Ambiguous Patterns Research Articles

Resolving relative clause attachment ambiguity in Persian sentences

Relative clause (RC) attachment ambiguity arises when there is a competition between two preceding nouns to act as potential hosts for the upcoming relative clause. To resolve this ambiguity in Persian language, one might rely on such intriguing cues as the enclitic marker -i, semantic congruity or in/animacy that may appear in the clause. This study addressed the role of the first cue i.e. relative clause enclitic marker (EM) -i, which is attached to the second NP, in functioning as a disambiguating cue to hint the relevant antecedent noun. A total number of 20 sentence stimuli were prepared each containing two preceding nouns, one with and one without the marker, followed by an RC, that were given to 49 Persian NSs in offline interpretation tasks to identify their attachment preferences in canonical and EM-supported sentences. The results showed a clear NP1 attachment preference for the canonical but an ambiguous pattern for the EM-supported sentences.

Moderation in sport management research: room for growth

ABSTRACTModerators are variables that affect the relationship between a predictor and outcome. They help to clarify otherwise ambiguous patterns of results, extend theory, and signal the growth of a field. Given the importance of moderators, the authors offer an overview of methodological and statistical considerations for testing moderation and then examine sport management scholars’ use of moderation in their research. A content analysis of European Sport Management Quarterly, Journal of Sport Management, and Sport Management Review shows that tests of moderation have not followed the growth in scholarship in the field. Further analyses showed (a) analysis of variance was the most popular analytical tool employed; (b) one in six tests of moderation were conducted incorrectly; and (c) 13% of tests for moderation were conducted absent specific hypotheses or research questions. The authors offer implications for sport management researchers.

Context as a Basis for Understanding Pragmatic Ambiguity with Reference to Arabic

The study of ambiguity has been a central issue in the formulation of linguistic theory, and has been an area which serious psycholinguistic study has focused on since the past two decades. The current study deals with “Context as a Basis for Understanding Pragmatic Ambiguity with Reference to Arabic” and the methods that can be used for translating this phenomenon into Arabic taking into consideration the same effect of the SL writer. No doubt, pragmatic ambiguity is problematic since it is based on intentionality. However, it becomes more problematic when it is translated into Arabic, simply, because English and Arabic are genetically different languages. This research paper aims at (1) studying the phenomenon of pragmatic ambiguity which is the output of any other type of ambiguity such as phonetic ambiguity, phonological ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, sentential ambiguity as well as semantic ambiguity, (2) making the context crystal clear which has an effective impact on understanding the expressions under investigation since intentionality cannot be deduced without knowing context, (3) specifying different patterns of pragmatic ambiguity in the books and articles of pragmatics, (4) translating the specified patterns into Arabic to show their realizations and whether, they will have the same effects as to that of source language or not. It is hypothesized in this research that (1) there is no formal correspondence between English and Arabic, (2) pragmatic ambiguity cannot be solved unless both context and cotext of the phenomenon in question are known, (3) all types of ambiguity cannot be interpreted unless the intention of the writer is clear which is context and cotext bound To test the validity of the above mentioned hypothesis, it is to be noted that only eight different patterns have been chosen to be translated into Arabic, (2) these expressions were translated by six assistant lecturers in the department of Translation/Cihan University/Erbil, (3) Newmarks' method of communicative translation will be adopted in the research under investigation, since it tackles the intention of the writer. The basic conclusions of this research are that, (1) all types of ambiguity are based on the intention of the writer, (2) there was no formal correspondence between both source language and target language, (3) the pragmatic ambiguity was solved by resorting to both cotext and context.

Context as a Basis for Understanding Pragmatic Ambiguity with Reference to Arabic

The study of ambiguity has been a central issue in the formulation of linguistic theory, and has been an area which serious psycholinguistic study has focused on since the past two decades. The current study deals with “Context as a Basis for Understanding Pragmatic Ambiguity with Reference to Arabic” and the methods that can be used for translating this phenomenon into Arabic taking into consideration the same effect of the SL writer. No doubt, pragmatic ambiguity is problematic since it is based on intentionality. However, it becomes more problematic when it is translated into Arabic, simply, because English and Arabic are genetically different languages. This research paper aims at (1) studying the phenomenon of pragmatic ambiguity which is the output of any other type of ambiguity such as phonetic ambiguity, phonological ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, sentential ambiguity as well as semantic ambiguity, (2) making the context crystal clear which has an effective impact on understanding the expressions under investigation since intentionality cannot be deduced without knowing context, (3) specifying different patterns of pragmatic ambiguity in the books and articles of pragmatics, (4) translating the specified patterns into Arabic to show their realizations and whether, they will have the same effects as to that of source language or not. It is hypothesized in this research that (1) there is no formal correspondence between English and Arabic, (2) pragmatic ambiguity cannot be solved unless both context and co-text of the phenomenon in question are known, (3) all types of ambiguity cannot be interpreted unless the intention of the writer is clear which is context and co-text bound. To test the validity of the above mentioned hypothesis, it is to be noted that only eight different patterns have been chosen to be translated into Arabic, (2) these expressions were translated by six assistant lecturers in the department of Translation/Cihan University/Erbil, (3) Newmark’s method of communicative translation will be adopted in the research under investigation, since it tackles the intention of the writer. The basic conclusions of this research are that, (1) all types of ambiguity are based on the intention of the writer, (2) there was no formal correspondence between both source language and target language, (3) the pragmatic ambiguity was solved by resorting to both co-text and context.

Effect of extremely low frequency magnetic fields on the seedlings of wild plants growing in Central Yakutia

It was shown that permanent (B = 50 μT, horizontal plane, direction to the north) and alternating magnetic fields (North–South direction) exerted influences on seed germination as well as on cytological and biochemical features of seedlings characteristic of investigated species (Lepidium apetalum, Artemisia vulgaris, A. jacutica, and A. dracunculus) of wild plants growing in Central Yakutia. Under the effect of permanent magnetic field (MF), germinating capacity of seeds decreased (except for A. vulgaris), whereas alternating MF of different frequencies improved their germinating capacity, except for L. apetalum and A. jacutica at frequencies of 200 and 300 Hz, respectively. Under permanent MF, the rate of lipid peroxidation in the tissues of the seedlings decreased, whereas the content of low molecular weight antioxidants rose; when the plants were exposed to an alternating magnetic field, the content of MDA and peroxidase activity increased, and the content of low molecular weight antioxidants followed an ambiguous pattern.

Decision making under ambiguity and under risk in depressed suicide attempters, depressed non-attempters and healthy controls

IntroductionStudy results on decision-making (DM) abilities in suicidal individuals are conflicting. Most studies have focused on DM under ambiguity and included patients with a lifetime history of suicide attempts.ObjectiveTo assess DM abilities with two different instruments in recent suicide attempters.MethodsThe study sample consisted of three groups. Group 1 (SA) were currently depressed inpatients having attempted suicide within the previous six months. Group 2 (NSA) consisted of depressed inpatients without a lifetime history of suicide attempts. Group 3 (CG) was a healthy control group. Besides depression severity, impulsiveness and suicidal intent (SA group only) DM was assessed using the Iowa gambling task (IGT) for DM under ambiguity and the game of dice task (GDT) for DM under risk.ResultsA total of 78 participants (SA group, n = 21; NSA group, n = 31; CG, n = 26) were included into the study. Significant between group differences were found regarding marital status, current partnership, smoking status, depression score, impulsiveness score and family history of psychiatric disorders (all discriminating controls from patients but not between SA and NSA groups). The three groups did not differ with regard to IGT scores. Concerning GDT, the SA group showed significantly lower scores compared to the two other groups, implying a readiness for more risky decisions in suicide attempters versus non-attempters and controls.ConclusionSuicide attempters appear to make more risky decisions compared to depressed non-attempters as well as healthy controls even if the DM under ambiguity patterns do not differ.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Fine tuning of adaptive learning of deep belief network for misclassification and its knowledge acquisition

We have proposed an adaptive structure learning of deep belief network (DBN) that can determine the suitable number of hidden layers and hidden neurons of restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs). The method shows high classification performance to the big data benchmark test. However, the method could not classify the unknown pattern correctly, since an input data with ambiguous patterns leads the classification to the wrong judgment. In such a case, a fine-tuning method that patches a part of network signal flow based on the knowledge will be a helpful method even in terms of both the improvement of classification capability and the reduction of computational cost by learning again. In this paper, network signal patterns which lead the given misclassified patterns were visualised for knowledge acquisition. By fine-tuning the trained network using the acquired knowledge, the classification capability can achieve great success.

Trends in bushmeat trade in a postconflict forest town: implications for food security

Van Vliet, N., B. Schulte-Herbrüggen, J. Muhindo, C. Nebesse, S. Gambalemoke, and R. Nasi. 2017. Trends in bushmeat trade in a postconflict forest town: implications for food security. Ecology and Society 22(4):35. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09780-220435

Fine tuning of adaptive learning of deep belief network for misclassification and its knowledge acquisition

We have proposed an adaptive structure learning of deep belief network (DBN) that can determine the suitable number of hidden layers and hidden neurons of restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs). The method shows high classification performance to the big data benchmark test. However, the method could not classify the unknown pattern correctly, since an input data with ambiguous patterns leads the classification to the wrong judgment. In such a case, a fine-tuning method that patches a part of network signal flow based on the knowledge will be a helpful method even in terms of both the improvement of classification capability and the reduction of computational cost by learning again. In this paper, network signal patterns which lead the given misclassified patterns were visualised for knowledge acquisition. By fine-tuning the trained network using the acquired knowledge, the classification capability can achieve great success.

Wood quality in complex forests versus even-aged monocultures: review and perspectives

As they fulfil many ecological and social functions and services better than even-aged monocultures, heterogeneous pure and mixed-species stands are on the advance in Central Europe. Even so, knowledge of how different stands compare in terms of the quantity and quality of the produced wood remains limited, as forest research has been focused on pure stands in the past. Therefore, the still limited comparative studies on timber quality in mixed versus pure stands were reviewed. Further, approximately 100 studies on the morphology of mixed versus pure stands have been reviewed. As is known, the close connection between morphology and timber quality from many studies in pure stands as well as the morphological and structural properties of trees in mixed stands is used as proxies for their timber quality. The number of studies reporting a decrease or increase in timber strength and stiffness in complex stands compared with homogeneous stands was balanced. Knottiness is mostly higher in complex stands. Wood density behaves indifferently. Distortion, as indicated by eccentricity of crown, bending of stems, or irregularity of the tree-ring width, is generally higher in complex forests. This rather ambiguous pattern becomes clearer by typifying the findings depending on the species-specific morphological plasticity of the trees and the spatial conditions they are exposed to. When growing in strong lateral restriction in even-aged pure or mixed-species stands (type 1), trees follow a “keep abreast” strategy which results in high-quality timber especially in case of species with low plasticity. Trees in uneven-aged forests with vertically restricted growing space (type 2) often use a “sit-and-wait” strategy that may result in tapering stem shapes, wide and long crowns with low branch diameters, and high wood density. Distortion may be low in case of species with low morphological plasticity but increase with increasing shade tolerance and plasticity. Growth in widely spaced and heavily thinned pure and mixed stands (type 3) may let trees follow the “stabilisation” strategy. Because of their strong dominance, these trees develop tapering stem shapes, knots of big size and wide appearance along the stem axis, as well as lower wood density, especially in the case of conifers. In arrangements of types 1–3, the “transition” strategy may also emerge, which leads from the “sit-and-wait” stadium to the “keep abreast” strategy. It starts when trees strongly increase their height growth at the expense of the stem diameter growth. It results in slender stems, low knottiness, high wood density, and low distortion, with the result that the tree gets access to the upper canopy at the expense of lateral expansion of stem and crown. In fact, it is not primarily the species mixing that modifies the morphology, structure, and wood quality of the trees but the species-specific morphological plasticity and the structural heterogeneity of the stand. The latter is often higher in mixed than in pure stands and in uneven-aged than in even-aged stands. The more variable the stand structure, the wider the range of wood attributes. The discussion is focused on the relevance of the results for stand management and interdisciplinary research at the intersection of forest growth and yield science and wood science.

Methodology for evaluating pattern transfer completeness in inkjet printing with irregular edges

A methodology for quantifying and qualifying pattern transfer completeness in inkjet printing through examining both pattern dimensions and pattern contour deviations from reference design is proposed, which enables scientifically identifying and evaluating inkjet-printed lines, corners, circles, ellipses, and spirals with irregular edges of bulging, necking, and unpredictable distortions resulting from different process conditions. This methodology not only avoids differences in individual perceptions of ambiguous pattern distortions but also indicates the systematic effects of mechanical stresses applied in different directions to a polymer substrate, and is effective for both optical and electrical microscopy in direct and indirect lithography or lithography-free patterning.

Digital evidence, ‘absence’ of data and ambiguous patterns of reasoning

In this paper we discuss the use of digital data by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in a recent case of attempted homicide. We use this case to examine drawbacks for the defense when the presentation of scientific evidence is partial, especially when the only perspective mentioned is that of the prosecution. We tackle this discussion at two distinct levels. First, we pursue an essentially non-technical presentation of the topic by drawing parallels between the court's summing up of the case and flawed patterns of reasoning commonly seen in other forensic disciplines, such as DNA and particle traces (e.g., gunshot residues). Then, we propose a formal analysis of the case, using elements of probability and graphical probability models, to justify our main claim that the partial presentation of digital evidence poses a risk to the administration of justice in that it keeps vital information from the defense. We will argue that such practice constitutes a violation of general principles of forensic interpretation as established by forensic science literature and current recommendations by forensic science interest groups (e.g., the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes). Finally, we posit that argument construction and analysis using formal methods can help replace digital evidence appropriately into context and thus support a sound evaluation of the evidence.

The impact of Institutional Distance on FDI inflows in the Czech Republic

This paper studies the impact of institutional distance on FDI infl ows in a specifi c country, the Czech Republic. This study contributes to the literature on the importance of institutional distance between home and host country among the factors able to infl uence FDI. The novelty of our paper is that (1) we consider whether institutional distance matters also when the host country is already endowed with institutional standards relatively close to those of the main home countries of MNEs, and (2) we run separate investigations of home-host countries’ institutional distance, distinguishing between institutionally safer and less safe home countries in comparison with the host ones. The Czech Republic has been chosen in view of these perspectives, as (1) it has traditionally been considered as one of the most developed markets among those emerged from the socialist experience, its level of institutional development is close to that of the various home countries of MNEs, and (2) besides hosting MNEs from home countries endowed with safer institutions, it receives a certain amount of FDI also from countries with a relatively less safe institutional environment. Our results challenge the previous literature, in the sense that institutional distance may actually be perceived as an opportunity, especially by MNEs from home countries with higher levels of institutional development. Indeed, MNEs from home countries with less safe institutions than Czech ones follow a more ambiguous pattern.

Seasonal divergence in the interannual responses of Northern Hemisphere vegetation activity to variations in diurnal climate.

Seasonal asymmetry in the interannual variations in the daytime and nighttime climate in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) is well documented, but its consequences for vegetation activity remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate the interannual responses of vegetation activity to variations of seasonal mean daytime and nighttime climate in NH (>30 °N) during the past decades using remote sensing retrievals, FLUXNET and tree ring data. Despite a generally significant and positive response of vegetation activity to seasonal mean maximum temperature () in ~22–25% of the boreal (>50 °N) NH between spring and autumn, spring-summer progressive water limitations appear to decouple vegetation activity from the mean summer , particularly in climate zones with dry summers. Drought alleviation during autumn results in vegetation recovery from the marked warming-induced drought limitations observed in spring and summer across 24–26% of the temperate NH. Vegetation activity exhibits a pervasively negative correlation with the autumn mean minimum temperature, which is in contrast to the ambiguous patterns observed in spring and summer. Our findings provide new insights into how seasonal asymmetry in the interannual variations in the mean daytime and nighttime climate interacts with water limitations to produce spatiotemporally variable responses of vegetation growth.

Comparison of situs ambiguous patterns between heterotaxy syndromes with polysplenia and asplenia

ObjectivesTo compare the differences of visceral anomalies shown by computed tomography (CT) in patients with polysplenia syndrome (PS) or asplenia syndrome (AS). MethodsThis retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board, and informed consent was waived. Thirty-one patients with PS and 29 patients with AS underwent chest-abdominal CT. The evaluated CT findings were as follows: the orientation of stomach, liver and gallbladder; short pancreas; azygous/hemiazygous continuation; ipsilateral position of the inferior vena cava and aorta; preduodenal portal vein; abnormal confluence of renal vein (defined as renal vein drains to the inferior vena cava or azygous/hemiazygous vein at the upper level of celiac trunk origin); gastrointestinal malrotation; and tracheobronchial tree. ResultsAzygous/hemiazygous continuation was seen in 74% (20 of 27)/0% (0 of 28) of PS/AS (P<0.0001), bilateral hyparterial bronchi in 75% (24 of 32)/5% (1 of 22), bilateral eparterial bronchi in 9% (3 of 32)/95% (21 of 22), ipsilateral position of the inferior vena cava and aorta in 59% (16 of 27)/89% (25 of 28), and abnormal confluence of renal vein in 7% (2 of 27)/57% (16 of 28), respectively. No significant differences were found in the other anomalies. ConclusionSignificant differences in anomalous systemic venous connections and tracheobronchial anomaly were observed between PS and AS. Abnormal confluence of renal vein is relatively rare anomalous venous connections, but frequently observed in AS.

Individuals Who Believe in the Paranormal Expose Themselves to Biased Information and Develop More Causal Illusions than Nonbelievers in the Laboratory.

In the reasoning literature, paranormal beliefs have been proposed to be linked to two related phenomena: a biased perception of causality and a biased information-sampling strategy (believers tend to test fewer hypotheses and prefer confirmatory information). In parallel, recent contingency learning studies showed that, when two unrelated events coincide frequently, individuals interpret this ambiguous pattern as evidence of a causal relationship. Moreover, the latter studies indicate that sampling more cause-present cases than cause-absent cases strengthens the illusion. If paranormal believers actually exhibit a biased exposure to the available information, they should also show this bias in the contingency learning task: they would in fact expose themselves to more cause-present cases than cause-absent trials. Thus, by combining the two traditions, we predicted that believers in the paranormal would be more vulnerable to developing causal illusions in the laboratory than nonbelievers because there is a bias in the information they experience. In this study, we found that paranormal beliefs (measured using a questionnaire) correlated with causal illusions (assessed by using contingency judgments). As expected, this correlation was mediated entirely by the believers' tendency to expose themselves to more cause-present cases. The association between paranormal beliefs, biased exposure to information, and causal illusions was only observed for ambiguous materials (i.e., the noncontingent condition). In contrast, the participants' ability to detect causal relationships which did exist (i.e., the contingent condition) was unaffected by their susceptibility to believe in paranormal phenomena.

Renal end points in clinical trials of kidney disease.

End-stage renal disease and doubling of serum creatinine are established hard end points in clinical trials of chronic kidney disease (CKD). These end points are debated, as their accuracy and precision may not be optimal, and as they are late events in the progression of CKD, thereby requiring large and complex trials. The purpose of this review is to examine the validity of the currently used established renal end point by comparing the end-stage renal disease part, involving renal replacement therapies (RRTs) (dialysis or renal transplantation), and the glomerular filtration-based end points involving the doubling of serum creatinine. Emerging data demonstrate that the RRT decision depends not only on serum creatinine but also on a range of subjective factors involving a patient's well-being, availability of RRTs, or local guidelines. Thus, initiation of RRT is not representative of (estimated) glomerular filtration rate [(e)GFR] decline alone. In contrast, a doubling of serum creatinine reflects a sustained loss in a patient's starting GFR. The disadvantage of an end point based on a filtration marker is that many drugs exert opposite effects on the GFR. Initially, they cause a reduction in GFR followed by a stabilization of GFR decline. This ambiguous pattern complicates the interpretation of the drug effect, in particular when the end point is based on lesser declines in GFR, such as a 30% or 40% decline. The currently used end points in CKD trials reflect different functions of the kidney. In the future, we have to establish whether we want to characterize the effect of a novel drug on a renal filtration marker alone, on a combination of parameters involving a patient's well-being, or on a composite of these.

AUTOMATIC MUSCLE PERIMYSIUM ANNOTATION USING DEEP CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORK.

Diseased skeletal muscle expresses mononuclear cell infiltration in the regions of perimysium. Accurate annotation or segmentation of perimysium can help biologists and clinicians to determine individualized patient treatment and allow for reasonable prognostication. However, manual perimysium annotation is time consuming and prone to inter-observer variations. Meanwhile, the presence of ambiguous patterns in muscle images significantly challenge many traditional automatic annotation algorithms. In this paper, we propose an automatic perimysium annotation algorithm based on deep convolutional neural network (CNN). We formulate the automatic annotation of perimysium in muscle images as a pixel-wise classification problem, and the CNN is trained to label each image pixel with raw RGB values of the patch centered at the pixel. The algorithm is applied to 82 diseased skeletal muscle images. We have achieved an average precision of 94% on the test dataset.

Identification and characterization of nine atypical Candida dubliniensis clinical isolates.

Candida dubliniensis is a pathogenic yeast of the genus Candida closely related to Candida albicans. The phenotypic similarity of these two species often leads to misidentification of C. dubliniensis isolates in clinical samples. DNA-based methods continue to be the most effective means of discriminating accurately between the two species. Here, we report on the identification of nine unusual Candida isolates that showed ambiguous identification patterns on the basis of their phenotypic and immunological traits. The isolates were categorized into two groups. Group I isolates were unable to produce germ tubes and chlamydospores, and to agglutinate commercial latex particles coated with a mAb highly specific for C. dubliniensis. Group II isolates grew as pink and white colonies on CHROMagar Candida and ChromID Candida, respectively. Carbohydrate assimilation profiles obtained with API/ID32C together with PCR amplification with specific primers and DNA sequencing allowed reliable identification of the nine unusual clinical isolates as C. dubliniensis.

Computational valency lexica for Latin and Greek in use: a case study of syntactic ambiguity

AbstractWe have built a corpus-driven valency lexicon for Greek verbs by following an approach devised for Latin data. We have then used the lexicon to detect a specific type of potentially ambiguous syntactic patterns in Latin and Greek hexametric poetry, which can consistently be disambiguated by prosodic breaks. Such disambiguating breaks were then mapped onto the metrical structure of the lines containing the ambiguous patterns, in order to assess their correspondence to metrical boundaries and to gather independent evidence on the phonetic nature of the boundaries themselves in view of further investigation. From a methodological point of view, the lexica have enabled us to draw on a relatively large set of texts to study a rare phenomenon and to establish a semi-automatic procedure that can be replicated on larger and compatible corpora.