The European Flood Alert System and the communication, perception, and use of ensemble predictions for operational flood risk management

Although ensemble prediction systems (EPS) are increasingly promoted as the scientific state-of-the-art for operational flood forecasting, the communication, perception, and use of the resulting alerts have received much less attention. Using a variety of qualitative research methods, including direct user feedback at training workshops, participant observation during site visits to 25 forecasting centres across Europe, and in-depth interviews with 69 forecasters, civil protection officials, and policy makers involved in operational flood risk management in 17 European countries, this article discusses the perception, communication, and use of European Flood Alert System (EFAS) alerts in operational flood management. In particular, this article describes how the design of EFAS alerts has evolved in response to user feedback and desires for a hydrographic-like way of visualizing EFAS outputs. It also documents a variety of forecaster perceptions about the value and skill of EFAS forecasts and the best way of using them to inform operational decision making. EFAS flood alerts were generally welcomed by flood forecasters as a sort of ‘pre-alert’ to spur greater internal vigilance. In most cases, however, they did not lead, by themselves, to further preparatory action or to earlier warnings to the public or emergency services. Their hesitancy to act in response to medium-term, probabilistic alerts highlights some wider institutional obstacles to the hopes in the research community that EPS will be readily embraced by operational forecasters and lead to immediate improvements in flood incident management. The EFAS experience offers lessons for other hydrological services seeking to implement EPS operationally for flood forecasting and warning. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Understanding absorptive capacity in Malaysian small and medium sized (SME) construction companies

Purpose – The construction industry is a very important part of the Malaysian economy. The government's aim is to make the industry more productive, efficient and safe. Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are at the core of the Malaysian construction industry and account for about 90 per cent of companies undertaking construction work. One of the main challenges faced by the Malaysian construction industry is the ability to absorb new knowledge and technology and to implement it in the construction phase. The purpose of this paper is to consider absorptive capacity in Malaysian construction SMEs in rural areas. Design/methodology/approach – The research was conducted in three stages: first, understanding the Malaysian construction industry; second, a literature review on the issues related to absorptive capacity and discussions with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB); and third, multiple case studies in five construction SMEs operating in a rural area to validate the factors influencing absorptive capacity. Findings – Nine key factors were identified influencing absorptive capacity in Malaysian construction SMEs operating in rural areas. These factors involved: cost and affordability; availability and supply; demand; infrastructure; policies and regulations; labour readiness; workforce attitude and motivation; communication and sources of new knowledge and; culture. Originality/value – The key factors influencing absorptive capacity presented in this paper are based on validation from the case studies in five construction SMEs in Malaysia. The research focuses on how they operate in rural areas; however, the research results have wider application than just Malaysia. The key factors identified as influencing absorptive capacity can serve as a basis for considering knowledge absorption in the wider context by SMEs in other developing countries.

Linguistic interfaces and language acquisition in childhood: introduction to the special issue

Much contemporary L1 acquisition theory and empirical research are guided by the hypothesis that acquisition delays in children are often related to the integration of information across grammatical and other cognitive modules, such as syntax and discourse-pragmatics (see e.g., Grinstead, 2010). This special issue brings together cutting edge research from all relevant paradigms addressing interface issues in child language acquisition and provides a platform for the study of the interaction between different levels of linguistic knowledge. In this introduction, we present the reader with the tools needed to best understand the contributions of the individual studies and what they bring to bear on larger theoretical questions as a collective.

Linguistic experiments and ordinary language philosophy

J.L. Austin is regarded as having an especially acute ear for fine distinctions of meaning overlooked by other philosophers. Austin employs an informal experimental approach to gathering evidence in support of these fine distinctions in meaning, an approach that has become a standard technique for investigating meaning in both philosophy and linguistics. In this paper, we subject Austin's methods to formal experimental investigation. His methods produce mixed results: We find support for his most famous distinction, drawn on the basis of his `donkey stories', that `mistake' and `accident' apply to different cases, but not for some of his other attempts to distinguish the meaning of philosophically significant terms (such as `intentionally' and `deliberately'). We critically examine the methodology of informal experiments employed in ordinary language philosophy and much of contemporary philosophy of language and linguistics, and discuss the role that experimenter bias can play in influencing judgments about informal and formal linguistic experiments.

Phonological therapy in jargon aphasia: effects on naming and neologisms

Background: Jargon aphasia is one of the most intractable forms of aphasia with limited recommendation on amelioration of associated naming difficulties and neologisms. The few naming therapy studies that exist in jargon aphasia have utilized either semantic or phonological approaches but the results have been equivocal. Moreover, the effect of therapy on characteristics of neologisms is less explored. Aims: This study investigates the effectiveness of a phonological naming therapy (i.e., phonological component analysis, PCA) on picture naming abilities and on quantitative and qualitative changes in neologisms for an individual with jargon aphasia (FF). Methods: FF showed evidence of jargon aphasia with severe naming difficulties and produced a very high proportion of neologisms. A single-subject multiple probe design across behaviors was employed to evaluate the effects of PCA therapy on the accuracy for three sets of words. In therapy, a phonological components analysis chart was used to identify five phonological components (i.e., rhymes, first sound, first sound associate, final sound, number of syllables) for each target word. Generalization effects—change in percent accuracy and error pattern—were examined comparing pre-and post-therapy responses on the Philadelphia Naming Test and these responses were analyzed to explore the characteristics of the neologisms. The quantitative change in neologisms was measured by change in the proportion of neologisms from pre- to post-therapy and the qualitative change was indexed by the phonological overlap between target and neologism. Results: As a consequence of PCA therapy, FF showed a significant improvement in his ability to name the treated items. His performance in maintenance and follow-up phases remained comparable to his performance during the therapy phases. Generalization to other naming tasks did not show a change in accuracy but distinct differences in error pattern (an increase in proportion of real word responses and a decrease in proportion of neologisms) were observed. Notably, the decrease in neologisms occurred with a corresponding trend for increase in the phonological similarity between the neologisms and the targets. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the effectiveness of a phonological therapy for improving naming abilities and reducing the amount of neologisms in an individual with severe jargon aphasia. The positive outcome of this research is encouraging, as it provides evidence for effective therapies for jargon aphasia and also emphasizes that use of the quality and quantity of errors may provide a sensitive outcome measure to determine therapy effectiveness, in particular for client groups who are difficult to treat.

The utility and application of mixed-effects models in second language research

Second language acquisition researchers often face particular challenges when attempting to generalize study findings to the wider learner population. For example, language learners constitute a heterogeneous group, and it is not always clear how a study’s findings may generalize to other individuals who may differ in terms of language background and proficiency, among many other factors. In this paper, we provide an overview of how mixed-effects models can be used to help overcome these and other issues in the field of second language acquisition. We provide an overview of the benefits of mixed-effects models and a practical example of how mixed-effects analyses can be conducted. Mixed-effects models provide second language researchers with a powerful statistical tool in the analysis of a variety of different types of data.

Adaptive communication: languages with more non-native speakers tend to have fewer word forms

Explaining the diversity of languages across the world is one of the central aims of typological, historical, and evolutionary linguistics. We consider the effect of language contact-the number of non-native speakers a language has-on the way languages change and evolve. By analysing hundreds of languages within and across language families, regions, and text types, we show that languages with greater levels of contact typically employ fewer word forms to encode the same information content (a property we refer to as lexical diversity). Based on three types of statistical analyses, we demonstrate that this variance can in part be explained by the impact of non-native speakers on information encoding strategies. Finally, we argue that languages are information encoding systems shaped by the varying needs of their speakers. Language evolution and change should be modeled as the co-evolution of multiple intertwined adaptive systems: On one hand, the structure of human societies and human learning capabilities, and on the other, the structure of language.

Spanish as a World Language: The Interplay of Globalized Localization and Localized Globalization.

This article argues that two movements in constant interplay operate within the historical trajectory of the Spanish language: the localization that becomes globalized and the globalization that becomes localized. Equally, this article illustrates how, at the same time that Spanish is expanding in the world, new idiosyncratic and localized forms of the language are emerging. This article deals with the issues of standardization and language ideology, language contact, and redefinition of identities. The article focuses on three geographic loci: Spain, where Spanish opposes Catalan, Basque, and Galician; the United States, where migrants' Spanish dialects converge and confront English and each other; and finally, Latin America, where Spanish is in contact with Portuguese, indigenous, and Afro-Hispanic languages. The concepts that structure the discussion explain both language expansion and contraction as well as the conflict and constant negotiation between a language's standardized forms and its regional and social varieties.

Before transparency: control and communication in Early-Modern Europe

Today, transparency is hailed as a key to good governance and economic efficiency, with national states implementing new laws to allow citizens access to information. It is therefore paradoxical that, as shown by a series of crises and scandals, modern governments and international agencies frequently have paid only lip-service to such ideals. Since Jeremy Bentham first introduced the concept of transparency into the language in 1789, few societal debates have sparked so much interest within the academic community, and across a variety of disciplines, using different approaches and methodologies. Within these current debates, however, one fact is striking: the lack of historical reflection about the development of the concept of transparency, both as a principle and as applied in practice, prior to its inception. Accordingly, the aim of this special issue is to contribute to historicising the ways in which communication and control over fiscal policy and state finances operated in early modern European polities.

Upgrading a TCABR data analysis and acquisition system for remote participation using Java, XML, RCP and modern client/server communication/authentication

The TCABR data analysis and acquisition system has been upgraded to support a joint research programme using remote participation technologies. The architecture of the new system uses Java language as programming environment. Since application parameters and hardware in a joint experiment are complex with a large variability of components, requirements and specification solutions need to be flexible and modular, independent from operating system and computer architecture. To describe and organize the information on all the components and the connections among them, systems are developed using the extensible Markup Language (XML) technology. The communication between clients and servers uses remote procedure call (RPC) based on the XML (RPC-XML technology). The integration among Java language, XML and RPC-XML technologies allows to develop easily a standard data and communication access layer between users and laboratories using common software libraries and Web application. The libraries allow data retrieval using the same methods for all user laboratories in the joint collaboration, and the Web application allows a simple graphical user interface (GUI) access. The TCABR tokamak team in collaboration with the IPFN (Instituto de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa) is implementing this remote participation technologies. The first version was tested at the Joint Experiment on TCABR (TCABRJE), a Host Laboratory Experiment, organized in cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in the framework of the IAEA Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on ""Joint Research Using Small Tokamaks"". (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

TR-2015001: A Survey and Critique of Facial Expression Synthesis in Sign Language Animation

Sign language animations can lead to better accessibility of information and services for people who are deaf and have low literacy skills in spoken/written languages. Due to the distinct word-order, syntax, and lexicon of the sign language from the spoken/written language, many deaf people find it difficult to comprehend the text on a computer screen or captions on a television. Animated characters performing sign language in a comprehensible way could make this information accessible. Facial expressions and other non-manual components play an important role in the naturalness and understandability of these animations. Their coordination to the manual signs is crucial for the interpretation of the signed message. Software to advance the support of facial expressions in generation of sign language animation could make this technology more acceptable for deaf people. In this survey, we discuss the challenges in facial expression synthesis and we compare and critique the state of the art projects on generating facial expressions in sign language animations. Beginning with an overview of facial expressions linguistics, sign language animation technologies, and some background on animating facial expressions, a discussion of the search strategy and criteria used to select the five projects that are the primary focus of this survey follows. This survey continues on to introduce the work from the five projects under consideration. Their contributions are compared in terms of support for specific sign language, categories of facial expressions investigated, focus range in the animation generation, use of annotated corpora, input data or hypothesis for their approach, and other factors. Strengths and drawbacks of individual projects are identified in the perspectives above. This survey concludes with our current research focus in this area and future prospects.

Alternative Identities and Foreign Language Learning

My D-essay has the working title “Alternative Identities and Foreign Language Learning”. I have chosen this area because I have noticed a certain reluctance among Swedish students to use the foreign language English in English classes. They often seem embarrassed to express themselves in a language which is not their mother tongue, but they seem less embarrassed when they are allowed to act somebody else. These two observations converge into a focus of discussion on the matter, which will be supported by a minor study of my own, by extracts from other people’s essays on the matter, and by an overview of current litterature on language, identity and drama.The aim of my essay is to compare Swedish students’ willingness to use the foreign language English when acting minor plays in school, as themselves and as a chosen character, and to investigate the possibility of improving students’ willingness to use a foreign language, when given the opportunity to do so through acting somebody else.