Referential Perspective Research Articles

An Atrous Convolved Hybrid Seg-Net Model with residual and attention mechanism for gland detection and segmentation in histopathological images

PurposeA clinically compatible computerized segmentation model is presented here that aspires to supply clinical gland informative details by seizing every small and intricate variation in medical images, integrate second opinions, and reduce human errors. ApproachIt comprises of enhanced learning capability that extracts denser multi-scale gland-specific features, recover semantic gap during concatenation, and effectively handle resolution-degradation and vanishing gradient problems. It is having three proposed modules namely Atrous Convolved Residual Learning Module in the encoder as well as decoder, Residual Attention Module in the skip connection paths, and Atrous Convolved Transitional Module as the transitional and output layer. Also, pre-processing techniques like patch-sampling, stain-normalization, augmentation, etc. are employed to develop its generalization capability. To verify its robustness and invigorate network invariance against digital variability, extensive experiments are carried out employing three different public datasets i.e., GlaS (Gland Segmentation Challenge), CRAG (Colorectal Adenocarcinoma Gland) and LC-25000 (Lung Colon-25000) dataset and a private HosC (Hospital Colon) dataset. ResultsThe presented model accomplished combative gland detection outcomes having F1-score (GlaS(Test A(0.957), Test B(0.926)), CRAG(0.935), LC 25000(0.922), HosC(0.963)); and gland segmentation results having Object-Dice Index (GlaS(Test A(0.961), Test B(0.933)), CRAG(0.961), LC-25000(0.940), HosC(0.929)), and Object-Hausdorff Distance (GlaS(Test A(21.77) and Test B(69.74)), CRAG(87.63), LC-25000(95.85), HosC(83.29)). In addition, validation score (GlaS (Test A(0.945), Test B(0.937)), CRAG(0.934), LC-25000(0.911), HosC(0.928)) supplied by the proficient pathologists is integrated for the end segmentation results to corroborate the applicability and appropriateness for assistance at the clinical level applications. ConclusionThe proposed system will assist pathologists in devising precise diagnoses by offering a referential perspective during morphology assessment of colon histopathology images.

Inferring hidden objects from still and communicative onlookers at 8, 14, and 36 months of age

The current study investigated across five eye-tracking experiments children’s developing skill of adopting others’ referential perspective (Level 1 perspective taking) and to what extent it involves automatic processes or requires ostensive communicative cues. Three age groups (8-, 14-, and 36-month-olds) were tested on their expectation of an object appearing behind one of two peripheral occluders. A centrally presented person in profile either provided an ostensive communicative pointing cue or sat still, oriented to one of the two occluders. The 14-month-olds anticipated the hidden object when the onlooker had communicatively pointed to the location, as revealed by faster target detection in congruent trials (latency effect) and longer dwell times to the empty side in incongruent trials (violation-of-expectation effect). This was not the case when a still person was only oriented to one side. Adding emotional expressions to the still person (Experiment 2) did not help to produce the effects. However, at 36 months of age (Experiment 3), children showed both effects for the still person. The 8-month-olds did not show the violation-of-expectation effect for communicative pointing (Experiment 4) or for a matched abbreviated reach (Experiment 5b), showing it only for a complete reach behind the occluder (Experiment 5a), although they were faster to detect the congruent object in Experiment 4 and 5a. Findings reveal that automatic perspective taking develops after communicative perspective taking and that communicative perspective taking is a developmental outcome of the first year of life. The developmental pattern suggests a continuous social construction process of perspective-taking skills.

Aconselhamento em Planejamento Reprodutivo de Mulheres em Condições de Vulnerabilidade, segundo a percepção dos profissionais da Estratégia Saúde da Família

O presente artigo foi delineado a partir das vivências apreendidas como assistente social do Núcleo de Apoio à Saúde da Família e membro integrante do grupo técnico do planejamento reprodutivo da Secretaria Municipal de Saúde de São Carlos/SP. Fundamenta-se nos resultados da pesquisa de campo realizada junto aos médicos e enfermeiros da Estratégia Saúde da Família deste município, objetivando analisar o aconselhamento em planejamento reprodutivo de mulheres em condições de vulnerabilidade. A partir do material coletado, das deduções realizadas e da perspectiva do referencial teórico, norteado pelos conceitos de vulnerabilidade e clínica ampliada, realizou-se a análise por categorias temáticas. Ao reconhecerem os fatores que produzem vulnerabilidade e que influenciam o processo saúde-doença, os profissionais apontaram ser imprescindível um olhar ampliado no aconselhamento em planejamento reprodutivo dessas mulheres para produzir um cuidado em saúde mais eficaz.

The English gerund revisited

AbstractThis paper re-examines the semantics of Present-day English gerunds by analyzing their collocational preferences. While traditional approaches suggest that a semantic opposition between ‘actions’ and ‘facts’ determines the meaning as well as the distributional preferences of nominal (the signing of the contract) and verbal (signing the contract) gerunds, these claims have not been supported by quantitative evidence. At the same time, more recent studies which quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the meaning of gerunds from a referential perspective lack a distributional dimension. This study presents a semantic typology of the nouns and verbs that are attracted to nominal and verbal gerunds in noun and verb complementation structures by means of a distinctive collexeme analysis which has been applied to contextual collexemes. The analysis shows that, while nominal and verbal gerunds occur in clearly distinctive contexts, this distinction does not appear to be based on an action-fact dichotomy, but is rather determined by the more abstract features of conceptual (in)dependence and temporal flexibility. Finally, it is shown how these abstract semantic profiles can be filled in more concretely by specific contextual slots, thus arriving at a more fine-grained and dynamic perspective on the semantics of English gerunds.

How Government Policy Is Implemented in the Private University: A Case Study from China

This article is based on original research into institutional governance in private universities. It provides an in-depth qualitative study of how the private university in China has responded in practice to government policies. The analysis focuses on three dimensions: the roles of the university council, the president, and the university constitution. The study adopted two methods of data collection: 31 separate semi-structured interviews with 21 informants as well as extensive documentary analysis. Findings revealed that while external policies provide an impetus for change for each university, how key actors in institutional governance understand these policies has a significant effect on how the policies are implemented. This can result in change that can be viewed as either symbolic alteration or as operational change. This study provides insights from an empirical investigation by way of a case study on private university governance in China, and also a referential perspective on the governance of private universities in general for policy makers, senior managers, and academics.

Present-day English gerunds: A multilayered referential model

AbstractRecent studies into the semantics of English gerunds have successfully uncovered meaning differences between nominal and verbal gerunds by adopting a referential perspective on their semantics. Referential research of gerundive nominalizations, however, still struggles with a number of issues, mainly centering around the position of verbal gerunds within the traditionally nominal domain of referentiality. This paper wishes to address these issues by establishing a multilayered model of referentiality which can be applied to both ordinary as well as less prototypical noun phrases. First of all, it disentangles the typically nominal feature of definiteness from the more flexible concept of specificity. Secondly, the model looks at the type of mental space in which the referent is accessed. Specific expressions are often associated with “actual” or realis spaces, whereas non-specific entities are typically linked to “virtual” or irrealis spaces. It is argued here, however, that deverbal nominalizations like gerunds realize specificity independently of the mental space the entity is located in. The multilayered model that is proposed is applied and integrated in a corpus-based analysis of Present-day English nominal and verbal gerunds. Mapping out the interactions between (in)definiteness, (non-)specificity and actuality/virtuality, it will be concluded, allows us to situate the various subtypes of nominal and verbal gerunds more accurately on the cline of functional nouniness.

On direct speech and referential perspective in birchbark letters no. 5 from Tver’ and no. 286 from Novgorod

This article analyses within a pragmaphilological framework the communicative function and linguistic form of birchbark letters no. 5 from Tver’ (Tv5) and no. 286 from Novgorod (N286), both dating back to the 14th century. In the case of Tv5, we propose that the letter can best be understood if we assume two instances of direct speech without any markers of reportedness. With regard to N286, we will argue that what seems to be another case of direct speech lacking an introductory verbal tag should in fact be interpreted as an instance of the necessitive use of the imperative.

How indexicals function in texts: Discourse, text, and one neo-Gricean account of indexical reference

My goal in this article is to compare the behavior of a variety of non-clause-bound types of indexical expression in English across three texts from different genres, spoken as well as written. A key distinction is the one claimed to exist between the dimensions of text and discourse, and the comparison of the indexical types demonstrates its relevance. In a given text, certain lexically specific types of indexical bearing an anaphoric interpretation may perform particular strategic, discourse unit-demarcating roles; while others realizing a deictic value may signal a shift in referential perspective, preparing the reader or addressee for a transition to a new discourse unit or subunit. Particularly highlighted are the deictic, anadeictic and anaphoric roles of the various indexicals as a function of text genre, utterer's intention and the interlocutive relationships developed throughout the discourse. The article also assesses the neo-Gricean pragmatic account of (non-) coreference in discourse put forward in Levinson's (2000) Presumptive Meanings. The theory of Generalized Conversational Implicature, MIT Press. It argues that, rather than their discourse value being necessarily determined by the possibility of a choice between an attenuated and a prolix indexical type, it is the textual, contextual as well as discourse factors isolated during the earlier comparison which are adequate to describe and account for this.

Language disorder: A functional linguistic perspective

This paper explores the issues involved in the linguistic characterisation of disordered discourse and the ways in which a Systemic Functional Linguistic framework addresses these issues. For many years, language disorders were described in terms of formal grammars, with “breakdown” discussed in terms of one or more of the traditional levels of language, i.e., phonology, syntax, and semantics. While it was acknowledged that an individual could have difficulty at one or more of these levels, each was viewed quite separately, with semantics viewed largely from a referential perspective. More recent approaches using functional grammar have broadened this view of language and have provided a model of language that re‐conceptualises the notion of meaning and embraces context as integral to its organisation. Such a model has introduced a different perspective on language into clinical fields, and has enabled researchers and clinicians to explore the skills of speakers with language disorders across a variety of situations and contextual variables, examining the linguistic resources still available to them. This paper introduces principles involved in a functional framework and provides an overview of how these principles have been applied to language disorders to date. In addition, the notion of “disorder” itself is discussed as it is situated in this alternative model.

Socio-cultural differences and the adjustment of mothers' speech to their children's cognitive and language comprehension skills

This study compares the ways in which mothers with two different levels of education adjust to their 3-to-5 year-old children's cognitive and language comprehension skills when engaged in different tasks, such as doing jigsaw puzzles, seriation and laying a table. The children were divided into groups with a low and a high level of development, as measured by Raven's Matrices and the Reynell Language Comprehension Scale. Using Wertsch's model [Wertsch J. (1985). Vygotsky and the social formation of the mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press] as our basis, we analysed the cognitive demands contained in the mothers' speech (abbreviation and referential perspective). The results indicated that mothers of both educational levels adjusted their speech to their children's level of development. However, more educated mothers were more demanding and challenging with both low- and high-skilled children, using more abbreviated directives and a higher level of referential expressions. There were small differences between the task effects on the groups.

Referential Perspective and Instruction: A Study on Teacher-Student Interaction and Text Remembering.

The aim of this paper is to study the role ofteacher-student interaction, in the acquisitionof text comprehension and memory skills from asocio-cultural approach. In our view, one ofthe most important areas of neglect in cognitive research in this field is the interactional nature of that development. We intend to establish the way in which teacher-student interaction and, specially, the use of some specific semiotic means mayfacilitate the acquisition and internalizationof general strategies for understanding andremembering expository texts. The role ofreferential perspective (Wertsch, 1989) in theinternalization of complex text study actionsis analysed. The task was to study three expository textsthat were similar in their structure. Thecontent of the texts was analysed in terms ofidea-units (Meyer, 1984). Each text was formedby idea-units from three different levels: mainideas, secondary ideas and details. A categorysystem for the analysis of study and recall ofthe text is developed. In the study phase theanalysis proceeded in two steps: study actionsand text ideas. In the recall phase, two types ofindexes (number of ideas and degree ofclustering) were considered. For the analysisof instructional actions, both the nature ofinstruction and referential perspective wasrecorded.

Semiotic mechanisms in joint cognitive activity

This anide examines the cornmunicative,psychological, and semiotic functions of deictic, « common», and «context informative» referring expressions and their role in adult-child interaction. On the basis of theoretical discussion and empirical illustration it is suggested that adults find the various types of «referential perspective» invoked by these three types of expressions to be useful in creating and nzaintaining intersubjectivity that will enhance cognitive growth on the pan of the children.