Different Degrees Of Preference Research Articles

Refusing Invitations: A Contrastive Pragmatic Study of Jordanian Arabic and Castilian Spanish

Objectives: The study aimed at examining the use of refusals by Jordanian Arabic and Castilian Spanish speakers when declining invitations from their friends, focusing on similarities and differences in terms of head strategies, adjuncts, order, and frequency. Methods: A discourse completion task (DCT) comprising various situations were designed to elicit refusals from the participants. Drawing on Beebe et al’s categorization (1990), the data were categorized into head acts (subdivided into direct and indirect strategies) and adjuncts to refusal. Results: Although the Jordanian and Spanish participants belong to two distant cultures (eastern and western), the findings revealed that they were more similar than different in their refusals. They both showed a stronger tendency for indirectness in refusing invitations, with the Jordanians being more indirect. Both groups commonly utilized the strategies of statement of regret, giving reason, and negative ability, with different degrees of preference and frequency. As for adjuncts, both groups were inclined to employ a high percentage of adjuncts either before or after head strategies of refusal. While the Jordanians preferred the adjuncts of gratitude and swearing, the Spanish participants preferred gratitude and positive opinion. Both groups showed predilection to combine the same typical components in their refusal responses but differ in the order in which these components appeared. The employment of indirect refusal strategies and adjuncts in the Jordanian and Spanish responses pragmatically served to mitigate potentially negative effects of refusal on the inviters. Conclusion: Further research on Jordanian and Spanish refusals in other situations is recommended.

Design of Internet of Vehicles Routing Protocol based on Prior Probability

With the continuous development of the interactive system and the wireless heterogeneous network, the intelligent transportation system plays a key role in the modern transportation, especially in the construction of the Internet of vehicles. The important position of routing protocol in building the vehicle communication network is self-evident. V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle) network also has irreplaceable advantages in eliminating traffic accidents and reducing the harm of traffic accidents. Therefore, it is very necessary to study the optimization of the routing protocol. However, in the previous vehicle since the organization network routing protocol research, mostly focus on the method of data fusion, for the improvement of the conflict in the routing protocol, and through machine learning Q algorithm to optimize the real-time transmission model, etc., ignore the different degree of preference for different information. With the help of this kind of information, the routing protocol can be optimized, and the complexity of the routing protocol can be further reduced. Improve the efficiency of Internet of Vehicles communication.

YEMENI UNDERGRADUATES’ TECHNOLOGY USE PREFERENCES IN COURSES

This descriptive study aims at assessing how much technology Yemeni undergraduates prefer to use in their academic courses. Technology amount refers to the amount of information and communication technology used in academic courses of Yemeni universities. Technology amount is ranked as follows: no technology, limited technology, moderate technology, extensive technology, or exclusive technology. Data have been collected through a survey questionnaire offered to a random sample of 620 undergraduates at Taiz University and Al-Saeed University. Five hundred seventy students responded to the questionnaire. 355 (62.28%) and 215 (37.72) respondents belong to each university, respectively. The researcher anarmajore data using SPSS. The analyzed data revealed that only 12.98 percent of surveyed respondents preferred to take courses that do not use any technology while the majority of them (87.2 percent) preferred to take courses that use technology. However, techminded students had different degrees of preference for technology use in their courses. Also, the study found that there was no statistically significant difference among undergraduates on the basis of their demographics except for age, study status, and major. For example, students from engineering and business management showed more interest in the use of technology in their studies compared to other majors. The study has been carried out on two major Yemeni universities. More Yemeni universities should be targeted by future research. The paper dealt only with undergraduate student preferences for technology amount to use in their academic courses. Other aspects like technology skills, benefits, applications, training, and so on can be addressed by future research.

Colour naming and use preferences in Spanish text typologies (1492−1700)

This article is intended to provide a quantitative analysis of colour names and their appearance in certain text typologies between 1492 and 1700. The terms for colour increased in Spain’s Golden Age because of the need to describe Spanish and American reality in detail. A review of the specialised literature has provided us with a lexicon of 499 terms of which 277 colour words are recorded in Golden Age documents according to various diachronic corpora. The method for collecting and analysing texts has provided a lexicon of 66 terms for colour with different degrees of preference for a specific type of document. In addition, 23 of these words have been found to indicate greater numerical specialisation by typology. These lexical units are mediaeval terms used especially in scientific prose and lyric, followed by historiography and society prose. These quantitative data represent the initial stage of research to which other issues must be added in the future such as the context in which these terms appear and the semantic changes that occur in each of the texts.

Automatic modeling of dynamic drug-hERG channel interactions using three voltage protocols and machine learning techniques: A simulation study

BackgroundAssessment of drug cardiac safety is critical in the development of new compounds and is commonly addressed by evaluating the half-maximal blocking concentration of the potassium human ether-à-go-go related gene (hERG) channels. However, recent works have evidenced that the modelling of drug-binding dynamics to hERG can help to improve early cardiac safety assessment. Our goal is to develop a methodology to automatically generate Markovian models of the drug-hERG channel interactions. MethodsThe training and the test sets consisted of 20800 and 5200 virtual drugs, respectively, distributed into 104 groups with different affinities and kinetics to the conformational states of the channel. In our system, drugs may bind to any state (individually or simultaneously), with different degrees of preference for a conformational state and the change of the conformational state of the drug bound channels may be restricted or allowed. To model such a wide range of possibilities, 12 Markovian chains are considered. Our approach uses the response of the drugs to our three previously developed voltage clamp protocols, which enhance the differences in the probabilities of occupying a certain conformational state of the channel (open, closed and inactivated). The computing tool is comprised of a classifier and a parameter optimizer and uses linear interpolation, support vector machines and a simplex method for function minimization. ResultsWe propose a novel methodology that automatically generates dynamic drug models using Markov model formulations and that elucidates the states where the drug binds and unbinds and the preferential binding state using data obtained from simple voltage clamp protocols that captures the preferential state-dependent binding properties, the relative affinities, trapping and non-trapping dynamics and the onset of IKr block. Overall, the tool correctly predicted the class of 92.04% of the drugs and the model provided by the tool accurately fitted the response of the target compound, the mean accuracy being 97.53%. Moreover, generation of the dynamic model of an IKr blocker from its response to our voltage clamp protocols usually takes less than an hour on a common desktop computer. ConclusionOur methodology could be very useful to model and simulate dynamic drug–hERG channel interactions. It would contribute to the improvement of the preclinical assessment of the proarrhythmic risk of drugs that inhibit IKr and the efficacy of antiarrhythmic IKr blockers.

Spanish and English Verbal Humour: A Comparative Study of Late-night Talk Show Monologues

Abstract The goal of this paper is to establish a cross-linguistic comparison between Peninsular Spanish and American English verbal humour as displayed in televised humorous monologues in late-night talk shows. While humour research is abundant across different languages, only a small number of studies investigating cross-cultural differences in verbal humour exist. An analysis of verbal humour in monologues from four current late-night TV talk shows in Spain and the United States revealed similar use of linguistic resources such as analogies, colloquialisms, cultural references to deliver humour but with different degrees of preference. Additionally, English monologues were mostly on political satire, while Spanish humour referenced a wider variety of topics including taboo-like themes and language such as sex, drugs, or religion. Spanish monologues were also more conversational and informal in their delivery.

Host-seeking behavior and fecundity of the female Aedes aegypti to human blood types.

Mosquitoes express different degrees of preference towards hosts depending on behavioral, ecological, and physiological factors. These preferences have implications for mosquito-borne disease risk. This study investigated the effect of human blood groups on the behavior and fecundity of the female Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) from March 2018 to August 2019. In laboratory tests, mosquitoes were fed artificial membrane feeders on A, AB, B, and O blood groups. The level of attraction to different blood groups was tested under controlled conditions with a wind tunnel bioassay. The responses of Ae. aegypti to the blood groups treatments in the five-choice tunnel chambers showed a significant preference (Kruskal-Wallis (2=85.772, df=4, P < 0.0001) for favor blood group B. Also, the response of Ae. aegypti to olfactory cues (filth) derived from a pool of volunteers cutting across the blood groups showed a similar preference for pattern towards the blood group B. The percentage rate of digestibility in Ae. aegypti was highest in those fed on blood group O, while individuals fed on the AB blood group had the lowest digestion rate. Thus, the rate of digestibility highly varied significantly (P < 0.0001) between blood groups. Overall, Ae. aegypti fed on blood group B had the highest average feeding rate, number of females with eggs, and fecundity level, which showed a significant difference (P < 0.0001) on preferred. This study provides novel insight into the ABO host choice of Ae. aegypti and reinforces the need for personal protection against dengue virus transmission in light of the increased risk of exposure for individuals with B blood type. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Intrinsically disordered RGG/RG domains mediate degenerate specificity in RNA binding.

RGG/RG domains are the second most common RNA binding domain in the human genome, yet their RNA-binding properties remain poorly understood. Here, we report a detailed analysis of the RNA binding characteristics of intrinsically disordered RGG/RG domains from Fused in Sarcoma (FUS), FMRP and hnRNPU. For FUS, previous studies defined RNA binding as mediated by its well-folded domains; however, we show that RGG/RG domains are the primary mediators of binding. RGG/RG domains coupled to adjacent folded domains can achieve affinities approaching that of full-length FUS. Analysis of RGG/RG domains from FUS, FMRP and hnRNPU against a spectrum of contrasting RNAs reveals that each display degenerate binding specificity, while still displaying different degrees of preference for RNA.

Physical Features of Visual Images Affect Macaque Monkey's Preference for These Images.

Animals exhibit different degrees of preference toward various visual stimuli. In addition, it has been shown that strongly preferred stimuli can often act as a reward. The aim of the present study was to determine what features determine the strength of the preference for visual stimuli in order to examine neural mechanisms of preference judgment. We used 50 color photographs obtained from the Flickr Material Database (FMD) as original stimuli. Four macaque monkeys performed a simple choice task, in which two stimuli selected randomly from among the 50 stimuli were simultaneously presented on a monitor and monkeys were required to choose either stimulus by eye movements. We considered that the monkeys preferred the chosen stimulus if it continued to look at the stimulus for an additional 6 s and calculated a choice ratio for each stimulus. Each monkey exhibited a different choice ratio for each of the original 50 stimuli. They tended to select clear, colorful and in-focus stimuli. Complexity and clarity were stronger determinants of preference than colorfulness. Images that included greater amounts of spatial frequency components were selected more frequently. These results indicate that particular physical features of the stimulus can affect the strength of a monkey’s preference and that the complexity, clarity and colorfulness of the stimulus are important determinants of this preference. Neurophysiological studies would be needed to examine whether these features of visual stimuli produce more activation in neurons that participate in this preference judgment.

What Language (s) Should a Chinese Child Speak: Mandarin or Dialect or Both

Children’s language acquisition is usually significantly influenced by their parents’ attitude towards a certain language. This paper attempts to investigate Chinese parents’ views regarding what language(s) their children should speak: Mandarin, dialect or both, as well as the reasons for their opinions. The research is mainly carried out through questionnaires targeted at Chinese parents of young children. It is shown that parents give different degrees of preference to Mandarin and Chinese dialect which are thus spoken at different frequencies. Mandarin, as the standard form of Chinese, is reckoned as much more useful and as a marker of being better educated, so it is vigorously advocated as the first language children are expected to acquire. It can largely account for why most children of the new generation are not able to speak any Chinese dialect. Even so, more than half of the parents investigated still consider speaking dialect to be essential due to its particular superiority in expressing friendliness and transmitting traditional culture. Based on the research findings, we tentatively conclude that most parents, faced with what language a child should acquire as the first language, generally attach more importance to the function of a certain language. However, both Mandarin and dialect need to be spoken for the sake of maintaining individual identity as well as cultural prosperity.

Attractiveness of Coffee and the Elements for Building a Attractive Coffee Shop

Consumers today are now enjoying more than simply drinking coffee or having snacks in coffee shops, but they also find that the cafe ambient is also quite important. The study aims to study the group “enjoying drinking coffee” with context research on attractive factors applying in-depth interview and Evolution Grid Method (EGM), and applies One-way ANOVA and Quantification Theory Type I to conduct attractive factors analysis on the preference difference and building of attractive coffee shops according to the different gender, occupation and different degrees of preference. The study reveals the following conclusion: 1) Female are more likely to “drink coffee while thinking” and also prefer “beautiful latte art patterns” and “coffee cups / plates with superior quality” than male. The study also discovers that members of society preference “coffee tasting bitter and savory” than students. In terms of the difference among the different degrees of preference, the respondents drinking 1-3 cups of coffee per week emphasize more on the “timing for coffee” and “environment and ambient for coffee” than respondents drinking 4-7 cups and 8 cups. The respondents drinking 8 cups or more per week emphasize to “patterns of latte art” than respondents drinking 1-3 cups. The respondents drinking 4-7 cups per week emphasize to the “coffee equipments” than respondents drinking 1-3 cups. 2) Adding milk or liquor to coffee for flavoring can create a perception of taste, elegance and grace, in order to search for the optimal proportion. To build a coffee shop that offers both warm and romantic perception, start with the design on the “spatial dimension” of coffee shops. On the other hand, the two elements on “cleanness of lavatory” and “artwork decoration” should be taken into consideration for building a cafe that offers warm, comfort, relaxation and revitalization.

Dynamic models of residential segregation: An analytical solution

We propose an analytical solution to a Schelling segregation model for a relatively broad range of utility functions. Using evolutionary game theory, we provide existence conditions for a potential function, which characterizes the global configuration of the city and is maximized in the stationary state. We use this potential function to analyze the outcome of the model for three utility functions corresponding to different degrees of preference for mixed neighborhoods: (i) we show that linear utility functions is the only case where the potential function is proportional to collective utility, the latter being therefore maximized in stationary configurations; (ii) Schelling's original utility function is shown to drive segregation at the expense of collective utility; (iii) if agents have a strict preference for mixed neighborhoods but also prefer to be in the majority versus the minority, the model converges to perfectly segregated configurations, which clearly diverge from the social optimum. Departing from the existing literature, these conclusions are based on analytical results which open the way to analysis of many preference structures. Since our model is based on bounded rather than continuous neighborhoods as in Schelling's original model, we discuss the differences generated by the bounded- and continuous-neighborhood definitions and show that, in the case of the continuous neighborhood, a potential function exists if and only if the utility functions are linear. A side result is that our analysis builds a bridge between Schelling's model and the Duncan and Duncan segregation index.

Scale-perception bias in the valuation of environmental risks

The valuation of environmental risks is commonly approached with the utilization of stated preference methods such as contingent valuation. In these methods, money is utilized as the scale that reflects the individual's underlying utility function. However, this scale can vary across individuals due to different perceptions on what are the right or appropriate bounds for Willingness To Pay (WTP). In this article, we test for scale-perception bias and propose a correction method based on the utilization of anchoring vignettes that define different degrees of preference for the nonmarket good. The proposed method is applied to study the commonly found anomaly ‘probability neglect’, which is defined by the insensitivity to the probability levels in the valuation of environmental risks. The results show that probability neglect disappears when WTP responses are corrected for self-perception bias through the utilization of the anchoring vignettes approach.

Dynamic Models of Residential Ségrégation: An Analytical Solution

We propose an analytical resolution of Schelling segregation model for a general class of utility functions. Using evolutionary game theory, we provide conditions under which a potential function, which characterizes the global configuration of the city and is maximized in the stationary state, exists. We use this potential function to analyze the outcome of the model for three utility functions corresponding to different degrees of preference for mixed neighborhoods. Schelling original utility function is shown to drive segregation at the expense of collective utility. If agents have a strict preference for mixed neighborhoods but still prefer being in the majority versus in the minority, the model converges to perfectly segregated configurations, which clearly diverge from the social optimum. Departing from earlier literature, these conclusions are based on analytical results. These results pave the way to the analysis of many structures of preferences, for instance those based on empirical findings concerning racial preferences. As a by-product, our analysis builds a bridge between Schelling model and the Duncan and Duncan segregation index.

Modeling rationality in a linguistic framework

In classical decision theory there exists a large class of rationality models which try to capture different kinds of behavior when individuals compare by pairs a set of alternatives. All these models assume that decision makers have dichotomous preferences. However, in real decisions individuals feel different degrees of preference. In this paper we have checked the mentioned models in a real case where different kinds of linguistic preferences are allowed. After the empirical analysis, the main conclusion is that the fulfillment of rational conditions decreases when individuals have non-extreme preferences. Based on the obtained empirical evidences, we propose some classes of transitivity conditions in the framework of linguistic preferences.

A Language Typology in Anaphoric Dependency: Evidence from Chinese, English, Japanese, Icelandic, and Korean

This paper reviews the Prominence Hierarchy in Kim (1998, 2000a, 2000b) that were proposed to compute a different degree of preference when there is more than one option for anaphor interpretations. Employing the parameterized definition of a potential anaphor in a given language, this paper extends its basic spirit to interpretations of anaphors in other languages such as English, Icelandic, Japanese and Chinese.

Crystal chemistry of the dravite-chromdravite series

Five Cr-dravite-chromdravite samples, representative of the high-chromium part of the compositional field observed in tourmalines occurring in rocks surrounding Lake Baikal, were selected and studied by electron microprobe analysis and structural refinement. All examined tourmalines belong to the Alkali group, Oxy-subgroup. Their most striking feature is the exceptionally high Cr content (from 3.2 to 4.41 apfu), which substitutes for Al. The main divalent cation is Mg. Site populations were determined by a minimization procedure which simultaneously takes into account both structural and chemical data. Empirical bond distances for Y Cr 3+ -O (1.978 A) and z Cr 3+ -O (1.970 A) were optimised within the minimization procedure. Results indicate that the crystals are characterized by a quite disordered cation distribution between Y and Z octahedral sites, the various cations showing different degrees of preference. Cr 3+ and Mg populate both sites but show opposite behaviour: Mg has a marked preference for the Z octahedron and Cr 3+ for Y. Al almost exclusively populates Z. Most structural features are related to variations in the Z octahedron, whereas the dimensions of other polyhedra remain almost constant. Z dimensions depend on site populations, and are in particular determined by the z Cr 3+ ⟷ Z Al substitution. In the dravite-chromdravite series, both current and literature data show that the unit cell parameter c is strongly and positively correlated with Z dimensions, while correlation with a is evident only within the Cr-dravite-chromdravite subseries. Y does not actively participate in structural variations and, in particular, no correlation was ever observed between Y dimensions and unit cell parameters. Most structural variations are thus due to Z , while the effects of Y are negligible. This behaviour stands out when examining the a vs. c plot, for the whole series: a strong correlation between the two unit cell parameters was observed in the Cr-dravite-chromdravite subseries, but none within the dravite-Cr-dravite subseries or schorl-dravite series.

Acceptability and preference in the interpretation of anaphors

The purpose of this paper is to consider how the preference in the interpretation of anaphors and their distribution properties can interact and be best explained. To reach the goal, this paper presents the prominence hierarchy for computing a different degree of preference when there is more than one option for anaphor interpretations. This paper also argues that the coreferential possibility between the Korean anaphor caki and its antecedent is determined by the prominence principle, which is stated in terms of the prominence hierarchy: caki must be coreferential with a more prominent antecedent only if there exists such an antecedent. Finally, this paper extends its proposal to anaphors in other languages such as English, Icelandic, Japanese, and Chinese

Creative Problem Solving Preferences: Their Identification and Implications

Creative problem solving has been one of the most widely used and researched creative process models. The purpose of this study was to explore individuals’ preferences for different aspects of this model. The main premise to this research is that the creative problem solving process involves a series of distinct mental operations (i.e, collecting information, defining problems, generating ideas, developing solutions, and taking action) and people will express different degrees of preference for these various operations within the model. This study describes the development of the Buffalo Creative Process Inventory, a measure designed to identify preferences in terms of the major operations within Creative Problem Solving. Factor analysis, and correlations with two established style measures, indicate much promise for this new measure.

Rat preference for food-related odors

Preferences for food-related odors and the effects of fasting on those preferences were investigated during rat bar pressing for brief odor presentation. A rat was housed in an equilateral octagonal cage and had free access to food and water, except during fasting. Among 8 food-related odor substances (black pepper, cheese, coffee, milk, nut, peppermint, plum and orange), black pepper, milk and coffee were most preferred, and cheese was least preferred, but even the bar pressing rate for cheese was above the operant level. This data indicates that all 8 odors were preferred by rats, although there were different degrees of preference in individual animals. Fasting substantially increased the rate of bar pressing for odors and changed the odor preferences. This result was probably due to increased search for food and water. Since bar pressing was reinforced by nothing other than odor presentation, the results reveal inherent odor preferences of rats.