Subjective Reading Research Articles

A scientific evaluation of the misuse case diagrams visual syntax

ContextMisuse case modeling is a well-known technique in the domain of capturing and specifying functional security requirements. Misuse case modeling provides a mechanism for security analysts to consider and account for security requirements in the early stages of a development process instead of relying on generic defensive mechanisms that are augmented to software systems towards the latter stages of development. ObjectiveMany research contributions in the area of misuse case modeling have been devoted to extending the notation to increase its coverage of additional security related semantics. However, there lacks research that evaluates the perception of misuse case models by its readers. A misread or misinterpreted misuse case model can have dire consequences downstream leading to the development of an insecure system. MethodThis paper presents an assessment of the design of the original misuse case modeling notation based on the Physics of Notations framework. A number of improvements to the notation were suggested. A survey and a controlled experiment were carried out to compare the cognitive effectiveness of the new notation in comparison to the original notation. ResultsThe survey had 55 participants for have mostly indicated that the new notation is more semantically transparent than the original notation. The results of the experiment show that subjects reading diagrams developed using the new notation performed their tasks an average 6min quicker, while in general the subjects performed their tasks in approximately 14.5min. The experimental tasks only required subjects reading diagrams and not creating them. ConclusionThe main finding of this paper is that the use of colors and icons has improved the readability of misuse case diagrams. Software engineering notations are usually black and white. It is expected that the readability of other software notations will improve if they utilize colors and icons.

Learning technical words through L1 and L2: Completeness and accuracy of word meanings

This paper investigates the quality of knowledge of technical words that high-school students learned from subject reading. In particular, it focuses on similarities and differences between students who learned new words through their L1 and their L2. In the study, 72 students were divided into two groups and asked to read and listen to two expository texts. One group received the texts in their L1 (Slovak) and the other group in their L2 (English). Afterwards the participants were tested on their knowledge of twelve technical words that appeared in the texts. The responses were examined in terms of the completeness of word meaning and the presence of errors. The results showed that compared to the L1-instructed students, the L2-instructed participants provided word meanings that were less complete and less precise. Word meanings from both groups contained errors involving omission of correct meaning components and inclusion of incorrect meaning components. L2-instructed participants made more errors of both kinds. The differences between the two groups are discussed with respect to vocabulary acquisition and subject learning.

Multidimensional aspects of parental involvement in Korean adolescents’ schooling: a mediating role of general and domain-specific self-efficacy

This study examined the relation of parental involvement with Korean adolescent academic achievement and self-efficacy, and the mediating role of academic self-efficacy in this relationship. We investigated the effects of parental involvement in both overall and domain-specific self-efficacy and academic achievement across three academic subjects (reading, English and mathematics). We conducted structural equation modelling analysis with the responses of 6,334 students from the Korean Education Longitudinal Survey. Our results were that first, academic self-efficacy partially mediated the relation between parental involvement and academic achievement. Specifically, domain-specific self-efficacy mediated the relations between parental involvement and academic achievement across three academic subjects (reading, English and mathematics), but these relations varied across subjects. Second, among multidimensions of parental involvement, parental participation and parental supervision had significant effects on adolescent academic achievement compared to parental expectation. This indicates that higher parental participation and parental supervision increased academic self-efficacy in Korean youth, which in turn, improved their academic achievement.

Radical Defectivity: Implications of Xhosa Expletive Constructions

In Xhosa VSO clauses, subject agreement exhibits default features, objects cannot be pronominalized, a subject focus reading is obligatory, and experiencer verbs with two DP arguments are precluded. We argue that impoverished versions of T and v* in VSO clauses lack the probe features involved in subject agreement, EPP, object shift, and nominative/accusative valuation within Xhosa SVO sentences. Only an unusual focus-linked strategy can Case-license full DPs in VSO clauses, but this is incompatible with inherent Cases borne by arguments of experiencer verbs. We show that CPs and augmentless NPs appear in positions where DPs cannot surface because uCase is a feature of D. Given the striking evidence for abstract Case in Xhosa, we propose Case-friendly analyses for Bantu Case-theoretic anomalies that Xhosa shares.

New Challenges for the Archiving of Digital Writing

In his article Challenges for the Archiving of Digital Writing Heiko Zimmermann discusses the challenges of the preservation of digital texts. In addition to the problems already at the focus of attention of digital archivists, there are elements in digital literature which need to be taken into consideration when trying to archive them. Zimmermann analyses two works of digital literature, the collaborative writing project A Million Penguins (2006-2007) and Renee Tuner's She... (2008) and shows how the ontology of these texts is bound to elements of performance, to direct social interaction of writers and readers to the uniquely subjective reading process, and to real-time access to data. Zimmermann posits that these features of the digital text pose further challenges for digital archiving and libraries. Heiko Zimmermann, Challenges for the Archiving of Digital Writing page 2 of 10 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 16.5 (2014): Special Issue New Work on Electronic Literature and Cyberculture. Ed. Maya Zalbidea, Mark C. Marino, and Asuncion Lopez-Varela

Phase-locked theta activity evoked in patients with severe motor and intellectual disabilities upon hearing own names.

Severe motor and intellectual disability (SMID) patients cannot express their feelings with language. Understanding what they are thinking about or how they feel is thus difficult. This study focused on brain responses to hearing their own names to clarify the situation in these patients. We performed and analyzed electroencephalography (EEG) for six patients with SMID and eleven healthy subjects. All subjects were presented with auditory stimuli including calling the subject's own name (SON) and reading words. EEG was analyzed by time-frequency analysis, event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) to detect EEG power changes caused by EEG amplitude, and inter-trial coherence (ITC) to investigate phase-locked changes. ERSP results from healthy subjects showed significant theta power increases as a specific response to SON. While we could not identify a similar pattern in the responses of patients with SMID, analysis of ITC revealed that theta phase-locked activity increased in response to SON not only in all healthy subjects, but also in four patients. These results indicate that theta phase-locked activity in some patients with SMID was strongly associated with SON, as in healthy subjects. Our study suggests the existence of specific neural markers that signal an attentional shift in patients upon hearing SON.

Yeats, Vendler, and Byzantium

Helen Vendler, in her magisterial Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form (2007), provides us with the tools with which to register the traditional formal elements of poetry, and she does so for the most part with her usual subtlety, clarity and thoroughness. However, as some of the first reviewers of the book note, her approach is not without its problems. The reviewers perceive, in general terms, an ‘enactment fallacy’ in some of her readings, where certain metrical patterns, say, are associated with specific responses. I believe that to force meaning onto form is symptomatic of a bigger problem in Vendler's readings (though it is one which appears less often), that of a ‘semantic fallacy’. In this case meaning derived from form is forced upon the content of a poem. My example in this essay is her very subjective reading of ‘Sailing to Byzantium’, which she conducts in the name of an objective analysis. The essay shows that it is unwise, certainly in the case of Yeats, not to take into account surrounding factors concerning form, such as manuscript and publication evidence, as well as tendencies in the author himself.

The Twice Borne Fiction: French Translations of Indian English Literature

Tracing the patterns of practices that emerge from the analysis of French translations of Indian English literary texts, this essay highlights the often overlooked fact that translation is a double-edged process; it is itself a reception as a subjective interpretive reading, and a tool that controls transmission of meaning and shapes the reception of a literary text in a particular linguistic community.In view of the history of colonial relations between France and India and the positions that these two countries occupy in the present-day global hierarchy, this essay will situate and analyze French translations of Indian English literature within the framework of reception studies and postcolonial translation studies.

English

Fluency is one of the five components of reading competency alongside with phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary and comprehension. It is related to reading comprehension and it can be used to predict the reading competency of a reader. However, research on such relationship is limited in ESL context. Hence, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between three sub-skills of fluency (accuracy, reading rate and prosody) and reading comprehension among a sample of ESL students in a Malaysian school. It also aims to examine the concurrent validity of using the objective (i.e. reading accuracy and rate) and subjective (reading prosody) measures of fluency. It is hoped that the findings could shed light in identifying the possible methods of assessing oral reading fluency in ESL classrooms. The participants were 67 lower secondary school students who learn English as their second language. The students completed a reading comprehension test and then they were asked to read aloud the texts used in the test, individually. The individual reading sessions were audio recorded for the analysis of three sub-skills of reading fluency. Bivariate correlation analysis was then conducted to measure the strength of relationships with reading comprehension. The results revealed that all three sub-skills of fluency were strongly correlated with reading comprehension. Both objective (accuracy and reading rate) and subjective (prosody) rating scales were strongly related, and thus could be used in parallel or interchangeably in the assessment of oral reading fluency. The findings provided evidence that in line with the research findings in English as the first language contexts, reading fluency is closely associated with reading comprehension in an ESL context. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/GEMA-2014-1403-02 Normal 0 false false false EN-US ZH-CN X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Table Normal; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

Examining Relations of Driver’s Self-Confidence Level with Automotive Instrument Cluster Reading Performance

The objective of this study is to understand which mechanism of instrument cluster reading performance is associated with drivers’ self-ratings on confidence level relating to general mental/physical abilities and daily life habits as well as age and gender. Sixty drivers, consisting of forty elderly drivers and twenty young drivers, participated in the study. Participants completed a self-assessments questionnaire, which asked about their level of self-confidence in various aspects of their life, as well as a controlled experiment using a driving simulator to collect actual reading performance including speed and accuracy as well as eye movement profile for the information reading. Individual data analysis on each of subjective ratings and reading performance confirmed senior drivers’ degraded specific aspects of self-confidence level and reading performance such as longer information acquisition and processing time. Consequently a structural equation model revealed how self-confidence level and reading performance are related by mediation of age.

Laboratory and clinical evaluation of on-site urine drug testing

Aim. Products for on-site urine drug testing offer the possibility to perform screening for drugs of abuse directly at the point-of-care. This is a well-established routine in emergency and dependency clinics but further evaluation of performance is needed due to inherent limitations with the available products. Methods. Urine drug testing by an on-site product was compared with routine laboratory methods. First, on-site testing was performed at the laboratory in addition to the routine method. Second, the on-site testing was performed at a dependency clinic and urine samples were subsequently sent to the laboratory for additional analytical investigation. Results. The on-site testing products did not perform with assigned cut-off levels. The subjective reading between the presence of a spot (i.e. negative test result) being present or no spot (positive result) was difficult in 3.2% of the cases, and occurred for all parameters. The tests performed more accurately in drug negative samples (specificity 96%) but less accurately for detecting positives (sensitivity 79%). Of all incorrect results by the on-site test the proportion of false negatives was 42%. The overall agreement between on-site and laboratory testing was 95% in the laboratory study and 98% in the clinical study. Conclusion. Although a high degree of agreement was observed between on-site and routine laboratory urine drug testing, the performance of on-site testing was not acceptable due to significant number of false negative results. The limited sensitivity of on-site testing compared to laboratory testing reduces the applicability of these tests.

RESPONDING AND ANALYSING: STAGES OF TEACHING FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR IN INDONESIAN CONTEXT

Abstract: This paper offers an alternative to the teaching of a functional grammar course in Indonesian TEFL tertiary level context. An issue raised here is whether the course should directly require students to undertake textual analysis or provide them first with subjective reading experiences. This issue is inspired by Jones and Lock¹s approach to teaching grammar in context (2011). This paper reports on a study that focused on two related phases of dealing with texts: responding and analyzing. In the first phase, students were encouraged to take a personalised approach in responding to written English texts. They had the freedom to decide whether the texts were meaningful for them in certain ways. Mckee (2003) and Lehtonen (2000) posit that as the sole decision maker in meaning negotiation, readers perceive the meaningfulness of texts in very diverse ways. In the second phase of the study, the students undertook an individual analysis of different text types. This study reveals that a successful textual analysis is determined by how students make sense of the texts. The analysis of context of situation, for example, becomes meaningful to students after they demonstrate a proper position as a reader. This, in turn, helps them in gaining insights into the structure and grammar of those texts. Keywords : systemic functional linguistics, genre-based approach, textual analysis

An Imperial Past in Ruins: Joseph Denfield's Photographs of East London, 1960–1965

This paper provides a reading of changing white subjectivity in the context of South Africa's transition to republican status in the early 1960s. It explores such a theme through a reading of photographs of architectural ruins in East London that were taken by Joseph Denfield from approximately 1960 to 1965. Such an analysis is done through the lens of existing literature on this historical moment in South Africa, which highlights rapid and at times violent changes taking place nationally. What remains key in the paper is South Africa's severance of ties with the British Commonwealth and its British imperial past, which rendered the state officially more ‘Afrikaans’ in character. I argue that Denfield's photographs of ruins registered such changes by bringing into greater visibility sites that spoke to the town's British past. Through his framing, choice of subject and totalising views of sites on camera, his photographs functioned as a form of photographic persuasion that directed the viewer towards a particular temporality. These not only constructed the city's past through the lens of British settlement but reconstituted the city as ruinous under the new political dispensation.

Monocular and binocular reading performance in subjects with normal binocular vision

BackgroundIt is well known that problems with binocular vision can cause issues for reading; less known is to what extent binocular vision improves reading performance. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of binocularity by directly comparing monocular and binocular reading in subjects with typical reading skills and normal binocular vision. A secondary purpose was to assess any asymmetry in monocular performance and its association with the sighting dominant eye.MethodsIn a balanced repeated measures experiment, 18 subjects read paragraphs of text under monocular and binocular conditions. All subjects went through an optometric examination before inclusion. Reading speed and eye movements were recorded with an eye tracker.ResultsThe mean difference in reading speed (2.1 per cent) between monocular (dominant and non‐dominant eye averaged) and binocular reading speed was not significant. A significant difference in reading speed was found between binocular and the non‐dominant eye, as determined by the far sighting test (p = 0.03). Monocular reading showed significantly increased (8.9 per cent) fixation duration (p < 0.01) and longer regressive saccades by 0.43 character spaces (p < 0.01). Reading with the non‐dominant eye, as determined by the near sighting test, showed increased progressive saccade length by 0.2 characters compared to the dominant eye (p = 0.03). No other significant differences between dominant and non‐dominant eyes were found. The agreement between the faster reading eye and ocular dominance was 44 to 56 per cent depending on whether dominance was determined at near or far.ConclusionThe outcomes suggest that in subjects with normal binocular vision, there is no marked enhancement in reading performance by binocular vision when reading paragraphs of text. Furthermore, the monocular reading performance appears to be close to equal and any small differences in performance appear not to be strongly associated with ocular dominance.

School performance at age 7 years in late preterm and early term birth: a cohort study

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of gestational age, particularly late preterm birth (34–36 weeks gestation) and early term birth (37–38 weeks gestation) on school performance at age 7 years.DesignPopulation-based prospective UK...

Low-dose high-pitch CT angiography of the supraaortic arteries using sinogram-affirmed iterative reconstruction.

ObjectiveTo prospectively evaluate image quality and radiation dose using a low-dose computed tomography angiography protocol and iterative image reconstruction for high-pitch dual-source CT-angiography (DSCTA) of the supraaortic arteries.Material and MethodsDSCTA was performed in 42 patients, using either 120 kVp tube voltage, 120 mAS tube current, 2.4 pitch and filtered back projection, or 100 kVp tube voltage, 100 mAs tube current, 3.2 pitch, and sinogram affirmed iterative reconstruction. Measurements of vessel attenuation, of the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were performed to objectively evaluate image quality. Two readers evaluated subjective image quality and image noise, using a four-point scale. Effective dose was used to compare the differences in radiation dose.ResultsLow-dose protocol application showed significantly higher vessel opacification (p = 0.013), and non-significantly higher CNR and SNR values. There was no difference in the subjective image quality and image noise reading between the protocols. Effective dose was significantly lower using the low-dose protocol (1.29±0.21 mSv vs. 2.92±0.72 mSv; p<0.001).ConclusionThe combined use of reduced tube voltage, reduced tube current, and iterative reconstruction reduces radiation dose by 55.4% in high-pitch DSCTA of the supraaortic arteries without impairment of image quality.

MANDINGA, TERAPIA, DECORAÇÃO, MÚSICA, UTILIDADES DOMÉSTICAS E ESCÁRNIO: OS DIVERSOS USOS DOS CHIFRES

Este ensaio lista, descreve e analisa os usos de chifres de bovinos tanto do ponto de vista material, quanto imaterial, revisitando a literatura so­bre o assunto e pontos do Estado do Pará em que os mesmos se encon­tram à venda ou em exposição, indicando os diversos tipos de demanda existente para este tipo de produto. O primeiro destes pontos é a Feira do Ver-o-Peso, em Belém, entreposto comercial que concentra saberes e costumes de parte da Amazônia, por se encontrar na capital do Es­tado, em pleno delta do rio Amazonas. O outro ponto se encontra no Nordeste Paraense, à beira da Rodovia Estadual Governador Fernando Guillon – PA 124, no município de Santarém Novo, a 168 km de Belém. Neste se encontra uma barraca com sortimento de chifres de bovinos pintados e em exposição na beira da estrada, cujo dono é informante desta pesquisa. Finalmente, leitura pertinente ao assunto e observação direta são as fontes dos usos que se faz desta extremidade dos bovídeos em magia, terapia, decoração, música, escárnio e utensílios domésticos. Palavras-chave: Religiosidade, bruxaria, magia, utensílios domésticos, es­tética, semiótica.

Rapid Parametric Mapping of the Longitudinal Relaxation Time T1 Using Two-Dimensional Variable Flip Angle Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 1.5 Tesla, 3 Tesla, and 7 Tesla

IntroductionVisual but subjective reading of longitudinal relaxation time (T1) weighted magnetic resonance images is commonly used for the detection of brain pathologies. For this non-quantitative measure, diagnostic quality depends on hardware configuration, imaging parameters, radio frequency transmission field (B1+) uniformity, as well as observer experience. Parametric quantification of the tissue T1 relaxation parameter offsets the propensity for these effects, but is typically time consuming. For this reason, this study examines the feasibility of rapid 2D T1 quantification using a variable flip angles (VFA) approach at magnetic field strengths of 1.5 Tesla, 3 Tesla, and 7 Tesla. These efforts include validation in phantom experiments and application for brain T1 mapping.MethodsT1 quantification included simulations of the Bloch equations to correct for slice profile imperfections, and a correction for B1+. Fast gradient echo acquisitions were conducted using three adjusted flip angles for the proposed T1 quantification approach that was benchmarked against slice profile uncorrected 2D VFA and an inversion-recovery spin-echo based reference method. Brain T1 mapping was performed in six healthy subjects, one multiple sclerosis patient, and one stroke patient.ResultsPhantom experiments showed a mean T1 estimation error of (-63±1.5)% for slice profile uncorrected 2D VFA and (0.2±1.4)% for the proposed approach compared to the reference method. Scan time for single slice T1 mapping including B1+ mapping could be reduced to 5 seconds using an in-plane resolution of (2×2) mm2, which equals a scan time reduction of more than 99% compared to the reference method.ConclusionOur results demonstrate that rapid 2D T1 quantification using a variable flip angle approach is feasible at 1.5T/3T/7T. It represents a valuable alternative for rapid T1 mapping due to the gain in speed versus conventional approaches. This progress may serve to enhance the capabilities of parametric MR based lesion detection and brain tissue characterization.

Voices, Violence and Meaning: Transformations of Speech Samples in Works by David Byrne, Brian Eno and Steve Reich

The incorporation of pre-recorded speaking voices in musical compositions such as Steve Reich's It's Gonna Rain and Brian Eno and David Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts has opened up new modes of musical understanding that are inextricably linked with the speakers in question. Incorporating concrete, recognisable sounds from the ‘real world’ into the symbolic web of a musical composition encourages subjective readings of the source material, for example, by demonstrating how stereotypical Western constructions of African culture can be detected in the treatment of male Afro-American voices. This article will argue that the technological dehumanising of the speaker also produces a particular kind of violence. In addition to such views of violence as directed against the speakers whose words have been erased, this article will conclude that one can also interpret such works as a response to the intricate relationship between sound and speech in music.

Characterization of the DYX2 locus on chromosome 6p22 with reading disability, language impairment, and IQ

Reading disability (RD) and language impairment (LI) are common neurodevelopmental disorders with moderately strong genetic components and lifelong implications. RD and LI are marked by unexpected difficulty acquiring and processing written and verbal language, respectively, despite adequate opportunity and instruction. RD and LI—and their associated deficits—are complex, multifactorial, and often comorbid. Genetic studies have repeatedly implicated the DYX2 locus, specifically the genes DCDC2 and KIAA0319, in RD, with recent studies suggesting they also influence LI, verbal language, and cognition. Here, we characterize the relationship of the DYX2 locus with RD, LI, and IQ. To accomplish this, we developed a marker panel densely covering the 1.4 Mb DYX2 locus and assessed association with reading, language, and IQ measures in subjects from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. We then replicated associations in three independent, disorder-selected cohorts. As expected, there were associations with known RD risk genes KIAA0319 and DCDC2. In addition, we implicated markers in or near other DYX2 genes, including TDP2, ACOT13, C6orf62, FAM65B, and CMAHP. However, the LD structure of the locus suggests that associations within TDP2, ACOT13, and C6orf62 are capturing a previously reported risk variant in KIAA0319. Our results further substantiate the candidacy of KIAA0319 and DCDC2 as major effector genes in DYX2, while proposing FAM65B and CMAHP as new DYX2 candidate genes. Association of DYX2 with multiple neurobehavioral traits suggests risk variants have functional consequences affecting multiple neurological processes. Future studies should dissect these functional, possibly interactive relationships of DYX2 candidate genes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00439-014-1427-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.