Restricted Contexts Research Articles

Standard operating procedures for clinical practice

Byline: T. Sathyanarayana Rao, Rajiv. Radhakrishnan, Chittaranjan. Andrade What are standard operating procedures (SOPs)? These are a specific set of practices that are required to be initiated and followed when specific circumstances arise. For example, emergency room physicians have SOPs for patients who are brought in an unconscious state; nurses in an operating theater have SOPs for the forceps and swabs that they hand over to the operating surgeons; and laboratory technicians have SOPs for handling, testing, and subsequently discarding body fluids obtained from patients. The origins of the term SOP are obscure. The Encyclopedia Britannica indicates that the abbreviation came into use around the mid-1900s [sup][1] and was already in use during World War II. Today, SOPs exist in contexts ranging from military operations to business routines, and from manufacturing processes to medical activities. In military circles, the term standard operating procedure or standing operating procedure is used to describe a procedure or set of procedures for the performance of a given action or for a reaction to a given event. There is a popular misconception that SOPs are standardized across the universe of practice. However, the very nature of an SOP is that it is not universally applied, such as across a large military element (e.g. a corps or division), but rather describes the unique operating procedure of a smaller unit (e.g. a battalion or company) within that larger element. That the operating procedure in question is said to be standing indicates that it is in effect until further notice, and that it may later be amended or dissolved. In the context of clinical trials, the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH), born in 1990 out of an effort to harmonize regulatory requirements for medicinal products, defines SOPs as detailed, written instructions to achieve uniformity of the performance of a specific function. This is also in keeping with the goal of Good Clinical Practice. [sup][2] In present day medicine, clinicians are familiar with SOPs in restricted contexts, such as those described at the beginning of this article. Clinicians are also aware of the use of SOPs in the context of clinical trials, either with regard to the functioning of ethics committees or with regard to screening, consenting, assessing, and treating patients across the course of the clinical trial. An idea whose time has now come is the introduction of SOPs into routine clinical practice; that is, not for special patients (e.g. those who are unconscious) or for special circumstances (e.g. clinical trials), but for every patient in everyday clinical care. To understand why such SOPs are necessary, let us first pose a question to the reader: How often in routine practice do we ask female patients of reproductive age about the date of their last menstrual period, or about contraceptive precautions that they may have adopted? Do we record these details? Chances are that such information is not regularly obtained; yet, it should be obvious that this information should be sought and recorded at every consultation (whether initial or follow-up) with every female patient in whom pregnancy is even a remote possibility. If SOPs are set in place, it is unlikely that such information would be neglected. Digressing briefly, how are SOPs different from practice guidelines? The terms SOPs, guidelines and pathways are defined by different medical bodies. [sup][3],[4],[5],[6],[7],[8] Furthermore, whereas clinical practice guidelines are systematically developed statements that assist decisions about appropriate health care for specific circumstances, [sup][9],[10] SOPs are more specific than guidelines and are defined in greater detail. They provide a comprehensive set of rigid criteria outlining the management steps for a single clinical condition or aspects of organization. [sup][11] Guidelines are rigorously developed using evidence-based medicine criteria and consist of two distinct components: the evidence summary and the detailed instructions for the application of that evidence to patient care. …

What Not to Wear? Girls, Clothing and ‘Showing’ the Body

Consumption practices of children in contemporary Western societies are implicated in the reconstruction of childhood, according to both popular debate and to those academic perspectives stressing the individualisation of identities within the life course of late modern consumer societies. Yet, little is known about the meanings children themselves give to their own consumption. Drawing from an ethnographic study of children aged 6–11 years and their families, the paper presents girls’ constructions of fashion in relation to their own bodies and to those of others. It is shown that although girls may both desire and actually ‘dress up’ in fashionable clothing, they present a range of contingent and contradictory meanings for doing so. For some girls, ‘dressing up’ in certain clothes may be a way of ‘ageing up’ toward feminine adulthood, albeit in restricted contexts and after negotiations between themselves and their parents as to what can be worn and where. Nonetheless, girls in the study also showed anxieties and disapproval of ‘showing the body’ through ‘revealing’ clothing. The article concludes by considering the implication of these findings for debates about gendered childhoods, and intergenerational relations in late modern consumer society.

Adult:young ratio influences song acquisition in female European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).

One parallel between humans and most songbirds is the fact that young require social interactions with an adult to acquire specific vocalizations. Songbirds are considered good models for comparative studies, although reports to date concern almost exclusively male songbirds. In addition, adult influence on vocal communication is generally investigated only in restricted social contexts (usually dyads). Here, the authors analyzed song learning and spatial associations among young female starlings that were maintained for 1 year in dyads (1 adult, 1 young), triads (2 adults, 1 young) or a larger group (7 young, 2 adults). Segregation by age was seen in the triads and in the larger group. The influence of adults (proportion of songs copied from adults) decreased as the young adult ratio increased. Unusual temporal features were observed in young maintained in triads and young neglected copying adult songs in the presence of peers. These results are among the first to explore the circumstances under which females learn and from whom they learn. They also add new insight to a wide range of questions about social influences on learning.

Rethinking agrammatism: Factors affecting the form of language elicited via clinical test procedures

Current approaches to assessing agrammatism use data from restricted contexts, such as picture description and story telling tasks. There is evidence in the conversation analysis literature to suggest that conversational grammar may differ markedly from the grammar of such elicited language samples. The disparity between conversational and test grammar suggests that it is possible for the form of an agrammatic utterance to be motivated by the context in which it occurs. Thus, behaviours previously considered to be symptoms of agrammatism may be adaptations to talking in different environments. This study analyses two distinctive test response forms made by two agrammatic speakers, and discusses whether they might be strategic adaptations to testing rather than symptoms of impairment.

Grounding objects in space and place: locative constructions in Tidore

This article discusses the contribution of the verbal element in static locative descriptions in Tidore, a Western Papuan outlier spoken in the North Moluccas of Indonesia. Where in most languages the verbal element in these constructions can be characterized as pertaining to aspects of disposition or posture of Figure or Ground, or to the topological relation between Figure and Ground, in Tidore the verbal element is one of a set of verbs. These locational verbs express the Ground space in which the Figure can be found in relation to the Deictic Center. Dispositional verbs may also be used in locative descriptions, but only in restricted contexts, requiring the expression of a human agent to bring about the locative relation.

Conflict and congruence in a combined DNA-morphology analysis of megachiropteran bat relationships (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Pteropodidae).

The phylogeny of megabats (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Megachiroptera) has been addressed only on molecular grounds, as little effort has previously been made to describe the impressive morphological variation of the group in terms of phylogenetically informative characters. Here we provide a morphological matrix of 236 characters from the integument, dentition, cranial and post-cranial skeleton, digestive apparatus and urogenital system. This data set covers most characters discussed previously in more restricted taxonomic contexts, as well a large number of new characters. Our aim was to generate a phylogenetic hypothesis for megabats based on a combined analysis of morphological characters and available gene sequence data from four mitochondrial and one nuclear loci. We used direct optimization under conventional equal costs, as well as under a cost ratio that maximizes homology when inapplicables (gaps) are present. Our results contradict the allegedly high level of conflict between the molecular and morphological partitions. We found that, although morphology alone recovered trees different and to some extent incompatible with those from previous molecular analyses, the combination of the two sources of evidence easily accommodated the morphological and molecular signals, yielding a resolved and relatively well-supported phylogeny of Megachiroptera that is in reasonable agreement with the current morphology-based taxonomy of the group. Overall congruence favored the maximization of homology by a narrow margin. In addition, partial analyses showed that implied weighting of morphology performed slightly better than equal weighting with respect to the combined analyses.

From Subordinate Marker to Discourse Marker: <i>que</i> in Andean Spanish

This paper proposes an analysis of a redundant use of que ('that') found in Andean Spanish as an expression which has undergone a grammaticalization process. Evidence suggests that the function of que as subordinate marker is much more generalized in this variety than in other dialects of Spanish. que is found to be used as a marker introducing both nominal and adjectival clauses, suggesting that adjectival subordinates behave as nominal subordinates in this variety of Spanish. An intrusive que appears in restricted syntactic and semantic contexts with clauses that have nominal and adjectival functions, and even appears replacing adverbial expressions in some adverbial subordinates (temporal, spatial, and manner). Furthermore, it is found to be sensitive to the degree of the argument’s thematic/semantic function in the subordinate clause. In particular, it seems to occur more often with low-agency arguments in adjectival and nominal contexts, and, in nominal subordinates, tends to appear with a restricted set of epistemic and evidential main verbs (e.g. creer 'to believe', saber 'to know', decir 'to say'). The analysis suggests that que has developed a new function in this variety of Spanish, namely, one of indicating that the information contained in the subordinate clause does not constitute background information (as would be expected in non-contact varieties of Spanish) but instead contains information relevant to the discourse.

Signal transduction during environmental stress: InsP8 operates within highly restricted contexts

Genetic manipulation of diphosphoinositol polyphosphate synthesis impacts many biological processes (reviewed in S.B. Shears, Biochem. J. 377, 2004, 265–280). These observations lacked a cell-signalling context, until the recent discovery that bis-diphosphoinositol tetrakisphosphate ([PP]2-InsP4 or “InsP8”) accumulates rapidly in mammalian cells in response to hyperosmotic stress (X. Pesesse, K. Choi, T. Zhang, and S. B. Shears J. Biol. Chem. 279, 2004, 43378–43381). We now investigate how widely applicable is this new stress-response. [PP]2-InsP4 did not respond to mechanical strain or oxidative stress in mammalian cells. Furthermore, despite tight conservation of many molecular stress responses across the phylogenetic spectrum, we show that cellular [PP]2-InsP4 levels do not respond significantly to osmotic imbalance, heat stress and salt toxicity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In contrast, we show that [PP]2-InsP4 is a novel sensor of mild thermal stress in mammalian cells: [PP]2-InsP4 levels increased 3–4 fold when cells were cooled from 37 to 33 °C, or heated to 42 °C. Increases in [PP]2-InsP4 levels following heat-shock were evident <5 min, and reversible (t1/2=7 min) once cells were returned to 37 °C. These responses were blocked by pharmacological inhibition of the ERK/MEK pathway. Additional control processes may lie upstream of [PP]2-InsP4 synthesis, which was synergistically activated when heat stress and osmotic stress were combined. Our data add to the repertoire of signaling responses following thermal challenges, a topic of current interest for its possible therapeutic value.

Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and its Repercussions in the 1950s and After (review)

Reviewed by: Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and its Repercussions in the 1950s and After Judith Shuval Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and its Repercussions in the 1950s and After, by Dvora Hacohen. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003. 325 pp. $49.95. This book is a slightly revised English translation of an earlier book which appeared in Hebrew in 1994. It is one of the only historically oriented analyses of the mass immigration to Israel during the first years of the new state's existence: 1948–1951. During this period 685,761 immigrants arrived in Israel, more than doubling the Jewish population. On the whole the English version is of high quality and is comfortably readable. Inevitably there are a few bloopers which reflect the Hebrew original: "Jews of the East" (p. 4) rather than "Jews from the Middle East and North Africa"; "American capitalists" (p. 235) rather than American "contributors." The substance of the book may be gleaned from its eight chapter titles: policy in the making; policy put to the test; financial crisis and policy implications; from immigrant camps to ma'abarot; the conflict over education; confronting the old-timers; changes in immigration and absorption policy; immigration during 1948–1998 and its ramifications on Israeli society. The text is enhanced by selected black-and-white photos which enliven the presentation and give the reader a sense of what life in situ looked like. The principal theme of the book is the on-going tension between the official policy of open, unselected immigration and the desire of some policy makers to introduce selection criteria. In the face of a strong ideologically oriented mythology, the latter views were expressed only in restricted political contexts and were hardly aired in the public domain. It is the author's goal to demonstrate that there were many dissenting views to the overall policy of open, unselected immigration during the first years of the state's existence. The reservations were expressed by pragmatists, most of whom were involved in the practical, almost impossible tasks of immigrant "absorption" in a society with an undeveloped infrastructure, limited economic resources, inadequate health care [End Page 202] personnel and facilities, a multitude of competing organizations with undefined responsibilities, and the need to develop and maintain an army in the face of ongoing hostility from neighboring countries. The reservations took the form of uncertainty as to whether the newly established state could cope with thousands of immigrants, many of whom were sick, disabled, and aged and who required a tremendous investment in health care as well as economic and social support before they could become productive members of the society. However, the single-mindedness of the leadership and principally the unshakable stance of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who was convinced that without immigration Israel could not exist, determined the unswerving policy for open, unrestricted immigration—despite tremendous hardship for the immigrants. Even when directives were issued to grant priority to young, healthy, potentially productive immigrants, officials in the field invariably by-passed them in their reluctance to break up families or deny admission to those expressing a messianic desire to come to Israel. The text is extremely detailed and will undoubtedly be useful for historians interested in this period. At the same time there is a surfeit of detail which is in many cases descriptive rather than analytical. This excessive detail may disturb some readers; probably only history bugs are likely to find the book of real interest. While the author has clearly burrowed deep in many archives, early documents, and diaries which are listed in elaborate and detailed notes at the end of the book, her statement that "the immigrants' story remains to be told" (p. 11) seems problematic. Although the book is presented as the first historical analysis of this period, it is clear that a separation of history as a discipline from the other social sciences cannot present as insightful a view as would be gained by an integrated approach. It is unfortunate that the author did not seek out research findings produced by early sociologists and anthropologists whose interest was precisely in uncovering the "immigrants' story" during this period. The...

Eccrine mucinous metaplasia associated with an apocrine cystadenoma

Mucinous metaplasia occurs uncommonly in cutaneous pathology, usually at specialized anatomic locations (genitalia, palms, and soles) and within restricted pathologic contexts (inflammation and trauma). Here, we report a unique case of eccrine mucinous metaplasia associated with an apocrine cystadenoma. A 13-year-old girl had an asymptomatic, 4-mm nodule on the chest. Histopathology demonstrated a typical apocrine cystadenoma in the upper and middle dermis. Adjacent to this lesion was a cluster of coiled eccrine secretory glands, of which the inner layer was almost entirely replaced by benign-appearing cells containing abundant, non-sulfated acid mucopolysaccharides. At 10 months' follow up, there was no recurrence. Our case demonstrates that, very uncommonly, mucinous metaplasia may be associated with a pathogenetically separate, adjacent proliferative adenomatous lesion, in this instance, an apocrine cystadenoma.

Embodiment below discourse: The internalized domination of the masculine perspective

Synopsis This paper focuses on the embodied experience of gender. It draws upon Bourdieu's sociology of practice, cognitive sciences, and feminist phenomenology to highlight instances of non-discursive, cultural conditioning of embodied experience. Specifically, the paper focuses on the internalization by both men and women of the masculine perspective. It does so by discussing regular patterns of word ordering in English, comportment and motility, and orientation to the body. These patterns are cultural in that they are acquired through social interaction. They are non-discursive, though, in that they are not encoded in any system of representations and are not generally transmitted through discourse. Rather, they are infra-discursive, in that they exist below discourse. It emerges that, in general, the prototypical perspective adopted by male and female European social agents is distinctly more masculine than feminine. However, in restricted contexts, such as parenthood, this prototypicality is inverted. In this, we see how internalized structures match the broad overarching social structures. In the course of the discussion, we seek to further develop and contextualize some further analyses, such as Iris Young's phenomenology of corporeal experience and Cooper and Ross's analysis of word ordering. We ultimately hope to demonstrate the critical analytical importance of the embodied reality which is clearly culturally variable, yet not, strictly speaking, discursively constituted.

Eccrine Mucinous Metaplasia Associated with An Apocrine Cystadenoma

Mucinous metaplasia occurs uncommonly in cutaneous pathology, usually at specialized anatomic locations (genitalia, palms, soles) and within restricted pathologic contexts (inflammation, trauma). Here we report a unique case of eccrine mucinous metaplasia associated with an apocrine cystadenoma. A 13‐year‐old girl had an asymptomatic, 4‐mm nodule on the chest. Histopathology demonstrated a typical apocrine cystadenoma in the upper and middle dermis. Adjacent to this neoplasm was a cluster of coiled eccrine secretory ducts, of which the inner layer was almost entirely replaced by benign‐appearing cells containing abundant, non‐sulfated acid mucopolysaccharides. At eight months’ follow‐up, there was no recurrence. Our case demonstrates that, very uncommonly, mucinous metaplasia may be associated with a pathogenetically separate, adjacent neoplasm, in this instance an apocrine cystadenoma.

Referential Subject and Object Gaps in Modern Icelandic

This paper investigates the nature of subject and object gaps in coordinate structures in Modern Icelandic. Modern Icelandic is considered to be a semi-&lt;em&gt;pro&lt;/em&gt;-drop language, since it generally licenses only generic null subjects; object gaps only occur in the form of topic drop. Nevertheless it has been argued that MI licenses referential subject &lt;em&gt;pro&lt;/em&gt; as well as referential object &lt;em&gt;pro&lt;/em&gt; in certain (tightly restricted) contexts. This assumption is based on the existence of coordinating constructions that exhibit referential subject and object gaps at the same time. While this paper follows previous proposals in assuming subject &lt;em&gt;pro&lt;/em&gt; to be licit in coordinate structures, object argument gaps are assumed to be object-topic drop, which is independetly needed in the grammar of Icelandic. Under the analysis presented here, the previously reported null subject condition on null objects falls out from Icelandic word order facts.

"Prodige a voir": Recherches comparatives sur l'origine casuelle de l'infinitif en grec ancien (review)

Reviewed by: «Prodige à voir» Recherches comparatives sur l’origine casuelle de l’infinitif en grec ancien by Sylvie Vanséveren Andrew Miles Byrd «Prodige à voir» Recherches comparatives sur l’origine casuelle de l’infinitif en grec ancien. By Sylvie Vanséveren. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2000. Pp. 188. ISBN: 90-429-0835-1. $19.18. It has long been supposed that Proto-Indo-European (PIE) did not have an infinitive, and a myriad of different forms attested in the Indo-European (IE) languages seems to support this. Consequently, one may suppose that these various forms are innovations of the individual IE languages. In this book, Sylvie Vanséveren examines the forms and usages of the Greek (Gk) infinitive with respect to corresponding forms in other IE languages and attempts to create a more coherent view of the original state of affairs. By examining and thereby refuting the methodologies of past scholars, V demonstrates that the only way to create a realistic view of the situation is from both a morphological and syntactic perspective. She accomplishes this in four well-organized chapters: ‘ “Infinitif”: Esquisse méthodologique’ (11–34), ‘Perspective morphologique’ (35–73), ‘Perspective syntaxique’ (74–133), and ‘Conclusions’ (134–46). As she examines the possible morphological origins of the Greek infinitive, V attempts to show that many of the current theories are ad hoc. For example, it is frequently assumed that the origins of infinitives such as -ein (< *-e-hen [*ser/n]), -men (*mer/n) lie in a case designated by many as a ‘locatif sans désinence’ (this type is seen in Gk he≃mar ‘by day’, Sanskrit udán ‘in water’, and Hittite dagan ‘on the earth’). V has great difficulty in understanding how an infinitive may have arisen in a locative form, but one need look no further than the usage of ‘in understanding’ in my last clause to see how it may have come about. V maintains her opposition to a locatival source, but never establishes a satisfactory argument against it. To dispel this notion even further, one should note that Vedic Sanskrit possesses a number of clear instances of locative infinitives (e.g. forms in -sani). Possibly the most interesting aspect of V’s research involves the imperatival usage of the infinitive in Greek and in other dialects. In some IE languages, it is only found in the oldest texts (e.g. Vedic); in others, it occurs only in very restricted contexts (e.g. Latin, where its use is limited to certain technical texts), and in some languages it does not occur at all (e.g. Armenian). The use of the infinitive as a singular second person future imperative is quite common in Greek, whereas a noninfinitival form in *-tōd is more usually found in languages such as Sanskrit and Latin. This archaic usage of the infinitive as an imperative in some of the older IE dialects provides another sort of evidence that the infinitive did indeed exist at a certain state of PIE. Following her discussion, V has included tables of the frequency and the locations of infinitival usages in the Homeric epics as well as indices of sources, key terms, and modern authors. By paying close attention to both morphology and syntax, V has made a great contribution not only to the study of the Greek infinitive, but also to Indo-European linguistics as a whole. Copyright © 2003 Linguistic Society of America

Distributional and statistical bases of allophonic groupings

Segments of a given language do not all have equal status: some are phonetic variants of others. These variants occur only in certain contexts. In addition to occurring in more restricted contexts, however, variant allophones typically occur with lesser frequency. Which (if either) of these asymmetries is important for infants learning of allophonic groupings? Infants were exposed to artificial languages with allophones. Either stops or fricatives were intervocalicly voiced; these voiced segments did not otherwise occur. Infants were then tested on preference for passages like ‘‘rot pazo na bazo rot pazo na bazo’’ or ‘‘na zine rot sine na zine rot sine...’’ All items were grammatical for both groups. For the stop allophone group, /pazo/ and /bazo/ should be one word, whereas /zine/ and /sine/ should be two words; vice versa for the fricative allophone group. In previous work using a similar technique, infants listened longer to passages containing what was perceived as two variants. Across a series of experiments, the number and frequency of contexts in which allophonic variants occurred were manipulated. Cross-experiment analyses reveal the relative contributions of distributional and statistical asymmetries. We interpret and discuss our findings in light of current statistical learning approaches to language acquisition.

Effects of chronic non-clinical depression on the use of positive and negative words in language contexts

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of chronic non-clinical depression (ChD) on the use of ambiguous and unambiguous emotional words in language contexts. Participants with ChD and normal non-depressed (ND) participants’ responses to positive and negative stimulus words on a free association word test were compared using the Hyperspace Analogue to Language (HAL) model of memory’s context density metric, a measure of the range of contexts in which a word is used in language. ChD participants generated negative words that were used in more restricted contexts than ND participants. However, ND and ChD participants used positive words in a similar range of contexts. The results suggest that people with ChD tend to use negative words that are probably more negative in connotation, yet they are not impaired with respect to using words in contexts where positive words are required.

Subjective rating scales: science or art?

Subjective rating scales are widely used in almost every aspect of ergonomics research and practice for the assessment of workload, fatigue, usability, annoyance and comfort, and lesser known qualities such as urgency and presence, but are they truly scientific? This paper raises some of the key issues as a basis for debate. First, it is argued that all empirical observations, including those conventionally labelled as ‘objective’, are unavoidably subjective. Shared meaning between observers, or intersubjectivity, is the key criterion of scientific probity. The practical steps that can be taken to increase intersubjective agreement are discussed and the well-known sources of error and bias in human judgement reviewed. The role of conscious experience as a mechanism for appraising the environment and guiding behaviour has important implications for the interpretation of subjective reports. The view that psychometric measures do not conform to the requirements of truly ‘scientific’ measurement is discussed. Human judgement of subjective attributes is essentially ordinal and, unlike physical measures, can be matched to interval scales only with difficulty, but ordinal measures can be used successfully both to develop and test substantive theories using multivariate statistical techniques. Constructs such as fatigue are best understood as latent or inferred variables defined by a set of manifest or directly observed indicator variables. Both construct validity and predictive validity are viewed from this perspective and this helps to clarify several problems including the dissociation between measures of different aspects of a given construct, the question of whether physical (e.g. physiological) measures should be preferred to subjective measures and whether a single measure of constructs which are essentially multidimensional having both subjective and physical components is desirable. Finally, the fitness of subjective ratings to different purposes within the broad field of ergonomics research is discussed. For testing of competing hypotheses concerning the mechanisms underlying human performance, precise quantitative predictions are rarely needed. The same is frequently true of comparative evaluation of competing designs. In setting design standards, however, something approaching the level of measurement required for precise quantitative prediction is required, but this is difficult to achieve in practice. Although it may be possible to establish standards within restricted contexts, general standards for broadly conceived constructs such as workload are impractical owing to the requirement for representative sampling of tasks, work environments and personnel.

The Autonomy Argument for Liberal Nationalism

Abstract. The article examines a recent normative argument for ‘liberal nationalism’ that can be found in the work of a range of influential contemporary writers. That argument seeks to defend the view that the state has a responsibility to preserve and promote national cultures. It does so by arguing that the liberal ideal of an autonomous individual chooser presupposes a rich and healthy national culture which provides, and gives meaning to, the options which an individual faces. The claim of the present article is that the liberal nationalist argument is much less successful than these writers would like to think. Although the argument may be valid in certain restricted contexts, the article shows that it runs into severe difficulties for a wide range of central cases that nationalists have traditionally been concerned with.

A Descriptive Study of Communicative Intentions Used by Hearing Teachers and Preschool Children with Hearing Loses

This study investigated the range of Communicative Intentions (CIs) used by three hearing teachers and eleven preschool children with hearing losses in a Lesson context. The participant's use of the CI categories of Conversational Devices, Descriptions, Performatives, Requests, Responses, Statements, and Uninterpretables is described and discussed. The teachers' were found to demonstrate all of the range categories considered with similar rank orders for category use. Unlike previous research, where data were collected from several contexts and for longer periods of time, only seven of the 11 children used all of the range categories in the 20 minute samples. The data, in conjunction with the process of collection and analysis, suggested that some teaching styles and restricted contexts may not support the use a wide range of CIs by all participants. The findings are used to discuss implications for teaching.

Context-based Lossless Image Compression

The two-dimensional method of Langdon and Rissanen for compression of black and white images is extended to handle the exact lossless compression of grey-scale images. Neighbouring pixel values are used to define contexts and probabilities associated with the contexts are used to compress the image. The problem of restricting the number of contexts, both to limit the storage requirements and to be able to obtain sufficient data to generate meaningful probabilities, is addressed. Investigations on a variety of images are carried using the JPEG lossless mode predictors. Results indicate that a one pass arithmetic encoder using restricted contexts can lead to effective lossless image compression algorithms.