Ambiguous Terms Research Articles

Towards reproducible research in recurrent pregnancy loss immunology: Learning from cancer microenvironment deconvolution.

The most recent international guidelines regarding recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) exclude most of the immunological tests recommended for RPL since they do not reach an evidence-based level. Comparisons for metanalysis and systematic reviews are limited by the ambiguity in terms of RPL definition, etiological and risk factors, diagnostic work-up, and treatments applied. Therefore, cohort heterogeneity, the inadequacy of numerosity, and the quality of data confirm a not standardized research quality in the RPL field, especially for immunological background, for which potential research application remains confined in a separate single biological layer. Innovative sequencing technologies and databases have proved to play a significant role in the exploration and validation of cancer research in the context of dataset quality and bioinformatics tools. In this article, we will investigate how bioinformatics tools born for large-scale cancer immunological research could revolutionize RPL immunological research but are limited by the nature of current RPL datasets.

Estimation and impact of GLONASS inter-frequency code bias in single-frequency precise point positioning

The current GLONASS system suffers from the inter-frequency code bias (IFCB) and the inter-frequency phase bias (IFPB) due to its employment of the frequency division multiple access (FDMA) technology. The IFCB affects the code observation’s accuracy and further degrades the positioning accuracy, while the IFPB can be absorbed into the float ambiguity term. With increasing demand on precise point positioning (PPP) in mass market applications using low-cost single-frequency (SF) receivers, the impact of IFCB on SF-PPP with low-cost receivers need to be investigated. In this paper, we propose the use of the University of Calgary (UofC) model to estimate the IFCB in SF-PPP. The feasibility of the proposed approach is first verified using GNSS observations from the IGS stations. Comparing to the traditional SF-PPP model, the UofC model enables more stable IFCB estimations with 80.2% of the maximum changes less than 1.0 ns within one week. Then, the stability of IFCB in the low-cost SF receiver is analyzed with static data collected with u-blox M8T, and the STandard Deviation (STD) of IFCB for each satellite within 5 days is less than 1.5 ns when applying real-time orbit, clock and ionospheric corrections. Further, it’s verified that the power off won’t affect the IFCB’s value significantly in the low-cost receiver. Finally, six different strategies are designed to evaluate the impact of the GLONASS IFCB on SF-PPP. Comparing to those strategies ignoring IFCB, the strategies considering IFCB in SF-PPP can improve the positioning accuracy in both static and kinematic tests.

What exactly is "foot abduction" during management of idiopathic clubfoot in clinical practice?

There is however gross ambiguity regarding the use of term "foot abduction" in clubfoot treatment. We measured below defined angles at different stages of clubfoot treatment to decipher their precise interpretation. In a prospective evaluation of 25 unilateral clubfeet in infants' age less than sixmonths treated with Ponseti technique, clinical leg foot and thigh foot angle were measured at talar head reduction (LHT0), pre-tenotomy, and post-tenotomy stage. A "normal" reference was available in the form of measurements of contralateral limb. Talar head (LHT0) was reduced at mean leg foot angle of 26 degrees. The corresponding pre- and post-tenotomy angles were 42.6 and 50.0 degrees, respectively. The reference leg foot angles for contralateral limb were 49.8 degrees. The thigh foot angle for LHT0, pre-tenotomy, post-tenotomy, and contralateral side were, respectively, 39.2, 56, 68, and 65.6 degrees. There was an additional tibial external rotation component of mean 13.4 degrees (SD 4.5) in the thigh foot angle when compared to the leg foot angle at tenotomy. This increased to 18 degrees (SD 3.4) post-tenotomy. The study suggested that the foot abduction described in the "Ponseti Manual" probably intends thigh foot rather than leg foot angles. There was a significant difference in the angles when talar head reduced and tenotomy was decided. The foot abduction is an ambiguous term which should be replaced by the more specific leg or thigh foot abduction angle.

Using cognitive interviews to improve a measure of organizational readiness for implementation

BackgroundOrganizational readiness is a key factor for successful implementation of evidence-based interventions (EBIs), but a valid and reliable measure to assess readiness across contexts and settings is needed. The R = MC2 heuristic posits that organizational readiness stems from an organization’s motivation, capacity to implement a specific innovation, and its general capacity. This paper describes a process used to examine the face and content validity of items in a readiness survey developed to assess organizational readiness (based on R = MC2) among federally qualified health centers (FQHC) implementing colorectal cancer screening (CRCS) EBIs.MethodsWe conducted 20 cognitive interviews with FQHC staff (clinical and non-clinical) in South Carolina and Texas. Participants were provided a subset of items from the readiness survey to review. A semi-structured interview guide was developed to elicit feedback from participants using “think aloud” and probing techniques. Participants were recruited using a purposive sampling approach and interviews were conducted virtually using Zoom and WebEx. Participants were asked 1) about the relevancy of items, 2) how they interpreted the meaning of items or specific terms, 3) to identify items that were difficult to understand, and 4) how items could be improved. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded in ATLAS.ti. Findings were used to revise the readiness survey.ResultsKey recommendations included reducing the survey length and removing redundant or difficult to understand items. Additionally, participants recommended using consistent terms throughout (e.g., other units/teams vs. departments) the survey and changing pronouns (e.g., people, we) to be more specific (e.g., leadership, staff). Moreover, participants recommended specifying ambiguous terms (e.g., define what “better” means).ConclusionUse of cognitive interviews allowed for an engaged process to refine an existing measure of readiness. The improved and finalized readiness survey can be used to support and improve implementation of CRCS EBIs in the clinic setting and thus reduce the cancer burden and cancer-related health disparities.

The Boundaries of Law: Main Aspects of the Problem

The article is devoted to the analysis of the boundaries of law through three main topics, which are anthropic, human rights, and legal-regulatory boundaries. Such minimal differentiation seems necessary, in particular, to prevent the substitution or eclecticism of ambiguous terms and thevery conclusions of scientific analysis. The first aspect is based on the so-called “natural” understanding of the law; the second – on the so-called Legist-positivist understanding; and the third – on a certain combination (integration) of the first two aspects.Anthropocentric boundaries stem from the fact that man (as a unique biosocial being) is the primary source of all its fundamental (existential) rights, beyond which its existence and development The article is devoted to the analysis of the boundaries of law through three main topics,which are anthropic, human rights, and legal-regulatory boundaries. Such minimal differentiation seems necessary, in particular, to prevent the substitution or eclecticism of ambiguous terms and the very conclusions of scientific analysis. The first aspect is based on the so-called “natural” understandingof the law; the second – on the so-called Legist-positivist understanding; and the third – on a certain combination (integration) of the first two aspects.Anthropocentric boundaries stem from the fact that man (as a unique biosocial being) is the primary source of all its fundamental (existential) rights, beyond which its existence and development.

Words matter: how ecologists discuss managed and non-managed bees and birds

Effectively promoting the stability and quality of ecosystem services involves the successful management of domesticated species and the control of introduced species. In the pollinator literature, interest and concern regarding pollinator species and pollinator health dramatically increased in recent years. Concurrently, the use of loaded terms when discussing domesticated and non-native species may have increased. As a result, pollinator ecology has inherited both the confusion associated with invasion biology’s lack of a standardized terminology to describe native, managed, or introduced species as well as loaded terms with very strong positive or negative connotations. The recent explosion of research on native bees and alternative pollinators, coupled with the use of loaded language, has led to a perceived divide between native bee and managed bee researchers. In comparison, the bird literature discusses the study of managed (poultry) and non-managed (all other birds) species without an apparent conflict with regard to the use of terms with strong connotations or sentiment. Here, we analyze word usage when discussing non-managed and managed bee and bird species in 3614 ecological and evolutionary biology papers published between 1990 and 2019. Using time series analyses, we demonstrate how the use of specific descriptor terms (such as wild, introduced, and exotic) changed over time. We then conducted co-citation network analyses to determine whether papers that share references have similar terminology and sentiment. We predicted a negative language bias towards introduced species and positive language bias towards native species. We found an association between the term invasive and bumble bees and we observed significant increases in the usage of more ambiguous terms to describe non-managed species, such as wild. We detected a negative sentiment associated with the research area of pathogen spillover in bumble bees, which corroborates the subjectivity that language carries. We recommend using terms that acknowledge the role of human activities on pathogen spillover and biological invasions. Avoiding the usage of loaded terms when discussing managed and non-managed species will advance our understanding and promote effective and productive communication across scientists, general public, policy makers and other stake holders in our society.

A Linked Open Data–Based Terminology to Describe Libre/Free and Open-source Software: Incremental Development Study

There is a variety of libre/free and open-source software (LIFOSS) products for medicine and health care. To support health care and IT professionals select an appropriate software product for given tasks, several comparison studies and web platforms, such as Medfloss.org, are available. However, due to the lack of a uniform terminology for health informatics, ambiguous or imprecise terms are used to describe the functionalities of LIFOSS. This makes comparisons of LIFOSS difficult and may lead to inappropriate software selection decisions. Using Linked Open Data (LOD) promises to address these challenges. We describe LIFOSS systematically with the help of the underlying Health Information Technology Ontology (HITO). We publish HITO and HITO-based software product descriptions using LOD to obtain the following benefits: (1) linking and reusing existing terminologies and (2) using Semantic Web tools for viewing and querying the LIFOSS data on the World Wide Web. HITO was incrementally developed and implemented. First, classes for the description of software products in health IT evaluation studies were identified. Second, requirements for describing LIFOSS were elicited by interviewing domain experts. Third, to describe domain-specific functionalities of software products, existing catalogues of features and enterprise functions were analyzed and integrated into the HITO knowledge base. As a proof of concept, HITO was used to describe 25 LIFOSS products. HITO provides a defined set of classes and their relationships to describe LIFOSS in medicine and health care. With the help of linked or integrated catalogues for languages, programming languages, licenses, features, and enterprise functions, the functionalities of LIFOSS can be precisely described and compared. We publish HITO and the LIFOSS descriptions as LOD; they can be queried and viewed using different Semantic Web tools, such as Resource Description Framework (RDF) browsers, SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL) queries, and faceted searches. The advantages of providing HITO as LOD are demonstrated by practical examples. HITO is a building block to achieving unambiguous communication among health IT professionals and researchers. Providing LIFOSS product information as LOD enables barrier-free and easy access to data that are often hidden in user manuals of software products or are not available at all. Efforts to establish a unique terminology of medical and health informatics should be further supported and continued.

Are long-term climate projections useful for on-farm adaptation decisions?

The current literature on climate services for farmers predominantly focuses on seasonal forecasts, with an assumption that longer-term climate projections may not be suitable for informing farming decisions. In this paper, we explore whether certain types of long-term climate projections may be useful for some specific types of farming decisions. Through interviews with almond tree crop farmers and farm advisors in California, we examine how farmers perceive the utility and accuracy levels of long-term climate projections and identify the types of projections that they may find useful. The interviews revealed that farmers often perceive long-term climate projections as an extension of weather forecasts, which can lead to their initial skepticism of the utility of such information. However, we also found that when farmers were presented with long-term trends or shifts in crop-specific agroclimatic metrics (such as chill hours or summer heat), they immediately perceived these as valuable for their decision-making. Hence, the manner in which long-term projections are framed, presented, and discussed with farmers can heavily influence their perception of the potential utility of such projections. The iterative conversations as part of the exploratory interview questions, served as a tool for “joint construction of meaning” of complex and ambiguous terms such as “long-term climate projections,” “long-term decisions” and “uncertainty.” This in-turn supported a joint identification (and understanding) of the types of information that can potentially be useful for on-farm adaptive decisions, where the farmer and the interviewer both improvise and iterate to find the best types of projections that fit specific decision-contexts. Overall, this research identifies both the types of long-term climate information that farmers may consider useful, and the engagement processes that are able to effectively elicit farmers' long-term information needs.

Thriving in Ambiguity – A Dispositive of Self-Optimisation

This paper explores a discrepancy between research and application in the operationalisation of ambiguity tolerance. Observational results from the practice of human resource development raised the question: How does the umbrella term ambiguity tolerance relate to the Frenkel-Brunswik theorem, and has this possibly become a dispositive of self-optimisation? Methodologically, the article follows a literature-based approach. Tracing three shifts in the reception of the term, the trend around tolerance of ambiguity is linked to its theoretical construct. While by no means exhaustive, by recontextualising the Frenkel-Brunswik theorem in this way and bringing it into focus, the article aims to open up further discussion.

Ellsberg meets Keynes at an urn

Keynes (1921) and Ellsberg (1961) have articulated an aversion toward betting on an urn containing balls of two colors of unknown proportion to one with a 50–50 composition. Keynes views this as reflecting different preferences for bets arising from different sources of uncertainty. Ellsberg describes this as weighting the priors arising from the unknown urn pessimistically. In two experiments, we observe substantial links between attitude toward almost‐objective uncertainty and attitudes toward multiple‐prior uncertainties in terms of ambiguity and its corresponding compound risk. Our findings point to a shared component across domains of uncertainty and motivate the need for further theoretical development.

The Fog of Peace: War on Terror, Surveillance States, and Post-human Governance

The War on Terror is an ambiguous term that has been used to circumvent the international laws of warfare. Instead of moving toward peace by way of limited warfare, and instead of preserving the independence of war and peace, War on Terror advances by masking itself in a fog of peace; it proliferates by overlapping the logic of “war-time” and “peace-time” operations. The fog of peace—as it shall herein be called—is a condition wherein the uncertainty qua “fog” of war,2 along with its militarized logic, overlaps with and eventually replaces civilian peace-time-and-spaces. The War on Terror is thus not a limiting of war by way of the conventional modern mechanisms of international law and diplomacy; it is a continuation of war by other means, including the use covert, often black-boxed methods of information-capture and surveillance. Globally, states are expanding the powers of intelligence organs and deploying covert mass surveillance programs in the name of counter-terrorism. In this manner, counter-terrorism policies become instruments enabling states to become predatory, especially in relation to civilians. Under the banner of fighting terrorism, peace-time has unwittingly become colonized by the logic of war.

ІНСТИТУЦІОНАЛІЗАЦІЯ: ПРОЦЕСИ ТА ЕЛЕМЕНТИ У СВІТЛІ СТІЙКОГО РОЗВИТКУ

More than two decades after the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development, sustainable development remains a major challenge. Politics and administration, especially in democratic societies, have a special responsibility for coordinating sustainable development. To fulfill this role, the regulative idea of sustainability must be integrated into policy and governance decision-making at all levels, from the local to the global. Taking this into account, we analyzed the development of the institutionalization of sustainable development as a cross-cutting and long-term problem. Drawing on a theoretical-conceptual framework derived from the theory of democracy, bureaucracy and political management/governance, we applied qualitative methods to understand how sustainability is integrated into political-administrative practice. In this article, we examine the elements and processes of institutionalization and present a perspective on how exactly sustainability is understood at the level of strategy formation. A deep analysis of the dynamics of the development of processes and elements of institutionalization indicates that the old institutional economics and the new institutional sociology can become an effective basis for an extended theoretical study of social and environmental accounting and reporting. The interaction of these two theories allows consideration of various aspects of institutions and their dynamics, including regulatory, normative and cultural-cognitive aspects. It is important to approach aspects of the old institutional economy, where the emphasis is on normative and customary aspects such as norms, conventions, rules and routines. The old theorists of institutional economics emphasize the importance of habits, procedures, and rules that define and maintain existing forms of behavior. Routines are «patterns of thought and action commonly adopted by groups of individuals», while rules are «a formally recognized way in which 'what should be done'». This approach reveals the difference between stable routines and formally defined rules that can be subject to change and institutionalization. On the other hand, new institutionalism is defined by a shift in focus from normative elements to shared understandings of social reality, such as symbols, meanings, and beliefs. He considers cultural and cognitive elements, as well as regulatory, as socially constructed phenomena that define a «common structure» for perceiving events and taking actions. As for the concept of «sustainable development», it can be concluded that it is a complex and ambiguous term that does not have a strict definition, but covers various aspects and understanding. Different points of view lead to different interpretations of this concept. As noted in the sources, in the additive model of sustainability, different actors may prioritize different aspects of sustainability (social, economic, environmental), depending on their interests and field of activity.

Content Validation of Questionnaire for Survey on Practice Preferences of Indian Anaesthesiologists in Difficult Intubation and “Cannot Intubate, Cannot Ventilate” Situations (CICV)

Introduction: American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) and Difficult Airway Society (DAS) have provided guidelines on management of difficult intubation and Cannot Intubate, Cannot Ventilate (CICV) situations. There have been many advances in equipment available to anaesthesiologist in difficult airway like Supraglottic Airway Devices (SGA), VideoLaryngoscope (VL) and optical stylet. The knowledge and practice of these guidelines are important for patient safety in difficult airway scenario. Aim: To validate the questionnaire to assess practice preferences in difficult intubation and CICV in Indian anaesthesiologist. Materials and Methods: This questionnaire-based observational survey was carried out between April 2021 to June 2021 at Department of Anaesthesia, DY Patil School of Medicine, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Nineteen questions were framed based on the literature related to difficult intubation and CICV practices. This questionnaire sent to 20 experts to grade each question on relevance, clarity, simplicity and ambiguity on a likert scale of 4 as provided in information sheet. Sixteen out of 20 experts responded. Nineteen questions were framed based on the literature related to difficult intubation and CICV practices. The questionnaire was expanded to 22 questions after pilot testing with 10 senior expert anaesthesiologists suggestion of including the question on apneic oxygenation. The collected responses were used to calculate Item-wise Content Validity Index (I-CVI), Scale-wise Content Validity Index (S-CVI) and Modified Kappa Statistics (MKS) in Microsoft excel sheet. Results: S-CVI for relevance, simplicity, clarity and ambiguity was 0.77, 0.77, 0.77 and 0.73, respectively. S-CVI/average or Average Congruency Percentage (ACP) was 0.95, 0.95, 0.95 and 0.94 for relevance, simplicity, clarity and ambiguity, respectively. Question 4, 14, 20, 22 received I-CVI of 0.75 in terms of relevance, clarity, simplicity and ambiguity and modified as per experts instructions. Conclusion: The survey questionnaire developed to assess practice preferences in difficult intubation and CICV fulfilled the content validity criteria both by qualitative and quantitative analyses.

Ambiguity in the Russian terminology of the energy industry

This article is devoted to the study of the formation and characteristics of ambiguous (polysemous) words in modern Russian terminology of the energy industry. In this article formation and development of terminology in Russia, the role of terminology in the XX and XXI centuries, the concept of terms and terminology in modern Russian linguistics, and the essence of polysemous terms in the energy industry are considered. This study is carried out by the lexico-semantic approach, observation, collecting and analysis of data. As the result of the collected data analysis, it can be concluded that 1) a number of ambiguous (polysemous) terms is found in the terminology of the energy industry; 2) those terms are widely used in different scientific texts, discourses and research; 3) some of them can be found with the similar or different meanings in various scientific fields; 4) the intended meaning of a polysemous term can be identified according to the context. The results of this article can be used in teaching and learning the Russian language as a native or a foreign language, in the development of training courses for professional communications, for translation of scientific texts and in the creation of dictionaries.

Lokalna demokratija i oblici direktnog učešća građana u vlasti - primer Srbija

The subject of this paper is the institutions of direct democracy at the local level in Serbia, with the aim of analyzing valid solutions (de lege lata) and improving the legal framework (de lege ferenda). The author starts from the thesis that local democracy is an ambiguous and imprecise term. In a broader sense, it represents the right of citizens to participate in government at the local level. In a narrower sense, this term is used as a synonym for local self-government (decentralization) and direct participation of citizens in government. On the other hand, tradition, socio-economic assumptions, legal (normative) framework and political environment are factors that influence local democracy. Apart from the election of local government representatives (representative local democracy), the basic institutional channels of local democracy are forms of direct citizen participation of citizens in decision-making, such as referendum and people's initiative. The application of institutions of direct democracy can be one of the indicators of the level of development of local self-government and local democracy. In the Republic of Serbia, institutional mechanisms for direct citizen participation in local self-government have been created, such as referendums, citizens' initiatives, and assembly of citizens (zbor). In addition, citizens have the right to petition and publicly criticize the authorities, the right to be heard on the authorities' intentions and the right to be informed about and monitor the work of the authorities. The local referendum is enshrined in the Constitution and other institutions are regulated by legal provisions. The quality of these regulations improved after the adoption of the new Law on Referendums and People's Initiative (2021). However, in local self-government units, the scope of these institutions of direct democracy is very limited low. The practice of direct local democracy is very poor, although there is a long tradition of struggle for local self-government in the 19th century. Such a situation is a consequence of the party state that multiplies the centralized way of decision-making, which is manifested in limited participation of citizens in political processes, increasing distrust in political institutions and ineffective control of the authorities in local self-government units. The crisis of democracy also manifests itself in the fact that citizens are less and less interested in public policy. Based on empirical data, comparative experiences and legal standards, the author believes that the solution lies in reviving the application of direct democracy at the local level.

DISPLAY OF CHANGES IN THE FUNCTIONING AND SEMANTICS OF THE TERMS IN THE INTERPRETATIVE DICTIONARY OF THE ACTIVE TYPE

The article analyzes the processes of terminating, determinating, transterminating and reterminating vocabulary. These processes are actively manifested in modern socio-political and military vocabulary and terminology in the war period of 2022–2023 based on the material of modern texts of various styles. Terminating of commonly used vocabulary means the development of the semantic potential of the word, which expands the functioning of the word in compounds, which further aspectualize the original concept in specialized texts (corridor, cauldron, arrival). Special vocabulary is determined as a result of its metaphorization and subsequent functioning in non-special texts (base, zero). As a result, new meanings develop in the semantic structure of a multi-meaning word. Transterminating is called “migration” of a term from one special field to another (package, plate). Reterminating is the growth of special values in the term (blackout). The possibilities of displaying these processes in the explanatory dictionary of the active type are shown. If we are talking about the terminating of a commonly used lexeme, then a new meaning may appear in the dictionary article with a note that indicates the scope of the term. If determinating occurs, a new non-special meaning of the register unit with corresponding illustrations from journalistic and artistic texts can be added to the structure of the dictionary article; and it is possible to reflect transterminating or reterminating in a dictionary article by submitting a new terminological meaning of the register unit with a note indicating the scope of its functioning and with appropriate illustrations. It has been found that the considered processes become the cause of further specialization of terms in various industry terminology systems and their migration from one industry to another. As a result, it is possible to increase the ambiguity of terms and the emergence of homonymous terms.

Ceticismo sobre a Filosofia Latino-Americana

Abstract A long and varied history of claims about the nature of Latin American philosophy invariably features a normative claims concerning its shortcomings in virtues such as originality, authenticity, peculiarity, and internal or external recognition. As argued in this paper, what to make of such metaphilosophical skepticism depends on the semantics of the ambiguous term ‘Latin American philosophy.’ When interpreted as a distinctive branch of applied philosophy in the way I have proposed in some of my earlier works (2002, 2020), there are no good reasons for skepticism about this type of philosophy. By contrast, there are good reasons for skepticism when interpreted in the universalist way proposed, for example, by Venezuelan philosopher of science Carlos Ulises Moulines (2010). Since each of these interpretations captures what speakers might commonly mean by ‘Latin American philosophy,’ the question of what to make of the quality of the area of philosophy designated by this term is contingent on what we mean. In the course of arguing for this conclusion, this paper rules out some universalist as well distinctivist alternatives.

An analysis of interpretation of insurance contracts: common law versus strict contra proferentem

The majority of states recognize insurance policies as contracts of adhesion, in which the applicant must either accept the terms of the policy as written by the insurance company or reject the terms and accept similar terms from another insurance company (Plitt, 2010). As of June 2014, 44 states have adopted special rules interpreting insurance contracts to balance unequal bargaining power.1 One common alternative to traditional contract law is strict contra proferentem, which interprets ambiguous terms against the drafter without reviewing extrinsic or parol evidence. A second alternative, known as the reasonable expectations doctrine, interprets unambiguous policy language using the reasonable person standard. This article provides a discussion of the methods available to courts as it relates to interpreting ambiguous insurance contracts.

LANGUAGE AMBIGUITY IN EFL LEARNERS’ NARRATIVE TEXTS: A SEMANTIC DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

This qualitative study investigates the ambiguity in five EFL learners’ narrative texts. This study reveals that the narrative texts contain lexical and syntactic ambiguities. Lexical ambiguity can happen because of polysemy and homonymy. In terms of syntactic ambiguity, ambiguous languages occur in the surface and deep structure of the sentences for various reasons, such as coordinator, gerund, and adjectives followed by an infinitive. Luckily, the lexical and syntactic ambiguities do not give the readers much trouble comprehending the texts if the context is clear. The context, particularly the preceding and following sentences, helps the readers understand the text. Sentences with ambiguous words or ambiguous structures can be clearly delivered as long as the writers are able to provide a clear context. Additionally, the writers in this present study tend to intentionally use ambiguous words in their sentences in order to use the words metaphorically and to tell the story in a more artistic way since the purpose of the narrative text is to entertain the readers.

Role Conflict, Role Ambiguity and Job Performance among Supervisors: With Special Reference to Selected Apparel Companies in Sri Lanka

<p class="Default">The apparel industry takes a more significant position than other industries that contribute to major income sources in Sri Lanka. Apparel firms mostly rely on the performance of their workforce. However, the problems with regard to job roles are reducing the job performance of the operational level employees, including supervisory employees. They engage in most of the activities that are beyond their responsibility, which results in role conflict and role ambiguity that directly affects their own job performance. Thus, this research study aimed at identifying the relationship and impact of role conflict and role ambiguity on job performance among supervisors in the selected apparel industry in Sri Lanka. The research model was developed from the existing literature regarding the study area. The data were collected from 75 operational level employees-supervisors in three apparel firms using simple random sampling method. Primary data collection was done by using a self-administrated questionnaire, which included 31 statements in terms of role conflict, role ambiguity, and job performance with a Five-Point Likert Scale. The dataset was analyzed based on descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis through SPSS. The findings revealed that supervisors in the selected three apparel firms experienced a high level of role conflict and role ambiguity, and that both role conflict and role ambiguity variables are positively correlated with job performance. Furthermore, role conflict and role ambiguity positively impact on job performance. Future researchers may assess some other variables that can have an impact on employee job performance.