’ use of on-goingness devices. They generalise the use of «en train de» and apply different rules to the interaction of the different marked and unmarked forms in discourse. Learners do not master its role in discourse even at advanced stages of acquisition despite its possible emergence around the basic and intermediate varieties. We conclude that the native speakers’ use of «en train de» involves mastering its role at the macro-structure level. This feature, not explicitly available to learners in the input, might persistently present a challenge to L2 acquisition of the periphrasis.

The State of the Nation Debate as part of the democratic parliamentary ritual: Rajoy and Rubalcaba discourse analysis, 2014

In this article we analyze the Debate on the State of the Nation 2014. The methodology consists in coding the speeches of the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy (PP) and the then opposition leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba (PSOE) through extracting word clouds, branched maps and word trees that have shown the most common concepts and premises. This preliminary analysis of two dimensions, quantitative and qualitative, makes it much easier and viable subsequent discourse analysis where we focus on the different types of arguments in the communicative act: claim/solution, circumstantial premises, goal premises, value premises, meansgoal premises, alternative options/addressing alternative options.

Fringe Types and KOS Systematics: Examining the Limits of the Population Perspective of Knowledge Organization Systems

We find ourselves, after the close of the twentieth century, looking back at a mass of responses to the knowledge organization problem. Many institutions, such as the Dewey Decimal Classification (Furner, 2007), have grown up to address it. Increasingly, many diverse discourses are appropriating the problem and crafting a wide variety of responses. This includes many artistic interpretations of the act and products of knowledge organization. These surface as responses to the expressive power or limits of the Library and Information Studies institutions (e.g., DDC) and their often primarily utilitarian gaze.One way to make sense of this diversity is to approach the study from a descriptive stance, inventorying the population of types of KOS. This population perspective approaches the phenomenon of types and boundaries of Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) as one that develops out of particular discourses, for particular purposes. For example, both DDC and Martianus Capella, a 5th Century encyclopedist, are KOS in this worldview. Both are part of the population of KOS. Approaching the study of KOS from the population perspective allows the researcher a systematic look at the diversity emergent at the constellation of different factors of design and implementation. However, it is not enough to render a model of core types, but we have to also consider the borders of KOS. Fringe types of KOS inform research, specifically to the basic principles of design and implementation used by others outside of the scholarly and professional discourse of Library and Information Studies.Four examples of fringe types of KOS are presented in this paper. Applying a rubric developed in previous papers, our aim here is to show how the conceptual anatomy of these fringe types relates to more established KOS, thereby laying bare the definitions of domain, purpose, structure, and practice. Fringe types, like Beghtol’s examples (2003), are drawn from areas outside of Library and Information Studies proper, and reflect the reinvention of structures to fit particular purposes in particular domains. The four fringe types discussed in this paper are (1) Roland Barthes’ text S/Z which “indexes” a text of an essay with particular “codes” that are meant to expose the literary rhythm of the work; (2) Mary Daly’s Wickedary, a reference work crafted for radical liberation theology – and specifically designed to remove patriarchy from the language used by what the author calls “wild women”; (3) Luigi Serafini’s Codex Seraphinianus a work of book art that plays on the trope of universal encyclopedia and back-of- the book index; and (4) Martinaus Capella – and his Marriage of Mercury and Philology, a fifth century encyclopedia. We compared these using previous analytic taxonomies (Wright, 2008; Tennis, 2006; Tudhope, 2006, Soergel, 2001, Hodge, 2000).

A Morphological and Histological Characterization of Bisexual and Male Flower Types in Pomegranate

Pomegranate [Punica granatum (Punicaceae)] is characterized by having two types of flowers on the same tree: hermaphroditic bisexual flowers and functionally male flowers. This condition, defined as functional andromonoecy, can result in decreased yields resulting from the inability of male flowers to set fruit. Morphological and histological analyses of bisexual and male flowers were conducted using light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to characterize the different flower types observed in pomegranate plants and to better understand their developmental differences. Bisexual flowers had a discoid stigma covered with copious exudate, elongated stigmatic papillae, a single elongate style, and numerous stamens inserted on the inner wall of the calyx tube. Using fluorescence staining, high numbers of pollen tubes were observed growing through a central stylar canal. Ovules were numerous, elliptical, and anatropous. In contrast, male flowers had reduced female parts and exhibited shortened pistils of variable heights. Stigmatic papillae of male flowers had little exudate yet supported pollen germination. However, pollen tubes were rarely observed in styles. Ovules in male flowers were rudimentary and exhibited various stages of degeneration. Pollen from both types of flowers was of similar size, approximate to 20 mu m, and exhibited similar percent germination using in vitro germination assays. Pollen germination was strongly influenced by temperature. Maximal germination (greater than 74%) was obtained at 25 and 35 degrees C; pollen germination was significantly lower at 15 degrees C (58%) and 5 degrees C (10%).

The ocular morphology of the southern hemisphere lamprey Geotria australis gray with special reference to optical specialisations and the characterisation and phylogeny of photoreceptor types

This paper describes the ocular morphology of young adults of the southern hemisphere lamprey Geotria australis, the sole representative of the Geotriidae, and makes comparisons with those of holarctic lampreys (Petromyzontidae). As previously reported for the holarctic lamprey Ichthyomyzon unicuspis [Collin and Fritzsch, 1993], the lens of G. australis is non-spherical and possesses a cone-shaped posterior that may be capable of mediating variable focus. The avascular retina of G. australis is well differentiated, containing three retinal ganglion cell populations, three layers of horizontal cells and three photoreceptor types, in contrast to petromyzontids that contain only two photoreceptor types (short and long), G. australis possesses one rod-like (R1) and two cone-like (C1 and C2) photoreceptors. Although the rodlike receptor in G. australis may be homologous with the short receptors of holarctic lampreys, the two cone-like receptors have morphological characteristics that differ markedly from those of the long receptors of their holarctic counterparts. The features which distinguish the two cone-like receptors from those of the long receptor type in holarctic lampreys are the characteristics of the mitochondria and the presence of large amounts of two different types of stored secretory material in the endoplasmic reticulum of the myoid (refractile bodies). The endoplasmic reticulum of each receptor type has a different shape and staining profile and is polymorphic, each showing a continuum of distension. It is proposed that the presence of two cone-like photoreceptors with different characteristics would increase the spectral range of G. australis and thus be of value during the parasitic phase, when this lamprey lives in the surface marine waters. The irideal flap, present in G. australis but not petromyzontids, would assist in reducing intraocular flare during life in surface waters. The results of this study, which are discussed in the context of the proposed evolution of lampreys, emphasise that it is important to take into account the characteristics of the eyes of southern hemisphere lampreys when making generalizations about the eyes of lampreys as a whole.

Analyzing the researcher's work in generating data: The case of complaints

This article investigates the researcher's work in the coproduction (or not) of complaint sequences in research interviews. Using a conversation analytic approach, we show how the interviewer's management of complaint sequences in a research setting is consequential for subsequent talk and thus directly affects the data generated. In the examples shown here, researchers sharing cocategorial incumbency with respondents may well provide spaces for research participants to formulate complaints. This article examines sequences of talk surrounding complaints to show how researchers generate complaints (or not) and handle unsafe complaints. Researchers are able to provoke specific types of accounts from respondents, whereas their respondents may actively resist the researchers' direction. For researchers using the interview as a method of data generation, examination of complaint sequences and how these appear in interview data provides insight into how interview talk is coproduced and managed within a socially situated setting.

Marx as a Critical Discourse Analyst: The genesis of a critical method and its relevance to the critique of global capital

In this paper we identify elements in Marx´s economic and political writings that are relevant to contemporary critical discourse analysis (CDA). We argue that Marx can be seen to be e n gaging in a form of discourse analysis. We identify the elements in Marx´s historical materialist method that support such a perspective, and exemplify these in a longitudinal comparison of Marx´s texts.

The intuitive basis of implicature: relevance theoretic implicitness versus gricean implying

The notion of implicature was first introduced by Paul Grice (1967, 1989), who defined it essentially as what is communicated less what is said. This definition contributed in part to the proliferation of a large number of different species of implicature by neo-Griceans. Relevance theorists have responded to this by proposing a shift back to the distinction between "explicit" & "implicit" meaning (corresponding to "explicature" & "implicature," respectively). However, they appear to have pared down the concept of implicature too much, ignoring phenomena that may be better treated as implicatures in their overgeneralization of the concept of explicature. These problems have their roots in the fact that explicit & implicit meaning intuitively overlap & thus do not provide a suitable basis for distinguishing implicature from other types of pragmatic phenomena. An alternative conceptualization of implicature based on the concept of "implying" with which Grice originally associated his notion of implicature is thus proposed. From this definition, it emerges that implicature constitutes something else inferred by the addressee that is not literally said by the speaker. Instead, it is meant in addition to what the speaker literally says & is consequently defeasible like all other types of pragmatic phenomena. 1 Figure, 60 References. Adapted from the source document

Historical and dialectical perspectives on the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musics in the Australian education system

Indigenous studies (also referred to as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies) has a double identity in the Australian education system, consisting of the education of Indigenous students and education of all students about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories. Through explanations of the history of the inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musics in Australian music education, this article critiques ways in which these musics have been positioned in relation to a number of agendas. These include definitions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musics as types of Australian music, as ethnomusicological objects, as examples of postcolonial discourse, and as empowerment for Indigenous students. The site of discussion is the work of the Australian Society for Music Education, as representative of trends in Australian school-based music education, and the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music at the University of Adelaide, as an example of a tertiary music program for Indigenous students.

Differential expression of the eukaryotic release factor 3 (eRF3/GSPT1) according to gastric cancer histological types

Background: There are now several lines of evidence to suggest that protein synthesis and translation factors are involved in the regulation of cell proliferation and cancer development. Aims: To investigate gene expression patterns of eukaryotic releasing factor 3 (eRF3) in gastric cancer. Methods: RNA was prepared from 25 gastric tumour biopsies and adjacent non-neoplastic mucosa. Real time TaqMan reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to measure the relative gene expression levels. DNA was isolated from tumour and normal tissues and gene dosage was determined by a quantitative real time PCR using SYBR Green dye. Results: Different histological types of gastric tumours were analysed and nine of the 25 tumours revealed eRF3/GSPT1 overexpression; moreover, eight of the 12 intestinal type carcinomas analysed overexpressed the gene, whereas eRF3/GSPT1 was overexpressed in only one of the 10 diffuse type carcinomas (Kruskal-Wallis Test; p , 0.05). No correlation was found between ploidy and transcript expression levels of eRF3/GSPT1. Overexpression of eRF3/GSPT1 was not associated with increased translation rates because the upregulation of eRF3/GSPT1 did not correlate with increased eRF1 levels. Conclusions: Overexpression of eRF3/GSPT1 in intestinal type gastric tumours may lead to an increase in the translation efficiency of specific oncogenic transcripts. Alternatively, eRF3/GSPT1 may be involved in tumorigenesis as a result of its non-translational roles, namely (dis)regulating the cell cycle, apoptosis, or transcription.

Popular music exhibitions in Portugal: practices of representation from 2007 to 2013

This thesis focuses on the representation of Popular Music in museums by mapping, analyzing, and characterizing its practices in Portugal at the beginning of the 21st century. Now that museums' ability to shape public discourse is acknowledged, the examination of popular music's discourses in museums is of the utmost importance for Ethnomusicology and Popular Music Studies as well as for Museum Studies. The concept of 'heritage' is at the heart of this processes. The study was designed with the aim of moving the exhibiting of popular music in museums forward through a qualitative inquiry of case studies. Data collection involved surveying pop-rock music exhibitions as a qualitative sampling of popular music exhibitions in Portugal from 2007 to 2013. Two of these exhibitions were selected as case studies: No Tempo do Gira-Discos: Um Percurso pela Produção Fonográfica Portuguesa at the Museu da Música in Lisbon in 2007 (also Faculdade de Letras, 2009), and A Magia do Vinil, a Música que Mudou a Sociedade at the Oficina da Cultura in Almada in 2008 (and several other venues, from 2009 to 2013). Two specific domains were observed: popular music exhibitions as instances of museum practice and museum professionals. The first domain encompasses analyzing the types of objects selected for exhibition; the interactive museum practices fostered by the exhibitions; the concepts and narratives used to address popular music discursively, as well as the interpretative practices they allow. The second domain, focuses museum professionals and curators of popular music exhibitions as members of a group, namely their goals, motivations and perspectives. The theoretical frameworks adopted were drawn from the fields of ethnomusicology, popular music studies, and museum studies. The written materials of the exhibitions were subjected of methods of discourse analysis methods. Semi-structured interviews with curators and museum professional were also conducted and analysed. From the museum studies perspective, the study research suggests that the practice adopted by popular music museums largely matches that of conventional museums. From the ethnomusicological and popular music studies stand point, the two case studies reveal two distinct conceptual worlds: the first exhibition, curated by an academic and an independent researcher, points to a mental configuration where popular music is explained through a framework of genres supported by different musical practices. Moreover, it is industry actors such as decision makers and gatekeepers that govern popular music, which implies that the visitors' romantic conception of the musician is to some extent dismantled; the second exhibition, curated by a record collector and specialist, is based on a more conventional process of the everyday historical speech that encodes a mismatch between “good” and “bad music”. Data generated by a survey shows that only one curator, in fact that of my first case study, has an academic background. The backgrounds of all the others are in some way similar to the curator of the second case study. Therefore, I conclude that the second case study best conveys the current practice of exhibiting Popular Music in Portugal.

Media(ted) discourse and society: rethinking the framework of critical discourse analysis

The analysis of journalistic discourse and its social embeddedness has known significant advances in the last two decades, especially due to the emergence and development of Critical Discourse Analysis. However, three important aspects remain under-researched: the time plane in discourse analysis, the discursive strategies of social actors, and the extra- and supra-textual effects of mediated discourse. Firstly, understanding the biography of public matters requires a longitudinal examination of mediated texts and their social contexts but most forms of analysis of journalistic discourse do not account for the time sequence of texts and its implications. Secondly, as the media representation of social issues is, to a large extent, a function of the discursive construction of events, problems and positions by social actors, the discursive strategies that they employ in a variety of arenas and channels ‘‘before’’ and ‘‘after’’ journalistic texts need to be examined. Thirdly, the fact that many of the modes of operation of discourse are extra- or supra-textual calls for a consideration of various social processes ‘‘outside’’ the text. This paper aims to produce a theoretical and methodological contribution to the integration of these issues in discourse analysis by proposing a framework that combines a textual dimension with a contextual one

In search of a language textile and text in contemporary women's art

This research uses the textile/text axis concept as a conceptual tool to investigate the role of textile and text in contemporary women’s art practice and theorizing, investigating textile as a largely hitherto unacknowledged element in women’s art practice of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Textile and text share a common etymological root, from the Latin textere to weave, textus a fabric. The thesis illuminates the pathways whereby textile and text played an important role in women reclaiming a speaking voice as creators of culture and signification during a revolutionary period of renewal in women’s cultural contribution and positioning. The methodological approach used in the research consisted of a comprehensive literature review, the compilation of an inventory of relevant women artists, developing a classificatory system differentiating types of approaches, concerns and concepts underpinning women’s art practice vis a vis the textile/text axis and a series of three in-depth case studies of artists Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois and Faith Ringgold. The thesis points to the fact that contemporary women artists and theorists have rounded their art practice and aesthetic discourse in textile as prime visual metaphor and signifier, turning towards the ancient language of textile not merely to reclaim a speaking voice but to occupy a ground breaking locus of signification and representation in contemporary culture. The textile/text axis facilitated women artists in powerfully countering a culturally inscribed status of Lacanian ‘no-woman’ (a position of abjection, absence and lack in the phallocentric symbolic). Turning towards a language of aeons, textile as fertile wellspring, the thesis identifies the methodologies and strategies whereby women artists have inserted their webs of subjectivities and deepest concerns into the records and discourses of contemporary culture. Presenting an anatomy of the textile/text axis, the thesis identifies nine component elements manifesting in contemporary women’s aesthetic practice and discourse. In this cultural renaissance, the textile/text axis, the thesis suggests, served as a complex lexicon, a system of labyrinthine references and signification, a site of layered meanings and ambiguities, a body proxy and a corporeal cartography, facilitating a revolution in women’s aesthetic praxis.

The Corrosion of Career? - Occupational Trajectories of Business Economists and Engineers in Switzerland

Achievement careers are regarded as a distinctive element of the post-war period in occidental societies. Such a career was at once a modal trajectory of the modern parts of middleclass men and a social emblem for progress and success. However, if the achievement career came to be a biographical pattern with great normative power, its precise sequential course remained vague. Theories of the 1960s and 1970s described it as an orderly advancement within large firms. By the 1990s, scholars postulated an erosion of the organizational structures that once contributed to the institutionalization of careers, accompanied by a weakening of the normative weight of the achievement career by management discourse. We question the thesis of the corrosion of achievement career by analysing the trajectories of 442 engineers and business economists in Switzerland in regard to their orderliness, loyalty, and temporal rhythm. An inspection of types of careers and cohorts reveals that even if we face a decline of loyalty over time, hierarchical orderliness is not touched by those changes. Foremost, technical-industrial careers fit the loyal and regular pattern. Hence, this trajectory-type represents only a minority and is by far the slowest and least successful in terms of hierarchical ascension.