Declarative Statements Research Articles

Logics of questions

Without Abstract Traditional logical theories are concerned with the characterization of valid reasoning. For such logical theories, the main object of investigation is the notion of entailment, a notion that is construed as a relation between two or more declarative statements, dictating when one of them can be legitimately inferred from the others.

STRUKTUR MELODIK BAHASA INDONESIA

The study describes the melodic structure of Indonesian language carried outin two experiments: (1) the productive experiment which is to measure acousticfeatures of declarative and interrogative statements and (2) the perceptive experiment,to measure the sensibility of the Indonesian speakers in listening speech. Thetwo experiments were conducted by using the approach of experimental and psychoacousticphonetics. The result showed that Lindbom’s (1990) hypo-hyper theoryexplaining the relation between speech production and perception in communication,cannot fully be accepted. The first experiment was significant in at least threeacoustic features: fundamental frequency (F0) of the final note peak, of final mark,and the position of final note peak (Pa) in contour; however, the three parametershave not necessarily to occur altogether to expect the interrogativeness perception.The two characteristics of F0: the height of F0 Pa and the final mark shouldoccur at the same time, whereas the features of final note peak (Pa) was not neededto expect the interrogativeness perception. In short, the interrogative perception ofspeech does not require more complete acoustic features when compared to theirproductive parameters.

Deductive Verification of Telecommunication Systems Written in C

A deductive approach to verification of telecommunication systems written in C is proposed. The approach is based on the extension of C by declarative statements and on reduction of verification of parallel communicating components of these systems to separate verification of components written in this extension. An example of verification of a data link protocol is considered.

Improving Integration Effectiveness of ID Mapping Based Biological Record Linkage

Traditionally, biological objects such as genes, proteins, and pathways are represented by a convenient identifier, or ID, which is then used to cross reference, link and describe objects in biological databases. Relationships among the objects are often established using non-trivial and computationally complex ID mapping systems or converters, and are stored in authoritative databases such as UniGene, GeneCards, PIR and BioMart. Despite best efforts, such mappings are largely incomplete and riddled with false negatives. Consequently, data integration using record linkage that relies on these mappings produces poor quality of data, inadvertently leading to erroneous conclusions. In this paper, we discuss this largely ignored dimension of data integration, examine how the ubiquitous use of identifiers in biological databases is a significant barrier to knowledge fusion using distributed computational pipelines, and propose two algorithms for ad hoc and restriction free ID mapping of arbitrary types using online resources. We also propose two declarative statements for ID conversion and data integration based on ID mapping on-the-fly.

Undergraduate Paramedic Students’ Perception of Mental Health Using a Pre and Post Questionnaire

Introduction It is well recognised that mental illness causes significant morbidity and mortality, and has been identified as a national health priority. Despite this, there is a paucity of research about paramedic student perceptions and attitudes toward those experiencing mental health presentations. The objective of this study was to explore the mental health perceptions of a final year cohort of paramedic students from a regional Victorian university. Methods Final year undergraduate paramedicine students enrolled in the core subject Advanced Mental Health Practice were invited to participate in both pre- and post-subject surveys and record their perceptions of mental health using electronic questionnaires. The questionnaires used nine 5-point Likert scale questions and three multiple option questions using declarative statements. Results Of the 25 eligible students, 16 completed the pre-subject questionnaire and 12 completed both the pre- and post-subject questionnaires. The results indicated that this cohort held common myths and misconceptions relating to mental health combined with a lack of general knowledge about mental illness and its paramedic management. These perceptions altered following the introduction of the mental health subject. Conclusion The results suggest that the implementation of a mental health subject into paramedicine undergraduate curriculum has the ability to positively alter perceptions of mental health. This may lead to students acquiring the knowledge and attitudes required to manage mental health presentations.

Practices used for recommending sickness certification by general practitioners: A conversation analytic study of UK primary care consultations

Existing research indicates that many patients and doctors find the process of negotiating sickness certification for time off work to be a difficult one. This study examined how patients and general practitioners (GPs) managed these negotiations in a sample of UK primary care consultations. The study made use of an existing dataset of audio-recorded consultations between 13 GPs and 506 unselected adult patients in five general practices in London. Forty-nine consultations included discussions for both initial and repeat sickness certification across a wide range of conditions. Here we report our findings on doctor practices for recommending, as opposed to patient practices for advocating for, sickness certification (n = 26 cases). All cases were transcribed in detail and analysed using conversation analytic methods. Four main communication practices were observed: (1) declarative statements of need for sickness certification; (2) ‘do you need’ offers for sickness certification; (3) ‘do you want’ offers for sickness certification; and (4) conditional ‘If X, Y’ offers for sickness certification. These different communication practices indexed doctor agency, doctor endorsement and patient entitlement to varying degrees. In the main, recommendations to patients presenting with biomedical problems or a repeat occurrence of a psychosocial problem displayed stronger doctor endorsement and patient entitlement. Contrastingly, recommendations to patients presenting with new psychosocial and biopsychosocial problems, displayed weaker endorsement and patient entitlement. This study offers new evidence to support the Parsonian argument that becoming sick involves entering a social role with special rights and obligations. Through documenting doctors' orientations to their gatekeeping role as well as patients' orientations to differential rights vis à vis legitimacy, we demonstrate the contrasting stances of doctors in situ when giving sick notes for biomedical problems as opposed to difficulties of a more psychosocial nature.

Comparison of Post-Relational and Object-Relational modelling for real-world database applications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the use of two Object-Relational models against the use of a post-Relational model for a realistic application. Although real-world applications, in most cases, can be adequately modeled by the Entity-Relationship (ER) model, the transformation to the popular Relational model alters the representation of structures common in reality, like multi-valued and composite fields. Alternative database models have been developed to overcome these shortcomings. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the ER model of a medical application, this paper compares the information representation, manipulation and enforcement of integrity constraints through PostgreSQL and Oracle, against the use of a post-Relational model composed of the Conceptual Universal Database Language (CUDL) and the Conceptual Universal Database Language Abstraction Level (CAL). Findings – The CAL/CUDL pair, although more periphrastic for data definition, is simpler for data insertions, does not require the use of procedural code for data updates, produces clearer output for retrieval of attributes, can accomplish retrieval of rows based on conditions that address composite data with declarative statements and supports data validation for relationships between composite data without the need for procedural code. Research limitations/implications – To verify, in practice, the conclusions of the paper, complete implementation of a CAL/CUDL system is needed. Practical implications – The use of the CAL/CUDL pair would advance the productivity of database application development. Originality/value – This paper highlights the properties of realistic database-applications modelling and management that are desirable by developers and shows that these properties are better satisfied by the CAL/CUDL pair.

Happiness, stress, a bit of vulgarity, and lots of discursive conversation: A pilot study examining nursing students' tweets about nursing education posted to Twitter

The use of social media platforms like Twitter within/for nursing education has become more common in recent years. Regardless, it is unclear how nursing students use technology like Twitter during the course of their nursing education. The aim of this paper was to explore how nursing students describe elements of their nursing education via the social media platform, Twitter. Tweets about nursing courses, classes, and clinical were collected in October 2011 and analyzed for themes. Overall, 498 tweets were collected over a collective six day period, and 189 tweets were codified into five thematic representations. Nursing students were found to discuss a variety of elements related to their nursing education, including events and situations they perceived to be positive or exciting. Stress and annoyance messaging was also noted as a salient theme expressed by nursing students when describing their education. Vulgarity and derogative messaging targeting elements of nursing education (including courses, students, and faculty) were found in a subset of tweets. The majority of the tweets collected in this study contained random discursive conversations regarding nursing education, including information seeking requests and declarative statements about temporal events. The findings of this study point to a need for educators to explore aspects surrounding eProfessionalism within nursing education. Similarly, this paper also highlights the growing requirement for nursing educators to learn more about how social media is being used by nursing students within/for their education, in order to better develop learning and networking opportunities for students. Without this, nursing education may miss a significant opportunity to help shape students' professional use of social media technology like Twitter.

Tonal Crowding Effects In Buenos Aires Spanish: An Experimental Study

Abstract This study provides insight into the consequences of tonal crowding in Buenos Aires Spanish, enriching our current knowledge of the phonetic phenomena in this variety of Spanish. The present work is an experimental study that elicits 270 broad focus declarative statements in varying degrees of tonal crowding from five native speakers of this dialect. To achieve this, the number of unstressed syllables between stressed syllables in content words was manipulated to observe how the scaling and alignment of L and H tones, rise times, and syllable durations in prenuclear pitch accents all respond in different phonetic conditions. The results indicate that temporal and scaling reorganization is a prerequisite for the realization of two pitch accents in tonal crowding situations in Buenos Aires Spanish, though in ways differing from other dialects of Spanish. The first pitch accent remains largely unaffected, while the second pitch accent appears to be deaccented entirely.

Question design in nurse-led and GP-led telephone triage for same-day appointment requests: a comparative investigation

ObjectiveTo compare doctors’ and nurses’ communication with patients in primary care telephone triage consultations.DesignQualitative comparative study of content and form of questions in 51 telephone triage encounters between practitioners (general...

Deductive verification of telecommunication systems written in C

A deductive approach to verification of telecommunication systems written in C is proposed. The approach is based on the extension of C by declarative statements and on reduction of verification of parallel communicating components of these systems to separate verification of components written in this extension. An example of verification of a data link protocol is considered.

A cross-language comparison of pitch patterns in declarative questions and statements

This preliminary study investigated the acoustic differences between declarative questions and statements in two non-tonal languages (Arabic and English) and two tonal languages (Mandarin and Taiwanese). All participants read 28 English phrases in two sentence types: declarative question and statement. The non-native English speakers also read the phrases translated in their native languages. Acoustic measures derived from these sentences included measures of fundamental frequency (F0) and intensity. Results from multiple analysis of variance revealed that declarative questions, compared to statements, had significantly higher F0 and intensity regardless of language and speaker's nativeness. In addition, the F0 of a statement was found to be a strong predictor for that of the corresponding question in both non-tonal and tonal languages.

KDOQI US Commentary on the 2012 KDIGO Clinical Practice Guideline for Management of Blood Pressure in CKD

In response to the 2012 KDIGO (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes) guideline for blood pressure management in patients with chronic kidney disease not on dialysis, the National Kidney Foundation organized a group of US experts in hypertension and transplant nephrology to review the recommendations and comment on their relevancy in the context of current US clinical practice and concerns. The overriding message was the dearth of clinical trial evidence to provide strong evidence-based recommendations. For patients with CKD with normal to mildly increased albuminuria, goal blood pressure has been relaxed to ≤140/90 mm Hg for both diabetic and nondiabetic patients. In contrast, KDIGO continues to recommend goal blood pressure ≤130/80 mm Hg for patients with chronic kidney disease with moderately or severely increased albuminuria and for all renal transplant recipients regardless of the presence of proteinuria, without supporting data. The expert panel thought the KDIGO recommendations were generally reasonable but lacking in sufficient evidence support and that additional studies are greatly needed.

2012 Emery A. Rovenstine Memorial Lecture

2012 Emery A. Rovenstine Memorial Lecture

Statement on Matching Language to the Type of Evidence Used in Describing Outcomes Data

There are many different types of studies that can be conducted to provide evidence for clinical and outcomes research, including but not limited to retrospective observational analyses, case-control studies, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Each of these analyses has strengths and limitations, but most importantly, they all result in different types of conclusions about an intervention. As illustrated in a series of examples provided in a separate review,1. inappropriate word choice to describe results can lead to scientific inaccuracy. Therefore, the editors of the HEART Group (representing the world's cardiovascular journals) recommend that all investigators and editors carefully select language to “match” the type of study conducted, without overstating findings or drawing erroneous conclusions about causality when they cannot be established. As an illustrative example, when reporting results from an observational study that shows fewer deaths in one arm than in another, one should use descriptive statements such as, “the intervention is associated with lower mortality,” rather than definitive statements such as, “the intervention reduces mortality.” Conversely, when reporting the results of a rigorously conducted RCT with complete follow-up, in which the only difference captured between the 2 groups was the intervention, it may be appropriate to use somewhat more declarative statements such as, “the intervention reduced risk.” Additional examples of language matched with corresponding study type are listed in the Table 1. In conclusion, all manuscripts should be written and edited not only for scientific accuracy but also for appropriateness of language used in describing the level of evidence provided by the study.

Recon

File system bugs that corrupt metadata on disk are insidious. Existing reliability methods, such as checksums, redundancy, or transactional updates, merely ensure that the corruption is reliably preserved. Typical workarounds, based on using backups or repairing the file system, are painfully slow. Worse, the recovery may result in further corruption. We present Recon, a system that protects file system metadata from buggy file system operations. Our approach leverages file systems that provide crash consistency using transactional updates. We define declarative statements called consistency invariants for a file system. These invariants must be satisfied by each transaction being committed to disk to preserve file system integrity. Recon checks these invariants at commit, thereby minimizing the damage caused by buggy file systems. The major challenges to this approach are specifying invariants and interpreting file system behavior correctly without relying on the file system code. Recon provides a framework for file-system specific metadata interpretation and invariant checking. We show the feasibility of interpreting metadata and writing consistency invariants for the Linux ext3 file system using this framework. Recon can detect random as well as targeted file-system corruption at runtime as effectively as the offline e2fsck file-system checker, with low overhead.

Mapping and assessing clinical handover training interventions

BackgroundThe literature reveals a patchwork of knowledge about the effectiveness of handover and transfer of care-training interventions, their influence on handover practices and on patient outcomes. We identified a range...

Ocean acidification and its impacts: an expert survey

The oceans moderate the rate and severity of climate change by absorbing massive amounts of anthropogenic CO2 but this results in large-scale changes in seawater chemistry, which are collectively referred to as anthropogenic ocean acidification. Despite its potentially widespread consequences, the problem of ocean acidification has been largely absent from most policy discussions of CO2 emissions, both because the science is relatively new and because the research community has yet to deliver a clear message to decision makers regarding its impacts. Here we report the results of the first expert survey in the field of ocean acidification. Fifty-three experts, who had previously participated in an IPCC workshop, were asked to assess 22 declarative statements about ocean acidification and its consequences. We find a relatively strong consensus on most issues related to past, present and future chemical aspects of ocean acidification: non-anthropogenic ocean acidification events have occurred in the geological past, anthropogenic CO2 emissions are the main (but not the only) mechanism generating the current ocean acidification event, and anthropogenic ocean acidification that has occurred due to historical fossil fuel emissions will be felt for centuries. Experts generally agreed that there will be impacts on biological and ecological processes and biogeochemical feedbacks but levels of agreement were lower, with more variability across responses. Levels of agreement were higher for statements regarding calcification, primary production and nitrogen fixation than for those about impacts on foodwebs. The levels of agreement for statements pertaining to socio-economic impacts, such as impacts on food security, and to more normative policy issues, were relatively low.

Understanding the codevelopment of modeling practice and ecological knowledge

AbstractDespite a recent focus on engaging students in epistemic practices, there is relatively little research on how learning environments can support the simultaneous, coordinated development of both practice and the knowledge that emerges from and supports scientific activity. This study reports on the co‐construction of modeling practice and ecological knowledge by following the development of one seminal disciplinary concept, plant reproduction, through third graders' yearlong investigation of a wild backyard area. Representational activity facilitated the visibility and utility of meanings for reproduction; these meanings, in turn, shaped students' subsequent modeling practice. Over time, shifts were evident in both the community's meanings for reproduction and their framing of meanings in relation to modeling activity. The analysis affirms the utility of attending to student knowledge as it is used in practice to navigate complexity and uncertainty, rather than as assimilation of declarative statements. It also provides images of productive relations between modeling and knowledge, with implications for how the two might bootstrap each other in extended classroom investigation. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 96: 1071–1105, 2012

Participatory Learning of Propositional Knowledge

Our objective here is to extend the participatory learning paradigm (PLP) to environments in which we are interested in learning information and knowledge expressed in terms of declarative statements. We first recall the basic idea of participatory learning, which stresses the important role of what is already believed in all aspects of the learning process. We then discuss the representation of declarative-type binary knowledge within Zadeh's framework of approximate reasoning. We look at the approximate reasoning inference mechanism and its capability for weighted propositions. We introduce ideas such as consistency, compatibility, and commitment that are needed for our objective. We then provide a version of the PLP that is appropriate for the task of learning declarative knowledge. Central to this is the new updation algorithm that is introduced. We finally look at the dynamic performance of this framework. A particularly notable feature is the unlearning and then learning that takes place when the external environment changes.