Conceptual Vocabulary Research Articles

Face-to-face fundraising and the dialectics of appearance

ABSTRACT Face-to-face fundraising (F2F) emerged in the 1990s as an innovative mode of charity fundraising, whereby paid fundraisers – often employed through for-profit agencies – solicit members of the public to sign-up for monthly direct-debit payments. Despite its everyday visibility – and public critical reception – this instance of the ubiquitous intersection of humanitarianism and commodification, integral to contemporary capitalism, remains unexplored. This paper fills this gap but, in the process, draws some theoretical lessons germane to this literature and to materialist critique more generally. I argue that the peculiar dialectics of appearance operative in the political economy of F2F resists interpretation in terms of extant conceptual appreciations of other modalities of ‘commodified compassion’ and in materialist conceptual vocabularies in political economy scholarship more broadly. Far from ‘mere appearance’, F2F’s abstract form of ‘shared humanity’ is not simply an ethical veneer to be bypassed in unveiling the concrete (re)production of inequalities in humanity, as is the general tendency in materialist critique. Rather, this appearance is essential for its functioning and those concrete inequalities are written into this form, rather than existing behind/beyond it. This, I suggest, is captured effectively by a ‘dialectical materialist’ take on the Marxian theory of the commodity form.

A psychosocial reading of teacher agency

ABSTRACT The concept of teacher agency has become increasingly prominent in academic, policy and media debates. In rethinking the concept, we are particularly interested in the tension between discourses presenting teachers as heroic agents of individual emancipation and social transformation, such as those found in recruitment campaigns and Hollywood films, and the erosion of spaces for agency brought about by the dominance of discourses and practices of standards and accountability. In this conceptual paper we explore these tensions, building on previous work advocating ecological perspectives on teacher agency. We draw on the conceptual resources of psychosocial theory, including Lacanian discourse theory and recent work in this field articulating agency as manifesting in multiple modalities. Our psychosocial reading of teacher agency makes a number of contributions. First, it provides a more expansive conceptual vocabulary, allowing us to talk about agency in broader, more nuanced ways. Second, it recognises that teacher agency is not always necessarily in pursuit of social good. Third, and perhaps most importantly, it enables us to see the ways in which some modes of teacher agency, rather than manifesting as scenes of heroic possibility, are in fact subordinated forms of agency illustrating the cruel optimism of contemporary neoliberalised education.

Advancing artificial intelligence in fisheries requires novel cross-sector collaborations

Abstract Artificial intelligence, or AI, has the potential to dramatically improve our understanding and management of the ocean. For fisheries, these benefits could include greater monitoring coverage at lower costs, improved estimates of catch and bycatch, identification of illegal fishing, and seafood traceability throughout the supply chain. However, fisheries AI innovation and adoption faces substantial barriers from the highly regulated nature of fisheries and the complex overlap of government policies, diverse user needs, and market pressures. We argue that needed advances in fisheries AI require novel collaborations to share data and methods, encourage new and diverse entrants to the field, and increase baseline technical literacy across the global fisheries community. Unlocking fisheries data to power AI, particularly image data, can only be achieved through partnerships across government managers, AI developers, fishers and vessel owners, and technology service providers, which, in turn, requires a common vocabulary for policy and technical concepts. With a greater shared understanding across the field, fisheries AI providers can deliver desired results, and users can have confidence that systems are performing as advertised, ultimately meeting monitoring demand and sustainability goals.

The philosophy of liberation and social work: a short essay in memory of Enrico Dussel (1934–2023)

ABSTRACT This brief article draws attention to the contributions of the Argentinian-Mexican philosopher and scholar Enrico Dussel who died in November 2023. Only a portion of Dussel’s writings are available in English and his vast intellectual output, frequently laden with puzzling diagrams and figures, makes for a heady mix. In what follows, the aim is simply to identify some of his main ideas, especially as we might relate these to social work. The article explores, therefore: Dussel’s conceptual vocabulary; his emphasis on the need to take care of the planet and its natural resources; his politics and ideas relating to the ‘will-to-live’; his ideas on change; and his three core ethical principles.

Using semantic verbal fluency to estimate the relative and absolute vocabulary size of bilinguals: An exploratory study of children and adolescents

IntroductionThe full assessment of bilingual children often involves at least one language for which formal vocabulary tests are lacking and which the examiner does not speak. We examined, in a sample of children with typical development (TD), whether a semantic verbal fluency task, typically used in research as a measure of executive function, could be used in the place of a formal vocabulary test to estimate vocabulary knowledge when formal tests are not available. Method113 TD monolingual French speakers and TD bilinguals and with varying degrees of exposure to French, age 6 to 17 years, completed tests of vocabulary knowledge and semantic verbal fluency. A subset of 64 participants spoke French and English and were tested in both languages. Verbal fluency measures calculated using a traditional method which uses specific rules for superordinate categories and for animals of different sex and age and a simplified scoring method which simply counts all words produced, included the total number of words produced in each language, Total Vocabulary and Conceptual Vocabulary measures combining both languages, as well as analyses of lexical composition and word frequency within the study sample. ResultsLinear regressions revealed that the number of words produced predicted vocabulary size in a language-specific way, with slightly stronger predictions made by the simplified scoring method. As expected, bilinguals produced more words and more unique words in their language of greater exposure, while different exposure groups were equivalent in measures combining both languages, including their Total vocabulary and Conceptual vocabulary. Producing unusual words (infrequently produced in the study sample) indicated higher vocabulary scores. ConclusionsThis study supports the use of the verbal fluency task as a quick and simple tool to obtain a rough estimate of vocabulary size in TD monolinguals and bilinguals. This tool shows promise as well in clinical work with other populations, subject to further verification.

Doctrinal, Educational and Behavioral Foundations for Dealing with Hypocrites in The Expression of Caution in Surat Al-Tawbah

In this research, the researcher dealt with the word caution in Surat Al-Tawbah in verse: 64, by studying it, which is repeated in the same verse at its beginning and end. The researcher shaded light on the doctrinal, educational and behavioral bases for this warning in this place, which reveals what is going on in the secrets of the hypocrites fearing that their matter will be exposed and what It is woven in their chests. and they are keen to conceal it, so the study was divided into several demands in which explaining the concept of research vocabulary in language and terminology, which are (belief, education, behavior, caution), and the sensory miracle of the Prophet - may God bless him and grant him peace - in the word “you warn” and its educational and behavioral impact, the doctrinal, educational and behavioral side in the manifestation of the attributes of hearing, sight and knowledge to God Almighty in the word “you warn”. In addition, the doctrinal, behavioral and educational aspects in a statement that mocking the Messenger of God and the believers is a mockery of God Almighty, and the educational and behavioral aspects in purifying the heart from hypocrisy in the word “you warn”. And the divine support and victory for the believers in the word “You warn” and the threat and the intimidation and their educational and behavioral effects in the word “You warn” and then the conclusion in which explained that this word in this place carries doctrinal, educational and behavioral warnings to the believers and lays the foundations for dealing with the category of hypocrites.

Legal pluralism and the production of (un)certainty in lived migration orders

This article builds on three of Keebet von Benda-Beckmann’s core concepts, namely, legal pluralism, social security and relational social theory, to reflect on the place of law in lived migration orders, both in the global north and in the global south. To do this, we build on three empirical case studies from our respective fieldsites in Germany, Belgium and the DRC. These cases illustrate how ‘thinking with Keebet’s work’ not only offers useful ‘sensitizing concepts’ for the empirical study of migration law and migration studies more broadly, but also provides a much-needed conceptual vocabulary to speak to and intervene in current debates in more doctrinal legal scholarship on global migration law. With this double aim in mind, we first build on a legal pluralism perspective to show how migration governance can be better understood through the prism of ‘lived migration orders’. We then suggest rethinking state sovereignty, citizenship, and individual human rights in light of historical and newly emerging relational configurations. Finally, we suggest a new avenue for reconceptualizing migration governance beyond rights-based categorizations of migrants by paying more nuanced analytical attention to situations of uncertainty and how they contribute to social (in-)security.

Conceptual and Total Vocabulary in Spanish-English Bilinguals from 23 to 35 Months: Assessing Vocabulary Among Young, Migrant Emergent Bilingual Children

Migrant and seasonal agriculture workers, mostly of Latino origin, largely supply the labor that goes into crop production, cultivation, and harvest in the agricultural industry in the United States. A major challenge of this population is having stable childcare and access to quality education services for their children. Unfortunately, most assessments overlook the various aspects of emergent bilingual children’s development, leading to underestimation of their conceptual understandings and linguistic skills. This calls for a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to assessment. Three scoring methods have been identified as the most appropriate ways to score linguistic capabilities in bilingual children: single-language scoring, total scoring, and conceptual scoring (Bedore et al., 2005; Core et al., 2013). Each method presents advantages and disadvantages and is used according to the questions being asked. This longitudinal study aims to (1) compare total vocabulary and conceptual vocabulary in a group of two-year-old emergent bilingual children across time, (2) compare total and conceptual vocabulary with normed monolingual performance on a single-language measure across time using total and conceptual scoring methods, and (3) to determine which method of assessing vocabulary in two languages is most appropriate for two-year-old migrant bilingual children. Eight emergent bilingual children (50% female; Age: Time 1: M = 23.25 months, SD = 3.34) attending the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) or Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RMCA) were assessed using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory at three timepoints. Results showed that children’s total vocabulary scores were larger than their conceptual vocabulary scores and when comparing to monolingual norms their total scores were larger than their conceptual scores. Implications and recommendations will be discussed further.

Towards Trustworthy Deep Learning

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have achieved unprecedented success across many scientific and engineering fields in the last decades. Despite its empirical success, unfortunately, recent studies have shown that there are various failure modes and blindspots in DNN models which may result in unexpected serious failures and potential harms, e.g. the existence of adversarial examples and small perturbations. This is not acceptable especially for safety critical and high stakes applications in the real-world, including healthcare, self-driving cars, aircraft control systems, hiring and malware detection protocols. Moreover, it has been challenging to understand why and when DNNs will fail due to their complicated structures and black-box behaviors. Lacking interpretability is one critical issue that may seriously hinder the deployment of DNNs in high-stake applications, which need interpretability to trust the prediction, to understand potential failures, and to be able to mitigate harms and eliminate biases in the model. To make DNNs trustworthy and reliable for deployment, it is necessary and urgent to develop methods and tools that can (i) quantify and improve their robustness against adversarial and natural perturbations, and (ii) understand their underlying behaviors and further correct errors to prevent injuries and damages. These are the important first steps to enable Trustworthy AI and Trustworthy Machine Learning. In this talk, I will survey a series of research efforts in my lab contributed to tackling the grand challenges in (i) and (ii). In the first part of my talk, I will overview our research effort in Robust Machine Learning since 2017, where we have proposed the first attack-agnostic robustness evaluation metric, the first efficient robustness certification algorithms for various types of perturbations, and efficient robust learning algorithms across supervised learning to deep reinforcement learning. In the second part of my talk, I will survey a series of exciting results in my lab on accelerating interpretable machine learning and explainable AI. Specifically, I will show how we could bring interpretability into deep learning by leveraging recent advances in multi-modal models. I'll present recent works in our group on automatically dissecting neural networks with open vocabulary concepts, designing interpretable neural networks without concept labels, and briefly overview our recent efforts on demystifying black-box DNN training process, automated neuron explanations for Large Language Models and the first robustness evaluation of a family of neuron-level interpretation techniques.

How does knowledge move? Investigating the epistemic mobilities of “climate migration” with diverse conceptual metaphors

The production of knowledge is a mobile process. Efforts to conceptualise the mobilities of knowledge draw on a wide range of metaphors to conceptualise the ways in which knowledge moves and changes as it moves. In this paper, I present the theoretical origins and methodological implications – often tied to specific disciplines – of concepts in use. I distinguish between sedentarist metaphors (construction, transfer) and mobile metaphors (focusing on translation, contagion, friction, and circulation). I show that, although all these metaphors share a common attention to knowledge as mobile, they are neither synonymous nor interchangeable. They each structure how we think about and research epistemic mobilities in their own way. I find that mobile metaphors in particular are most compatible with, and can contribute to, the development of the mobile ontology that characterises the mobilities turn. I illustrate this using a case study of the epistemic mobilities of the idea of climate migration in the French context. From this example, I draw key lessons for studies of epistemic mobilities. I argue for a diverse, nuanced conceptual vocabulary of epistemic mobilities, leading to a nuanced, relational understanding of space, scale, and how to trace the mobilities of knowledge in practice.

Exploring the influence of the home literacy environment on early literacy and vocabulary skills in Korean-English bilingual children.

Studies have emphasized the significance of maintaining a heritage language for various reasons such as the establishment of linguistic and cultural identity, as well as socio-emotional development. Despite the crucial role that literacy development in a heritage language plays in language preservation, there is a scant research that explores the impact of home literacy environment and literacy development in children with a heritage language. This study aimed to examine the home literacy environment and literacy-related skills in 4-to 5-year-old Korean-English bilingual children living in an English-speaking country, Australia, whose heritage language is Korean, and to investigate the relationships among the home literacy environment factors and the child-internal literacy-related skills. The study employed parental questionnaires and video analyses of parent-child shared book reading sessions to assess the Korean and English home literacy environment. Children's early literacy skills in Korean and English, along with their Korean, English, and conceptual vocabulary skills, were measured as literacy-related skills. The findings indicated that parents utilized an indirect approach for Korean literacy practices, in contrast to a more direct and explicit method for English literacy practices. However, active and direct literacy practices were found to be essential for Korean early literacy development, while indirect methods are sufficient for English early literacy skills. Moreover, the availability of abundant Korean literacy resources at home had a positive impact on the development of Korean and English, as well as conceptual vocabulary skills. In conclusion, this study underscores the importance of providing a robust literacy environment in a heritage language in bilingual families to promote language proficiency in both the heritage language and the dominant social language, while also supporting the development of conceptual language skills.

Interpretable Compositional Representations for Robust Few-Shot Generalization.

We propose Recognition as Part Composition (RPC), an image encoding approach inspired by human cognition. It is based on the cognitive theory that humans recognize complex objects by components, and that they build a small compact vocabulary of concepts to represent each instance with. RPC encodes images by first decomposing them into salient parts, and then encoding each part as a mixture of a small number of prototypes, each representing a certain concept. We find that this type of learning inspired by human cognition can overcome hurdles faced by deep convolutional networks in low-shot generalization tasks, like zero-shot learning, few-shot learning and unsupervised domain adaptation. Furthermore, we find a classifier using an RPC image encoder is fairly robust to adversarial attacks, that deep neural networks are known to be prone to. Given that our image encoding principle is based on human cognition, one would expect the encodings to be interpretable by humans, which we find to be the case via crowd-sourcing experiments. Finally, we propose an application of these interpretable encodings in the form of generating synthetic attribute annotations for evaluating zero-shot learning methods on new datasets.

Child-level factors associated with Spanish-English bilingual toddlers' productive vocabulary growth.

This longitudinal study-conducted in the Midwestern United States-examines the child-level factors that promote Spanish-English bilingual toddlers' (n = 47; Mage = 18.80 months; SDage = 0.57) productive vocabulary skills from 18 to 30 months of age. At 6-month intervals, caregivers reported on toddlers' Spanish and English words produced as well as their language exposure at home. Video recordings at child age 18 months yielded estimates of toddlers' speech output (word tokens per minute). In addition, at child age 18 months, caregivers reported on toddlers' linguistic skills (comprehension), demographic background (gender, household income), and nonverbal behaviors (gesture production). Results showed that toddlers were exposed to both English and Spanish and received more Spanish than English from primary caregivers; there were no significant primary caregiver input differences across time. Growth modeling revealed linear growth rates for Spanish and conceptual (Spanish, English combined) vocabulary and a curvilinear trajectory for English vocabulary. Furthermore, toddlers' Spanish and conceptual vocabularies were positively associated with their higher frequencies of token use, greater production of gesture, and greater comprehension skills, even after controlling for input. Moreover, Spanish and conceptual growth rates were positively associated with higher token use. In terms of English, toddlers' vocabulary at child age 18 months was positively associated with their comprehension skills. Toddlers' use of more gestures and tokens as well as gender (boys) influenced their English acceleration rates over time. Findings indicate that unique trajectories exist for each of a bilingual's languages and these trajectories are differentially influenced by child-level factors, including their speech output, not only exposure to language. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Os efeitos do Programa de Intervenção RELATo-BRAZIL em leitores iniciantes: resultados de um estudo piloto

ABSTRACT Purpose: to carry out a pilot study applying the Reading and Language Together - Brazil program (RELATo-Brazil), targeting the development of reading and oral language abilities, aiming to improve phonological awareness skills and vocabulary knowledge in the school context. Methods: 9 children of both genders, aged between 8 and 10, enrolled in the second year of elementary school at a private school in the city of Florianópolis, SC, Brazil, joined in the study. The program was applied within three phases: Phase 1 - pre-intervention, with reading and vocabulary assessment tests; Phase 2 - intervention with sessions of different types, A, B, C and Phase 3 - post-intervention, which consisted of the subjects' reassessment, using the same tests applied in Phase 1. The data were stored in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and exported for statistical analysis in the IBM SPSS software, the 25th version. The significance level considered was p ≤ 0.05. Results: following 21 intervention sessions, a better performance among the participants was observed when comparing the results of the pre-intervention and post-intervention phases. There is a statistically considerable difference in the percentage distributions of the conceptual vocabulary fields for Furniture and utensils (p=0.028), Places (p=0.009) and Shapes and colors (p=0.047). The reading rate did not show a statistical difference, but the children performed better in reading time and accuracy after the intervention. Conclusion: the data suggest that training in phoneme awareness and oral language and linking them in the context of authentic book reading are effective strategies for improving both reading and oral language skills.

New words and meanings arising from literature in modern Chinese: A case study of English loanwords in Lu Xun's novel Call to Arms

In the period of the May Fourth New Culture Movement, under the background of the Europeanization of Chinese with Western learning in the East, a large number of loanwords were absorbed into Chinese in this period due to the extensive language contact. The use of loanwords in Lu Xun's representative vernacular novel Call to Arms embodies Lu Xun's vocabulary concept of constructing modern vernacular. This paper focuses on the study of English loanwords in Call to Arms, and classifies them into four categories: pure transliteration, transliteration and free translation, letter words and Japanese borrowing form words. These words mainly involve the fields of science, technology, politics, humanities and society, at the same time, new affixes and word formation have appeared in modern Chinese. After being introduced and transformed into the Chinese language, they have been continuously integrated into the specific meanings in the Chinese cultural background during the development process, and gradually localized, forming a unique Chinese vocabulary form.

Southern turn, Northern implications: rethinking the meaning of colonial legacies for Comparative Constitutional Studies

Comparative constitutional studies has not digested globalization and the emergence of a multipolar world. To do so, I argue here, would require a far more serious engagement with Southern experiences of constitutionalism, including colonial legacies and a past that lingers on in legal doctrine, conceptual vocabulary, methodology and institutional structures. Such a Southern turn is not only about the South but equally about the North and the entanglement of North and South. In fact, colonial legacies are equally relevant but much less understood in the North. The Southern turn is hence a double turn: to the South and then to the North and the world. This article sketches how to rethink methodologies and approaches to comparative constitutional scholarship and discusses the notion of the Global South in that context. In doing so, it demonstrates how a Southern turn would both provide new insights into constitutionalism in the South as much as in the North and open up new avenues to rethink constitutional theory. Such rethinking enters tricky terrain as colonial legacies play out differently in different places and epistemic communities. This article is a call for a common conversation nonetheless. It is an intellectual provocation and invitation to develop an approach to comparative constitutional scholarship and ‘world comparative law’ that does not bow to any one centre and instead engages with the distinctive but entangled constitutional regimes all over the world.

What toleration is not

ABSTRACT Following Andrew Jason Cohen, Lucia Rafanelli construes toleration to consist in not merely limiting one’s interference with others’ behaviour, but doing so because of a principled commitment to respecting others’ independent choices. I argue that this conflates toleration with distinctly liberal ideals such as freedom of conscience or autonomy. This conflation not only impoverishes our conceptual vocabulary by using ‘toleration’ to label concepts or phenomena for which there are already perfectly good words, it also renders non-liberal conceptions or theories of toleration nonsensical by definitional fiat. This in turn risks making the historical emergence of theories and practices of toleration on purely prudential grounds – namely, reasons of state – unintelligible. Even though this does not, I think, compromise Rafanelli’s substantive normative conclusions about interference, it does raise important questions about the proper relation between contemporary political theory and the history of political thought.

An Analysis Students’ Problems in Writing Recount Text at The Eighth Grade Students of SMPN 1 Pangkalan Koto Baru

This research is motivated by the low ability of students in writing recount texts at SMAN 2 Kuok. This study aims to determine students' problems in writing recount text in class XI students at SMAN 2 Kuok. This study uses a qualitative research design. Class X SMPN 1 Pangkalan Koto Baru consists of 21 students. The sampling technique used was purposive sampling. The instrument used in this research is a questionnaire. Data were analyzed by describing students' problems in writing recount text based on the results of the questionnaire. the researcher found that students had 4 problems in writing recount text, namely vocabulary, organization, mechanics and grammar. Based on the results of the analysis of the questionnaire, 81% of students had difficulty using grammar while 56.2% of students had difficulty understanding concept of vocabulary. Keywords: Writing Problem, Recount Text, Junior High School

Mining the past: The case for historical narratives in global justice theorizing

Debates on global justice, it is claimed, can be enriched in important ways by more explicitly historicizing our approach and using historical narratives, stories and debates to expand our conceptual vocabulary and theoretical purview. The claim is illustrated through a specific analysis of Paul Robeson’s relationship with the Welsh Miners. It is argued such a historical turn, grounded in a wider interdisciplinary engagement with subjects such as cultural studies may see at least three key benefits accrue in terms of our understanding of the field. Firstly, it can uncover philosophical and theoretical ideas and alternatives so far unconsidered; secondly, it can generate a shift in the empirical frame that accounts for and seeks to identify means for “real world” political change; lastly, it should encourage us to question the in/out dichotomy at the heart of the western debate, which projects global injustice as being “out there.”

Interpretability Is in the Mind of the Beholder: A Causal Framework for Human-Interpretable Representation Learning.

Research on Explainable Artificial Intelligence has recently started exploring the idea of producing explanations that, rather than being expressed in terms of low-level features, are encoded in terms of interpretable concepts learned from data. How to reliably acquire such concepts is, however, still fundamentally unclear. An agreed-upon notion of concept interpretability is missing, with the result that concepts used by both post hoc explainers and concept-based neural networks are acquired through a variety of mutually incompatible strategies. Critically, most of these neglect the human side of the problem: a representation is understandable only insofar as it can be understood by the human at the receiving end. The key challenge in human-interpretable representation learning (hrl) is how to model and operationalize this human element. In this work, we propose a mathematical framework for acquiring interpretable representations suitable for both post hoc explainers and concept-based neural networks. Our formalization of hrl builds on recent advances in causal representation learning and explicitly models a human stakeholder as an external observer. This allows us derive a principled notion of alignment between the machine's representation and the vocabulary of concepts understood by the human. In doing so, we link alignment and interpretability through a simple and intuitive name transfer game, and clarify the relationship between alignment and a well-known property of representations, namely disentanglement. We also show that alignment is linked to the issue of undesirable correlations among concepts, also known as concept leakage, and to content-style separation, all through a general information-theoretic reformulation of these properties. Our conceptualization aims to bridge the gap between the human and algorithmic sides of interpretability and establish a stepping stone for new research on human-interpretable representations.