Equivocal Language Research Articles

Global concerns related to water biology and security: The need for language and policies that safeguard living resources versus those that dilute scientific knowledge

Increasingly, scientists and non-scientists, especially employees of government agencies, tend to use weak or equivocal language when making statements related to science policy and governmental regulation. We use recent publications to provide examples of vague language versus examples of strong language when authors write about regulating anthropogenic pressures on natural resources. Lifeless language is common in agency reports, policy documents, and even scientific papers published by academics. Such language limits success in regulating anthropogenic pressures on natural resources. This challenge must be recognized and countered as a driver of the condition of water and associated resources. We also list sources of vague wording, provide global examples of how ambiguous language and political influences have contributed to water resource degradation, discuss the recent history of science censorship, and offer possible solutions for more direct scientific discourse. We found that: (1) equivocal language was especially common in concluding statements and not only by government employees; (2) authors discussed confusing language concerns in an agency publication; and (3) agency employees sometimes used active, strong language. Key drivers of weak language include: (1) holding on to old paradigms and resisting new knowledge; (2) scientific uncertainty; (3) institutional manuscript review policies; (4) employment and funding insecurity; and (5) avoiding the appearance of advocacy. Examples associated with euphemistic language included climate change, flow and physical habitat alteration, dams, agriculture, mining, forestry, and fisheries, as well as resistance towards monitoring, assessing, and reporting ecological conditions. Suggestions for mitigating equivocal language involve employment protections and greater focus on scientific ethics. We conclude that natural resource scientists should resist calls to employ imprecise language. Instead, they should be strong advocates for prescriptive and protective natural resource actions—based on their science—to halt and reverse the systemic degradation of those resources.

Distinguishing academic science writing from humans or ChatGPT with over 99% accuracy using off-the-shelf machine learning tools

ChatGPT has enabled access to artificial intelligence (AI)-generated writing for the masses, initiating a culture shift in the way people work, learn, and write. The need to discriminate human writing from AI is now both critical and urgent. Addressing this need, we report a method for discriminating text generated by ChatGPT from (human) academic scientists, relying on prevalent and accessible supervised classification methods. The approach uses new features for discriminating (these) humans from AI; as examples, scientists write long paragraphs and have a penchant for equivocal language, frequently using words like "but," "however," and "although." With a set of 20 features, we built a model that assigns the author, as human or AI, at over 99% accuracy. This strategy could be further adapted and developed by others with basic skills in supervised classification, enabling access to many highly accurate and targeted models for detecting AI usage in academic writing and beyond.

Non-Private Health Insurance Plans and Delayed Access to a Specialty Pediatric Concussion Clinic

Background:Delayed access to specialty concussion clinic results in a 5.5 times greater risk of protracted recovery and higher costs to the healthcare system. Previous research highlighting health equity disparities has shown that being female, of minoritized status, or having non-private health insurance doubles the risk of delayed access to specialty concussion clinic.Purpose:The purpose of this project was to better characterize those with non-private insurance receiving care at a specialty concussion clinic and examine factors potentially contributing to delayed access to specialty care.Methods:Medical records of 231 patients with non-private insurance were reviewed. Patients were divided into two categories (Equivocal, Unequivocal) based on handbook language requiring PCP referral. Equivocal were insurance plans with ambiguous language requiring PCP referral. Unequivocal were insurance plans with a specific statement requiring a referral. Access to clinic was defined as early (0-7 days) or delayed (8-20 days). Descriptive stats were run to determine the number of males/females, providers previously seen, and if previously seen in the Emergency Room (ER). A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run along with Tukey post hoc to determine if there were any significant differences between number of previous providers seen and previous ER visit in the average number of days to specialty care.Results:Most patients, 97% (n=224) were in the equivocal category. The equivocal category was mostly male (n=145, 64.7%) and of minoritized status (n=177, 79%) with over 35% (n=80) being delayed to clinic (M=6.8 days, SD=4.7). The majority of those in the equivocal category (n=157, 67.9%) saw at least one previous provider, 53% being evaluated first in an ER (n=119). Those with a previous provider visit took longer to seek specialty care (F(2,230) = 3.54, p = 0.03). Those seeing two previous providers (M=9.4 days) on average took more days to get to initial specialty care compared to seeing one previous provider (M=6.8 days) or going straight to clinic (M=6.2 days).Conclusion:Patients with a non-private health insurance plan experience delayed access to specialty concussion care. Those with equivocal insurance plan language were delayed to clinic, seen by multiple providers, and first evaluated in the Emergency Room. Non-private insurance is often financially subsidized, yet the equivocal language in these policies could be a detriment contributing to overall increases in health care costs and quality of care for those who have sustained a concussion.

The EVALI outbreak makes a strong case for better regulation of all vaporizer products.

We agree with our commentators that the EVALI outbreak in the United States demonstrates the need for the better characterization and more effective regulation of all vaping products We thank our colleagues for their thoughtful commentaries on our article [1]. Pacula [2] thought that we were unfair in accusing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of confirmation bias in its public advice about the causes of the outbreak they describe with the initialism EVALI (e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury). She argues that the CDC was appropriately cautious in attributing the primary cause to vitamin E acetate from illicit tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products on the basis of ‘a 2% convenience sample of identified vaping-associated lung injury cases’ when both nicotine and cannabis e-liquids were readily available and there was a lack of information on their ingredients [2]. We agree that it was reasonable for CDC to suspect that e-cigarettes were a possible cause of the outbreak, given the high rates of nicotine and cannabis vaping reported by cases. We also agree that caution was required in making causal inferences from the early case control studies, but we nonetheless argue that the CDC exhibited confirmation bias in two main ways. First, it was much slower than the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to attribute the EVALI outbreak to cannabis vaping when both agencies had access to the same data. The FDA did so on 6 September 2019; CDC did not do so until the end of October 2019, and after that date it continued to advise consumers against nicotine vaping. Secondly, even when CDC finally concluded in early 2020 that the vaping of contaminated cannabis oils was the primary cause of the outbreak, it retained the potentially misleading ‘EVALI’ label instead of substituting a more accurate expression such as ‘cannabis oil vaping related lung injury’. CDC also continued to describe injuries as ‘e-cigarette-related’ when this term is typically used to describe vaping products that contain nicotine. Australian public health authorities have used CDC's equivocal language to justify sales bans on electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) [3]. We strongly agree with Pacula [2] and St Helen [4] that the EVALI outbreak demonstrates the need for the tighter regulation of all vaping products, i.e. those that contain nicotine and cannabis. While the products implicated in the outbreak were illicit, better regulation of the licit cannabis and nicotine markets would have provided greater confidence at an earlier stage that these products were unlikely to be the cause. We also agree with St Helen's analysis concluding that a ban on the sale of open (refillable) e-cigarettes would be a blunt and counterproductive regulatory response to the EVALI outbreak [4]. We also agree with Cox & Notley [5] that e-cigarettes are not well-understood or -described products. We accordingly support their proposal to develop an e-cigarette ontology that will facilitate ‘scientific consensus on a coherent and systematic way of defining relevant entities’ and ‘indexing of research methods and findings in the field’. An effective and widely accepted e-cigarette ontology may reduce both media misreporting and the regulatory over-reactions to these products that was evident during the EVALI outbreak. None.

According To Sadraddin Qunawi The Possibility Of Talking About God

Teist âdeta çapraz ateş altındadır: Eğer kelimeler, dinî bağlamda insanî tecrübede kazandıkları anlamlarıyla kullanılacak olursa, o zaman, sonsuz olan Tanrı`ya uygulanamaz; yok, dil insanî köklerinden arındırılırsa, insanlar için anlamsız olur ve insanî dil olmaz ve bu seferde Tanrı`dan söz edemez. Daha teknik bir ifadeyle, teistler tek anlamlı ya da çok anlamlı dilden birini seçmek zorunda kalmış görünmektedir. Tek anlamlı dilde, bütünüyle insani tecrübeye bağlı olan söylemin konusu, Tanrı olamaz; çok anlamlı dilde ise, ifadelerin semantik içerikleri buharlaşır. Dilin çok anlamlı olarak kullanılması, Tanrı`yı tasvir etmek için kullanılan kelimeleri antropomorfik niteliklerinden arındırır, ancak bu da agnostisizme neden olur. Ne teşbihî ne de tenzihî dil Gaybî konularda tek başına yeterlidir. Sözgelimi, Allah`ın Zâtı sözkonusu olduğunda, ya O`nu mevcûdât seviyesine indirme (teşbihî anlatım), ya da tavsif ederken âdeta ‘yok’u tanımlıyormuş gibi (tenzihî anlatım) istenmeyen bir duruma sebep olabilir. Dolayısıyla, bu durumda teistler Tanrı hakkındaki ifadelerin anlamını bilemezler. Şunu dahi söylemek mümkün olmaz: Tanrı`ya yüklenen “varoluş” kavramının, insanların günlük kullanımıyla bir ilişkisi var mıdır yok mudur? Tanrı hakkında mantık açısından açık olmayan terimlerle konuşmayı tercih etmek, O`nun iyiliğinden, sevgisinden, hikmetinden söz edildiği zaman, kelimelerle oynamaktan başka bir şey olmaz. Kısaca, eğer din dili ya da teolojik dil büsbütün tek anlamlı olarak kurulursa, antroposentirizme kayar; çok anlamlı olarak kullanılırsa, anlam içeriğini yitirir ve agnostisizme düşme tehlikesiyle karşılaşır. Böyle olunca, din dili Tanrı hakkında bir şey söylemez. Konevî bu iki aşırı ucu -teşbihî dil ve tenzihî dil- birleştirmektedir. Bu da ifadelerin tek anlamlılık ile çok anlamlılık arasında bir yerde duran temsilî kullanımıdır.

The paradox of human milk doping for anti-doping

Human milk is employed as a reference substance to assess the equivocal language defining the three tests (enhancement, health and violation of the Spirit of Sport) for prohibiting substances and methods under the World Anti-Doping Code (the Code). Human milk is demonstrated to be consumed by athletes with intent to enhance performance, presents a non-trivial risk to health, and violates the Spirit of Sport. The implications of prohibiting human milk under the Code demonstrate the increasing complexity and unintended (sometimes absurd) outcomes that arise from the implementation of the anti-doping ideology. The discussion focuses on two outcomes of the analysis. Firstly, the trade-off between administrative convenience and a workable drug control system for sport is considered (e.g. transparency versus decision latitude). Secondly, the discussion raises questions about the extent to which anti-doping policy makers consider third party harms with trading athletes and sporting interests relative to others individuals (e.g. babies) and society more broadly. The plausible prohibition of human milk under the Code indicates that a much closer examination of how best to manage performance enhancing technology in sport is needed, especially with regards to the influence of anti-doping beyond sport.

Compliance with reporting guidelines by Australian pathologists: an audit of the quality of histopathology reporting in high-grade glioma.

Diagnostic pathology reports inform management plans for patients with glioma, and there is an increasing clinical need for molecular testing. We assessed the quality of histopathology reports of grade III/IV gliomas. Reports were obtained as part of a tumor biobank. From 720 pathology reports, 594 eligible reports were assessed for 28 elements derived from published checklists. A summary quality score incorporated 9 critical parameters for clinical decision making: diagnosis using World Health Organization 2007 criteria; cell type; grade; narrative supporting cell type and grade; absence of equivocal language; conclusion reporting cell type and grade; and conclusion aligned with report narrative. Of 594 eligible reports, the final conclusion was not supported by the report narrative in 122 (21%). Tumor classification and grade were not supported by the narrative in 105 (18%) and 36 (6%) reports, respectively. Only 145 (24%) reports fulfilled all 9 quality criteria, while 25% contained 6 or fewer key quality indices. Report quality was higher when pathologists had neuropathology subspecialization, when a grade IV tumor was reported, and when the specimen was from an initial resection or grade-progressed tumor rather than recurrent high-grade glioma. Use of molecular testing increased over time, from 29% to 48% over four quartiles of the study. Molecular testing was more frequently done where oligodendroglial elements were reported. A significant proportion of reports failed to meet key indicators of report quality. Pathology reporting is critical in communicating between pathologists and treating clinicians. Clinicians should be aware of reporting quality and seek clarification when required.

The Original Meaning of 'God': Using the Language of the Framing Generation to Create a Coherent Establishment Clause Jurisprudence

The Supreme Court’s attempt to create a standard for evaluating whether the Establishment Clause is violated by religious governmental speech, such as the public display of the Ten Commandments or the Pledge of Allegiance, is a total failure. The Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence has been termed “convoluted,” “a muddled mess,” and “a polite lie.” Unwilling to either allow all governmental religious speech or ban it entirely, the Court is in need of a coherent standard for distinguishing the permissible from the unconstitutional. Thus far, no Justice has offered such a standard.A careful reading of the history of the framing period reveals that those responsible for the initial implementation of the First Amendment were able to create a compromise that permitted the use of governmental religious speech in a way that was inclusive of all citizens, regardless of faith. Committed to creating an “American” vision of religious freedom, one that was distinct from the restrictive practices of the individual states, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison created a new template for public religious vocabulary. Through the use of non-sectarian, theologically equivocal language, they found a way to talk simultaneously to the most orthodox segment of the population and atheists, deists, and other members of religious minorities.My Article proposes building on the lessons of the framing period to create a workable Establishment Clause jurisprudence. If we accept that non-sectarian phrases such as “endowed by their Creator” need not divide our nation, we can modify the traditional “endorsement test.” A workable test reflecting the Framers’ wisdom would only judge governmental speech as unconstitutional if it endorsed religion in such a way “that it sends a message to non-adherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.” Simple non-sectarian utterances, such as the Supreme Court’s invocation “God save the United States and this honorable court,” would be permitted, while the courthouse display of the Ten Commandments would be prohibited, and judges and lawyers would finally be able to rely on a usable, understandable Establishment Clause jurisprudence.

High-Stakes Lies: Verbal and Nonverbal Cues to Deception in Public Appeals for Help with Missing or Murdered Relatives

Low ecological validity is a common limitation in deception studies. The present study investigated the real-life, high-stakes context of public appeals for help with missing or murdered relatives. Behaviours that discriminated between honest and deceptive appeals included some previously identified in research on high-stakes lies (deceptive appeals contained more equivocal language, gaze aversion, head shaking and speech errors), and a number of previously unidentified behaviours (honest appeals contained more references to norms of emotion/behaviour, more verbal expressions of hope of finding the missing relative alive, more verbal expressions of positive emotion towards the relative, more verbal expressions of concern/pain and an avoidance of brutal language). Case-by-case analyses yielded 78% correct classifications. Implications are discussed with reference to the importance of using ecologically valid data in deception studies, the context specific nature of some deceptive behaviours, and social interactionist, and individual behavioural profile, accounts of cues to deception.

Erotic Jest and Gesture in Roman Anthologies of Neapolitan Dialect Songs

This study calls attention to the vital role that the villanesca played in the erotic comic culture of the Cinquecento. Neapolitan songwriters, influenced by the equivocal language of burlesque poets, appropriated their copious lexicon of sexual euphemisms to raise laughter through erotic jesting. Given the considerable amount of semiotic and linguistic research devoted to literary erotica in the past decades, the villanesca can now be fully served by new interpretative approaches and theories of reception that address the production of multiple meanings. Erotic humour worked effectively in Roman villanesche because the prime targets of jests are figures who occupied prominent places in Rome’s cultural identity—courtesans, clerics, and noblemen in the service of the Church. Readings of villanesche, selected from three extant Roman anthologies, demonstrate the ways in which songwriters eroticized licit and illicit sexual encounters, thereby motivating singers to clarify equivocal terms with performative gestures or vocal nuances.

A Cree Woman Reads Jung

This article begins with Jung’s description of two predicaments which confront the contemporary psychiatrist: ‘the mystery of the patient’s difference’ and the danger of ‘committing psychic murder in the name of therapy.’ The article then presents the example of one suffering individual from within a non-Western culture who used Jung, as well as her Native culture’s traditional knowledge, to find healing. This Cree woman, Yvonne Johnson, created what Jung would call temenos in order to facilitate change and called upon images of theriomorphic guides to manoeuvre within the confines of her suffering. The article concludes by considering how the equivocal language of Jung’s analytical psychology may function as an effective bridge between transculturally oriented psychiatrists and their patients, and particularly between Western medical practice and the healing practices of other cultures for whom the word ‘medicine’ carries a religious connotation.

A Cree Woman Reads Jung

This article begins with Jung's description of two predicaments which confront the contemporary psychiatrist: 'the mystery of the patient's difference' and the danger of 'committing psychic murder in the name of therapy.' The article then presents the example of one suffering individual from within a non-Western culture who used Jung, as well as her Native culture's traditional knowledge, to find healing. This Cree woman, Yvonne Johnson, created what Jung would call temenos in order to facilitate change and called upon images of theriomorphic guides to manoeuvre within the confines of her suffering. The article concludes by considering how the equivocal language of Jung's analytical psychology may function as an effective bridge between transculturally oriented psychiatrists and their patients, and particularly between Western medical practice and the healing practices of other cultures for whom the word 'medicine' carries a religious connotation.

Standard-Setting Organizations: Patents, Price Fixing, and Per Se Legality

Standard-setting organizations (SSOs), private groups that collaboratively select and adopt uniform technical standards for goods and services, are a critical element of modern economy. Competitors within an industry often seek to make competing products interoperable by establishing industry-wide technical standards. To accomplish this end, competing companies join SSOs and work together to select particular technologies as industry standards. This process of product standardization benefits both producers and consumers: It promotes price competition among firms, creates demand-side economies of scale, and encourages product innovation by reducing risks of future research and development efforts. Accordingly, antitrust enforcement agencies have recognized the important role of standard-setting in technological innovation that will drive much of this nation's competitive vigor in 21st Century.1 However, attempts by SSOs to avoid antitrust liability for price fixing now endanger viability of standard-setting process. When SSOs select patented technologies as industry standards, SSO patent policies typically require patent owners to offer fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory2 licenses to SSO members. These licensing obligations are left intentionally vague to avert price-fixing liability. While this equivocal language has successfully insulated SSOs from antitrust liability, patent owners and SSO members repeatedly have been forced into high-risk litigation over definition of fair,reasonable, nondiscriminatory license terms. This litigation has exposed both SSO members and patent owners to potential liability for patent infringement and antitrust violations, and has consequently created strong disincentives to take part in SSO process. In turn, these disincentives now threaten important social and economic benefits of standardization.

Message Variables That Mediate and Moderate the Effect of Equivocal Language on Source Credibility

Equivocation is advisable as a persuasive strategy only under limited conditions. Information-processing theory was used to model the effect of precise language on receiver evaluations of message and source. Path analyses found that the effects of language intensity (specificity and opinionatedness) on ratings of source competence and trust-worthiness were mediated by language perceptions and message evaluation variables such as assessed argument quality. The effect of language intensity on trustworthiness was mediated by attributions of either source bias or intolerance of discrepant opinions. Meta-analyses found that message discrepancy and personalization of the issue made the effects of intense language on competence more negative, whereas better quality arguments made the effect of intensity on competence and trustworthiness more positive.

‘CHE K.ZO VUOL DIRE?’ A RE-READING OF MID-SIXTEENTH-CENTURY LINGUISTIC DEBATES IN THE ACCADEMIA FIORENTINA

From the moment it was formally established, the Accademia Fiorentina proved to be an animated forum for the often heated discussions of contemporary issues in Cinquecento Florence. One of the chief topics of contention in the academy's linguistic debates was concerned with the orthographic reform of the Tuscan language. Many scholars asserted that certain letters of the alphabet were redundant, since they were considered to be unsuitable and inaccurate in reproducing the exact pronunciation of a syllable or word. The letter ‘K’ (or ‘Ca’, as it was pronounced) was singled out for particular criticism. Several literary figures, notably Antonfrancesco Grazzini, Agnolo Firenzuola, and Michelangelo Vivaldi, seem to have taken a considerable interest in this issue, and this article attempts to answer the question ‘why?’. In the light of the contemporary cultural and linguistic issues being debated within the Academy, ‘che voleva dire “K”?’. An important clue lies in the Biblioteca Nazionale manuscript of the Academy'S ‘Capitoli, Compositioni, et Leggi’. Throughout this particular manuscript an anonymous scribe has altered the names of some of the academicians cited in the text; for example, next to Giovambattista Gelli, the title ‘calzaiuolo’ has been changed to ‘cazaiuolo’. In a similar fashion, wherever the question of the letter ‘K’ is mentioned, there is an additional ‘-zo’ added in superscript next to it. The contention of this article is that the discussion of the letter ‘K’ was transformed by certain letterati connected with the Florentine Academy in the 1540S into a literary ludus through the adoption of an ambivalent erotic register. Double entendres and equivocal language served to equate the ‘K’ with cazzo, and it was brought to the fore as an ostensibly serious issue in order to mock the pretensions and presumption of the more pedantic linguistic treatises and orthographic reforms of the time.

How to read The Body in Pain.

How To Read The Body in Pain** David B. Morris He has seen but half the Universe who never has been shown the House of Pain. — Ralph Waldo Emerson1 A quiet revolution beginning about 1960 promises to transform centuries of medical thinking about pain. From the time of the Hippocratic writings, pain has held die clear and secure status of a symptom. In effect, Western medicine has attributed a distinctive legibility to pain, as if pain were a more or less readable inscription diat die skilled physician might interpret for its revelations about processes hidden deep within the flesh: a message composed, sent, and delivered by illness. The physician dius serves, among other offices, as a professional reader of pain, and pain — despite its reputation for noisy inarticulateness — holds the physician in the peculiar intimacy characteristic of reading. They share a common but equivocal language ranging from open, unmistakable declarations of fact to delicate hints and subtle ambiguities. The medical revolution now under way does not seek to overthrow the ancient status of pain as a symptom. Radier, it introduces a radical change in perspective, which acknowledges that pain is sometimes completely illegible. This more or less unreadable pain no longer resembles a message that passes in between the physician and the illness. The message is die illness. "We treat pain as a diagnosis, not a symptom," explains anesthesiologist Michael Kilbride, founder of die Muskegon (Michigan) General Hospital's Pain Management Center, opened four years ago.2 This typical transformation of pain from symptom to diagnosis or syndrome — from * Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985). All quotations are from this edition and are cited parenthetically in the text. Copyright β 1985 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. t This work was supported by a grant from the Division of Research Programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Literature and Medicine 6 (1987) 139-155 © 1987 by The Johns Hopkins University Press 140 READING THE BODY IN PAIN the sign of illness to illness itself — is the conceptual change underlying a major realignment in the contemporary practice of medicine that might be called the emergence of the pain clinic. By recent count, there are close to one thousand private and public pain treatment centers in the United States. The two separate programs first established in 1960 by Dr. John J. Bonica (Seattle) and by Dr. Benjamin L. Crue, Jr. (Pasadena) have fostered within medicine a new growth industry. Faced with this sudden proliferation , patients do not always recognize that at different pain clinics the philosophies, goals, and methods of treatment may differ greatly, even as Drs. Crue and Bonica disagree about fundamental issues in the understanding of pain.3 Medical opinion about the value of pain clinics is far from unanimous. Still, the institutional signs of change are unmistakable. Two weighty medical journals now share the one-word title Pain.* There are national organizations, international conferences, and an entirely new medical specialty (algology) all devoted to the study of pain. Pain (with its accompanying issues, physical and metaphysical) now threatens to obsess the modern world much in the way pleasure (in its relations to virtue, reason, and the good life) preoccupied the ancients. From a literary point of view, what appears most striking about recent developments in medicine is that pain has acquired an unprecedented textuality. Its complications and elusive silences, which defeat simplistic or reductive readings, give pain something of the texture we recognize in complex novels or poems, where the physician who seeks to treat Macbeth or Lear must unravel a knot that ties body to mind, medicine to politics, nature to culture. For some researchers and clinicians, pain is better understood not in its traditional role as a sensation but rather as a perception, implying that it cannot be fully grasped apart from the vagaries of human consciousness. Non-conscious pain seems a contradiction in terms, and even the most unambiguously organic injury (if it hurts long and hard enough) eventually provides a site for the mind to brood upon. The "gatecontrol " model of pain developed by Ronald...