Semantic Categorization in Portuguese-English Bilinguals

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the cross-linguistic interactions in the semantic categorization of late Portuguese-English bilinguals. The lexical items used in this study have a wider range of applications in one language and narrower in the other. Three types of categories were examined: classical, homophones, and radials. Late Portuguese-English bilinguals, as well as Portuguese and English monolinguals, were tested. After hearing a word, participants were asked to choose from a set of images, one that could be labelled as such. Analyses showed that when tested in English, participants performed better when it was the wider language. Participants’ performance was lower on classical categories than on homophone and radial categories.

A Cross-Generational Analysis of Spanish-to-English Lexico-Semantic Phenomena in Emerging Miami English

Sociolinguists have documented the substrate influence of various languages on the formation of dialects in numerous ethnic-regional setting throughout the United States. This literature shows that while phonological and grammatical influences from other languages may be instantiated as durable dialect features, lexical phenomena often fade over time as ethnolinguistic communities assimilate with contiguous dialect groups. In preliminary investigations of emerging Miami Latino English, we have observed that lexical forms based on Spanish lexical forms are not only ubiquitous among the speech of the first generation Cuban Americans but also of the second. Examples, observed in field work, casual observation, and studied formally in an experimental context include the following: “get down from the car,” which derives from the Spanish equivalent, bajar del carro instead of “get out of the car”. The translation task administered to thirty-one participants showed a variety lexical phenomena are still maintained at equal or higher frequencies.

The effects of semantic and syntactic instruction on user performance and satisfaction in search user interface design

The design of interfaces to facilitate user search has become critical for search engines, ecommercesites, and intranets. This study investigated the use of targeted instructional hints to improve search by measuring the quantitative effects of users' performance and satisfaction. The effects of syntactic, semantic and exemplar search hints on user behavior were evaluated in an empirical investigation using naturalistic scenarios. Combining the three search hint components, each with two levels of intensity, in a factorial design generated eight search engine interfaces. Eighty participants participated in the study and each completed six realistic search tasks. Results revealed that the inclusion of search hints improved user effectiveness, efficiency and confidence when using the search interfaces, but with complex interactions that require specific guidelines for search interface designers. These design guidelines will allow search designers to create more effective interfaces for a variety of searchapplications.

The effects of audio cueing and an instructions, feedback and praise package on the distribution of teacher praise to students of differing on-task levels

In an audio cueing system, a teacher is presented with randomly spaced auditory signals via tape recorder or intercom. The teacher is instructed to praise a child who is on-task each time the cue is presented. In this study, a baseline was obtained on the teacher's praise rate and the children's on-task behaviour in a Grade 5 class of 37 students. Children were then divided into high, medium and low on-task groups. Followinq baseline, the teacher's praise rate and the children's on-task behaviour were observed under the following successively implemented conditions: (l) Audio Cueing 1: Audio cueing at a rate of 30 cues per hour was introduced into the classroom and remained in effect during subsequent conditions. A group of consistently low on-task children were delineated. (2) Audio Cueing Plus 'focus praise package': Instructions to direct two-thirds o£ the praise to children identified by the experimenter (consistently low on-task children), feedback and experimenter praise for meeting or surpassing the criterion distribution of praise ('focus praise package') were introduced. (3) Audio Cueing 2: The 'focus praise package' was removed. (4) Audio Cueing Plus 'increase praise package': Instructions to increase the rate of praise, feedback and experimenter praise for improved praise rates ('increase praise package') were introduced. The primary aims of the study were to determine the distribution of praise among hi~h, medium and low on-task children when audio cueinq was first introduced and to investigate the effect of the 'focus praise package' on the distribution of teacher praise. The teacher distributed her praise evenly among the hiqh, medium and low on-task groups during audio cueing 1. The effect of the 'focus praise package' was to increase the percentage of praise received by the consistently low on-task children. Other findings tended to suggest that audio cueing increased the teacher's praise rate. However, the teacher's praise rate unexpectedly decreased to a level considerably below the cued rate during audio cueing 2. The 'increase praise package' appeared to increase the teacher's praise rate above the audio cueing 2 level. The effect of an increased praise rate and two distributions of praise on on-task behaviour were considered. Significant increases in on-task behaviour were found in audio cueing 1 for the low on-task group, in the audio cueing plus 'focus praise package' condition for the entire class and the consistently low on-task group and in audio cueing 2 for the medium on-task group. Except for the high on-task children who did not change, the effects of the experimental manipulations on on-task behaviour were e quivocal. However, there were some indications that directing 67% of the praise to the consistently low on-task children was more effective for increasing this group's on-task behaviour than distributing praise equally among on-task groups.

Computing the Oja Median in R : The Package OjaNP

Acknowledgements The work of Klaus Nordhausen was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant 268703). Oleksii Pokotylo is supported by the Cologne Graduate School of Management, Economics and Social Sciences. The work of Daniel Vogel was supported by the DFG collaborate research grant SFB 823

GraniteNights - A Multi-Agent Visit Scheduler Utilising Semantic Web Technology

Postprint

FEARLUS-G: A Semantic Grid Service for Land-Use Modelling,

Postprint

Assessing the Quality of Semantic Sensor Data

Acknowledgements The research described here is supported by the award made by the RCUK Digital Economy programme to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub; award reference: EP/G066051/1

Notes on the Floridian Theory of Strongly Semantic Information

Other

An Empirical Investigation of Learning From the Semantic Web

Peer reviewed

Semantic Stream Processing for IoT Devices in the Food Safety Domain

Postprint

Effects of emotional salience and semantic domain on cross-form priming

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

The development of a semantic model for the interpretation of mathematics including the use of technology

The semantic model developed in this research was in response to the difficulty a group of mathematics learners had with conventional mathematical language and their interpretation of mathematical constructs. In order to develop the model ideas from linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, formal languages and natural language processing were investigated. This investigation led to the identification of four main processes: the parsing process, syntactic processing, semantic processing and conceptual processing. The model showed the complex interdependency between these four processes and provided a theoretical framework in which the behaviour of the mathematics learner could be analysed. The model was then extended to include the use of technological artefacts into the learning process. To facilitate this aspect of the research, the theory of instrumentation was incorporated into the semantic model. The conclusion of this research was that although the cognitive processes were interdependent, they could develop at different rates until mastery of a topic was achieved. It also found that the introduction of a technological artefact into the learning environment introduced another layer of complexity, both in terms of the learning process and the underlying relationship between the four cognitive processes.

Semantic markup in discussion fora

Discussion tools in existing LEs have few or no integrated tools to analyse student learning. This paper proposes tools not only for integrating social network analytics, but also why we need to semantically tag and track key concepts within posts in order to make student learning in discussions visible. This paper will argue for the importance of semantic markup in discussion tools using screenshots of existing LEs and UI mockups of semantically aware discussion tools to argue the case for this element of next generation LEs

Introducing molaR: a New R Package for Quantitative Topographic Analysis of Teeth (and Other Topographic Surfaces)

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New YorkResearchers studying mammalian dentitions from functional and adaptive perspectives increasingly have moved towards using dental topography measures that can be estimated from 3D surface scans, which do not require identification of specific homologous landmarks. Here we present molaR, a new R package designed to assist researchers in calculating four commonly used topographic measures: Dirichlet Normal Energy (DNE), Relief Index (RFI), Orientation Patch Count (OPC), and Orientation Patch Count Rotated (OPCR) from surface scans of teeth, enabling a unified application of these informative new metrics. In addition to providing topographic measuring tools, molaR has complimentary plotting functions enabling highly customizable visualization of results. This article gives a detailed description of the DNE measure, walks researchers through installing, operating, and troubleshooting molaR and its functions, and gives an example of a simple comparison that measured teeth of the primates Alouatta and Pithecia in molaR and other available software packages. molaR is a free and open source software extension, which can be found at the doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3563.4961(molaR v. 2.0) as well as on the Internet repository CRAN, which stores R packages.