Casual Conversation Research Articles

The Impact of Internal Control Practices on Fraud Prevention: The Case of Lebanese Small-Medium Enterprises

When compared to large corporations, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are far more likely to suffer from employee losses and much less likely to be able to absorb these losses. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are better able to handle internal control than large corporations. It appears that the people of Lebanon view this issue with sensitivity, it is rarely brought up in casual conversation. Since internal control is the main issue facing Lebanese businesses, they would rather not address it. Only 308 of 400 responders filled out the survey, and the results were evaluated with the use of the SPSS statistical package. Findings showed that businesses in the modern era urgently require monitoring systems, as new evidence shows that monitoring frameworks affect performance evaluations. The environment in which it operates shapes a company's management mindset. The monitoring setup provides the backbone upon which further layers of internal control may be built. Consequently, the study's subjects include the organizations' cultures and working styles and the ethics and ethical beliefs of the employees who create and execute controls. Many factors interact to maintain a stable ecosystem. A subset of the executive board and representatives from each board committee have been tasked with gathering the information necessary to complete this report at the request of the board of directors.

Saving face-wants in casual talks: A discourse analysis

This politeness study aimed to investigate the different politeness strategies or face-saving acts of teachers as they engaged in casual conversations. This study utilized discourse analysis as research method in identifying the face-savings acts exhibited from the samples of teachers conversations. The researcher analysed the linguistic corpora using Brown and Levinsons Politeness Theory. Data showed that teachers as interactants observed the use of positive politeness strategies such as: By intensifying interest to the Hearer, By joking, By seeking agreement, By giving offers and promises, By asserting a common ground, By concerning a Hearers wants, By attending to the Hearer, By including both speaker and hearer in the activity and, By using honorifics “Sir and Maam. The negative politeness strategies used by teachers in their actual conversations are: By questioning, By stating FTA as a general rule and By minimizing impositions. Teachers, as they engage in their casual talks, used various politeness strategies to mitigate the threatening acts that may cause damages to the hearers positive and negative face wants. Discourse, as it is, necessitates both hearer and speaker to contribute evenly and observe politeness to successfully convey the message may it be formal or informal setting.

Self-Assessment to improve speaking skills: a brief action research

The present study aims to demonstrate that “Self-assessment” technique applied with EFL (English as a foreign language) students can improve their speaking skills as well as their self-confidence when speaking. The research was conducted with 34 young male students from the Ecuadorian Navy from Ecuador. The students were trained on how to self-assess their speaking skills focused on the content, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and interaction. They self-assessed using a checklist and the teacher used a rubric to evaluate them. The design of the research was applied through a pretest and a posttest. Between the pretest and a posttest, the researcher implemented an innovation called “The Backward Design” to help students focus on the target, which is having a casual conversation in pairs about daily topics in English with self-confidence. A mixed method was used since the data collected during this study were quantitative and qualitative. The results compare the grades from the pretest and the posttest to determine if self-assessment improved or did not improve the students’ speaking skills and their self-confidence at the end of the innovation. Finally, an argument at the end of the research takes place to discuss the similarities and differences with other investigations.

Theme as point of departure in English and Spanish casual conversation

Abstract This paper uses a trinocular approach – i.e. from below, from above and from roundabout – to describe Theme as point of departure (POD) in English and Spanish casual conversation (thus avoiding the more controversial ‘what-the-clause-is-about’ aspect of Theme). This research is part of a long-term contrastive study which includes the description of POD in academic writing and a crosslinguistic comparison of POD in academic writing and casual conversation. Among the main findings in this paper, the following stand out: (a) the identification of a conversational texture characterised by the interplay of textual and interpersonal strands of meaning; and (b) different POD arrangements of English and Spanish clauses in casual conversation, motivated by different ways of enacting communicative exchange.

Ruling the Periphery: Pakistan state ruling practices in Lower Dir

This article examines Pakistan State’s ruling practices in Lower Dir, a peripheral region. It argues that this peripheral region was ruled by a colonial logic of governmentality. Through a “thick” ethnography of Lower Dir, I documented the militarized and fragmented state practices that Tsing refers to as the “sticky materiality of practical encounters” of the local people with the state apparatuses. The study collected data through anthropological methods such as mobile ethnography at checkpoints, casual conversations with locals, and firsthand observations of state ruling practices in the region. This article concludes that it is the Pakistan state’s strategic interest that keeps the region out of the mainstream, and its security status is now even more important for Pakistan state following the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August 2021.

Testing the impact of culturally-relevant communication style on engagement with Hispanic and Latinx adults

Effective science communication for a multilingual population requires more than language translation, it also requires being mindful of cultural communication styles. This study tested the impact that communication style has on feelings of inclusion, learning, and engagement in the Earth sciences for Hispanic and Latinx adults. An online survey with open and closed questions was used to evaluate two science videos (in both Spanish and English) with different communication styles: 1) a traditional, interview-based style, where experts present a science concept, and 2) an informal conversational style, where a scientific message is shared through a casual conversation. Seventy-four participants self-identified as Hispanic and Latinx and were the focus of the data analysis. Both video styles were positively received, with participant feedback emphasizing feelings of inclusion in seeing Latina scientists, easy to understand science concepts, and accessible language. Hispanic and Latinx adults preferred the traditional video, but the conversational video ranked higher in other aspects, which varied based on participants’ primary spoken language at home. For example, the conversational video had a positive impact on the ability to relate information to their own life and increase awareness of Earth science careers for Spanish-language speakers. Findings suggest the use of both video styles could improve feelings of inclusion and engagement for Hispanic and Latinx adults. Additional aspects of culture and demographics may explain some of the language-based results. Future science videos are encouraged to be co-designed by, for, and with Hispanic and Latinx communities to emphasize cultural values while avoiding stereotyping and cultural appropriation.

Pronunciation Needs Analysis of Japanese Students

For some Japanese students, pronunciation is one of the most difficult challenges they encounter when learning a second language and yet, its importance cannot be understated. This is supported by Harmer who suggests that the most important thing about speaking English is that we should be intelligible and we should be understood by other speakers of English, whoever they are (Harmer, 2015). This paper analysed the pronunciation needs of two Japanese students (student A; an adult male and student B; an adult female) over a period of several weeks. The researcher conducted face-to-face interviews based on casual conversation topics. Each interview was recorded and then analysed, strengths and weaknesses were defined and as a result, lesson plans targeting problem areas were designed. The research concludes that an all-encompassing viewpoint of pronunciation teaching, one that draws on various approaches, was needed in order for students to achieve their language goals.

A Case for Academic Teleradiology.

A Case for Academic Teleradiology.

The ways urban marginalized group conceptualizes health and wellbeing: The case of the waste pickers in Surabaya, Indonesia

Background and purpose: Health and wellbeing have a different meaning for an individual, institution, ethnicity and organization. The study aims to overview the ways waste pickers conceptualize health and wellbeing. Methods: A qualitative procedure deployed to identify the predictors of health and wellbeing according to the waste pickers and how they perceive them. Forty waste pickers were involved as participants. Semi-structured in-depth interviews, natural group discussion (NGD) and casual conversation are the main methods for collecting information. The information was analysed using a thematic and inductive approach. Results: The waste pickers identify health as free from diseasesand illness, being able to work, a peaceful mind, positive relation within the family and social life, being grateful for life, surrender to God, and being happy. They relate wellbeing with gratefulness with achievements, sense of enough, being satisfied with life, submission to God, sense of “enough”, frugality and some assets back hometown. Conclusion: The study concludes that waste pickers provide apractical understanding of health and wellbeing. It recommendsthat understanding and measuring health and wellbeing should on the context of the target population.

Enhancing Enterprise Social Media Participation with Social Groups

Increasing number of firms are adopting enterprise social media (ESMs) for their day-to-day communication. Despite the spending made on these IT tools, participation levels on ESM are not high. Under this background, it would prove to be helpful to understand the impact of basic features on ESM affect usage. Thus, we investigate the role of social groups on participation levels in workgroups on ESMs. Social groups can be considered a psychologically safe environment, where users are allowed to make mistakes and take risks. In addition, casual conversations within social groups make it easier for users to start conversations with other employees that they do not know. The study results provide guidelines to companies and developers on how to use and design social features in an environment where personal and professional lines would become blurred. To empirically test this, we relied on the usage data of users from thousands of companies. A difference-in-difference estimation approach was used to contrast users who participate in social groups to those who do not. We used the matching methods to alleviate endogeneity concerns and constructed various control groups to difference out the selection effects in the DID technique. To conclude, we found evidence of a positive impact of social groups on user participation in workgroups on ESMs. The comfort levels and shared experience gained from social groups spilled over to the workgroups, particularly for lower-ranked employees as uncertainty and concerns of being criticized are reduced. Study implications are discussed.

Whaddayou Mean “ςπουδαιογɛλοιον”?: Nabi's Last Laugh

Abstract In his late unpublished essay “Dionysus in 1992,” Norman O. Brown arrived at the ancient Greek term “spoudaiogeloion” to express his idea of a “serious laughter” that could respond to dialectical tensions without unbalancing them. Brown had, in 1959, converted Freud's Witz book into a serious theory of art. This turned the focus on humor into a focus on art, subtly repressing the place of laughter in art and thinking for Brown and those who took him seriously. His casual conversation was always full of fun, but his formal thought lacked that liberating concept until the last decade of his life. Not even the accusation by Marcuse of “mystification” could bring him out of his idealizations—until he saw the dialectical power of humor's ambivalence. “Spoudaiogeloion,” with room for Joyce's farcical wit and Blake's high visions, gave Brown a useful “way out” of tensions between “high” and “low” art or philosophy.

“Well; I think…”, the Dominant Hedges Uttered by Males in Daily Communication: A Sociolinguistic Study

Hedges are linguistics features that were previously considered by some researchers as the characterization of women's speech to show hesitation and uncertainty of the speech regarding the character of discussion and the sensitivity of the questions. However, this claim was remain debatable by another researcher since the use of hedges cannot be correlated to any specific gender. This study was conducted to reveal the use of hedges can also be employed by males in an informal daily conversation, discussing lights topic and questions that often appear. The conducted study was supported by the transcription from the recorded online meeting with males native and non-native English speakers. The transcribed recorded online meeting was useful to examine the hedges as the participants' expressions in the discussion. The results of the study showed that males also utilized hedges in an informal discussion, and the most frequent one is verbal filler will. The hedges uttered by both males native and non-native were various such as to give them chance to think, to reduce the impact delivered, self-disclosure, and appraise someone's idea. The findings also found that the use of hedges by males in casual daily conversation is normal, in regard to saving the speaker's name toward the interlocutor when discussing a sensitive topic or answering a sensitive question.

Little Lewis and Latin Folk in Chaucer's Prologue to the Treatise on the Astrolabe

Little Lewis and Latin Folk in Chaucer's Prologue to the <i>Treatise on the Astrolabe</i>

Towards Measuring Fairness in AI: The Casual Conversations Dataset

This paper introduces a novel dataset to help researchers evaluate their computer vision and audio models for accuracy across a diverse set of age, genders, apparent skin tones and ambient lighting conditions. Our dataset is composed of 3,011 subjects and contains over 45,000 videos, with an average of 15 videos per person. The videos were recorded in multiple U.S. states with a diverse set of adults in various age, gender and apparent skin tone groups. A key feature is that each subject agreed to participate for their likenesses to be used. Additionally, our age and gender annotations are provided by the subjects themselves. A group of trained annotators labeled the subjects’ apparent skin tone using the Fitzpatrick skin type scale. Moreover, annotations for videos recorded in low ambient lighting are also provided. As an application to measure robustness of predictions across certain attributes, we provide a comprehensive study on the top five winners of the DeepFake Detection Challenge (DFDC). Experimental evaluation shows that the winning models are less performant on some specific groups of people, such as subjects with darker skin tones and thus may not generalize to all people. In addition, we also evaluate the state-of-the-art apparent age and gender classification methods. Our experiments provides a thorough analysis on these models in terms of fair treatment of people from various backgrounds.

Parental Perspectives in Transition Planning

For an individual with disabilities, leaving high school and transitioning into society is one of life’s most challenging experiences. Planning for this transition is not only important, it is mandated by law. Despite federal mandates and advancements in technology, the unemployment rate of individuals with disabilities is increasing. This study seeks to depict what parents think and feel about the school-based transition program for their child with a disability. A second purpose is to show their ideas of what they would like to see on their child’s transition plan. The study was conducted using qualitative research methods. Interviews and casual conversations were conducted to collect data and identify parents’ thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Responses from those interviews and conversations were used to provide a constant comparative matrix for data analysis. Parents identified three main areas of concern in the process of transition planning; communication, knowledge, and involvement. Parents are a key component in the transition planning process. However, the parents do not feel they are being included in the decision-making process.

Discourse Behavior of Older Adults Interacting with a Dialogue Agent Competent in Multiple Topics

We present a conversational agent designed to provide realistic conversational practice to older adults at risk of isolation or social anxiety, and show the results of a content analysis on a corpus of data collected from experiments with elderly patients interacting with our system. The conversational agent, represented by a virtual avatar, is designed to hold multiple sessions of casual conversation with older adults. Throughout each interaction, the system analyzes the prosodic and nonverbal behavior of users and provides feedback to the user in the form of periodic comments and suggestions on how to improve. Our avatar is unique in its ability to hold natural dialogues on a wide range of everyday topics—27 topics in three groups, developed in collaboration with a team of gerontologists. The three groups vary in “degrees of intimacy,” and as such in degrees of cognitive difficulty for the user. After collecting data from nine participants who interacted with the avatar for seven to nine sessions over a period of 3 to 4 weeks, we present results concerning dialogue behavior and inferred sentiment of the users. Analysis of the dialogues reveals correlations such as greater elaborateness for more difficult topics, increasing elaborateness with successive sessions, stronger sentiments in topics concerned with life goals rather than routine activities, and stronger self-disclosure for more intimate topics. In addition to their intrinsic interest, these results also reflect positively on the sophistication and practical applicability of our dialogue system.

Discourse Framing in Gender-Sensitive Proverbs in Yorùbá Casual Conversations

Discourse Framing in Gender-Sensitive Proverbs in Yorùbá Casual Conversations

Research in Mental Health During the Pandemic

Abstract BodyAll healthcare had to rapidly adjust to covid-19; remote options were implemented at pace and unnecessary face to face contact minimised, with infection prevention and control taking primacy. Many research projects were suspended and some clinical researchers moved to frontline care. For psychiatric academic trainees, covid-19 affected recruitment, and risked delaying work on research degrees such as PhDs, potentially beyond the timeframe of a grant, leading to funding uncertainties. Those valuable casual conversations with senior colleagues in the café stopped and with many schools closed, parents had extra pressures on their time at home. In the UK the government prioritised “Urgent Public Health” (UPH) studies and took a co-ordinated approach to research approvals and recruitment strategies, contributing to the success of covid-19 platform trials such as RECOVERY. While initially only a minority of UPH studies were open to people with serious mental illnesses, now the effect of the pandemic on mental health has become a research priority. In parallel, service planners recognised the value of emergent research in informing decision-making creating de facto learning health systems. While covid-19 interrupted research as we knew it, it necessitated new ways of working, some of which will persist. These included an increase in remote data collection, allowing greater access to research opportunities for potential participants, along with more efficient research approval and evidence dissemination pathways.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Overlap in EFL Learners' Online Casual Conversation: How Men and Women Differ

The COVID-19 pandemic is thought to have changed the way people communicate in society. It has ushered in a new way of living that is fully conducted online. It urges this study to concentrate on examining online communications, particularly men's and women's online casual conversations. The qualitative approach was employed to accomplish this. Three basic processes were carried out in greater depth. The first step was to tape the dialogue, which was transcribed using the theory of Eggins &amp; Slade (1997). To strengthen the data, an unstructured interview was conducted (Mackey &amp; Gass, 2005). Finally, to expose the phenomenon of overlap, the data were evaluated using theories proposed by numerous experts, such as Schegloff (2000), Cogo &amp; Dewey (2012), Yule (1996), and many more. The results were afterward developed into rich verbal descriptions. Analysis shows that men's and women's online casual conversations have different patterns of overlap. This can happen because of the influence of what they have received throughout their lives about how to be a man and a woman. The gender values they get from their environment greatly affect how they communicate and interact with others.

Perspectives On Bioinspired Product Development: Entrapping Surfaces Based On Leaf Microstructures.

Scientists who work on bioinspired systems may see the potential for products resulting from their research, but are often unaware of the various steps or issues related to commercialization or product development. Commercialization topics lie outside the usual training of a basic biologist, and therefore much of their exposure to these topics is adventitious, such as from casual conversations at meetings. Thus, the information gleaned may be somewhat piecemeal. In this paper, I briefly summarize some of what I have learned over the last ten years about commercialization from a variety of different sources, related to a bioinspired project in which I am involved. My collaborators and I have invented and patented a technology to entrap insect pests by a purely physical mechanism (a "physical insecticide" that does not involve a chemical insecticide). This bioinspired technology is based on a historical control method, in which leaves from bean plants were used to capture bed bugs for hundreds of years in parts of Eastern Europe. Sharp recurved microstructures (nonglandular trichomes) on the leaf surfaces irreversibly impale the tarsi (feet) of the bed bugs as they walk over the surfaces, trapping them in place. Pest professionals have identified bed bugs as the most difficult pest to control; there is a clear need for new methods of control for this pest. There are societal benefits and consumer demand for products that are sustainable, without regulatory constraints, and that minimize insecticide exposure for humans. But how would these products be developed from this starting point of a bioinspired invention? I will briefly share some of our experiences in the early and ongoing product development of entrapping surfaces, with the hope that this might interest or aid others who are considering entrepreneurial activities. Unfamiliar topics such as intellectual property, customer segmentation, value propositions, business models, conflict of interest, and conflict of commitment may require some attention from prospective entrepreneurs. This brief and introductory overview is intended for those academic scientists with little to no experience or knowledge in the area of commercialization.