Terminology Gap Research Articles

Contrastive Socioterminology Analysis: The Case of Julakan and French of Health


 Up to now, Julakan -unlike French- fails to ensure efficiently and accu­rately transmission of ideas and knowledge in the field of health, even if the concern is sometimes diseases that exist in the environment where this language is used. The aim of this article is to contribute to the enrichment of the Julakan, or at least to stimulate this enrichment which would help this language become an effective means of communication and knowled­ge transfer. The method was a contrastive analysis of the nomenclature of the Julakan language used in the field of traditional medicine with the one utilized in the French language in the domain of modern medicine. The comparison made shows that even though there are instances of equivalence between the concepts of these two languages, there are also situations where quasi-equivalence and terminological gaps can cause problems at the level of communication and health care services. Faced with this reality, this arti­cle suggests specific solutions for each identified critical cases. In addition, new terms are proposed in order to fill terminological gaps and to enrich the nomenclature of the Julakan in the health domain.
 Received: 03-03-10 / Accepted: 30-04-10
 How to reference this article:Hien, A. (2010). Analyse socioterminologique contrastive: cas du julakan et du français de la santé. Íkala, 15(2), 43 – 72.

A semi-supervised incremental algorithm to automatically formulate topical queries

The quality of the material collected by a context-based Web search systems is highly dependant on the vocabulary used to generate the search queries. This paper proposes to apply a semi-supervised algorithm to incrementally learn terms that can help bridge the terminology gap existing between the user’s information needs and the relevant documents’ vocabulary. The learning strategy uses an incrementally-retrieved, topic-dependent selection of Web documents for term-weight reinforcement reflecting the aptness of the terms in describing and discriminating the topic of the user context. The new algorithm learns new descriptors by searching for terms that tend to occur often in relevant documents, and learns good discriminators by identifying terms that tend to occur only in the context of the given topic. The enriched vocabulary allows the formulation of search queries that are more effective than those queries generated directly using terms from the initial topic description. An evaluation on a large collection of topics using a standard and two ad-hoc performance evaluation metrics suggests that the proposed technique is superior to a baseline and other existing query reformulation techniques.

Coining and Defining Novel Nursing Terminology. Part 2: Critical Incident Nursing Intervention

In the second of a three-part series, a novel nursing terminology is introduced and proposed for inclusion in the Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC): Critical incident nursing intervention (CINI), defined as any indirect or direct care registered nurse-initiated treatment, based upon clinical judgment and knowledge that a registered nurse performs in response to a critical incident nursing diagnosis (CIND). A CIND is defined as recognition of an acute life-threatening event that occurs as a result of disease, surgery, treatment, or medication. The literature, research studies, meta-analyses from a variety of disciplines, and personal clinical experience serve as the data sources for this article. The current nursing interventions in the NIC are inaccurate or inadequate for describing nursing care during life-threatening situations. The lack of standardized nursing terminology creates a barrier that may impede critical communication and patient care during life-threatening situations. Coining and defining novel nursing terminology, CINI, for patient care during life-threatening situations is important and fills the gap in the current standardized nursing terminology. Refining the NIC will permit nursing researchers, among others, to conduct studies on nursing interventions in conjunction with the proposed novel nursing terminology, CINI. The first article in this series (Part 1) introduced the novel nursing terminology: CIND; the present article (Part 2) introduces the novel nursing terminology: CINI; and the third article in this series (Part 3) will introduce the novel nursing terminology: critical incident control.

Genomics, proteomics, MEMS and SAIF: which role for diagnostic imaging?

In these three words--genomics, proteomics and nanotechnologies--is the future of medicine of the third millennium, which will be characterised by more careful attention to disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Molecular imaging appears to satisfy this requirement. It is emerging as a new science that brings together molecular biology and in vivo imaging and represents the key for the application of personalized medicine. Micro-PET (positron emission tomography), micro-SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography), micro-CT (computed tomography), micro-MR (magnetic resonance), micro-US (ultrasound) and optical imaging are all molecular imaging techniques, several of which are applied only in preclinical settings on animal models. Others, however, are applied routinely in both clinical and preclinical setting. Research on small animals allows investigation of the genesis and development of diseases, as well as drug efficacy and the development of personalized therapies, through the study of biological processes that precede the expression of common symptoms of a pathology. Advances in molecular imaging were made possible only by collaboration among scientists in the fields of radiology, chemistry, molecular and cell biology, physics, mathematics, pharmacology, gene therapy and oncology. Although until now researchers have traditionally limited their interactions, it is only by increasing these connections that the current gaps in terminology, methods and approaches that inhibit scientific progress can be eliminated.

Coining and Defining Novel Nursing Terminology. Part 1: Critical Incident Nursing Diagnosis

In the first of a three-part series, a novel nursing terminology is introduced and proposed for inclusion in the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) International Classification--Critical incident nursing diagnosis (CIND)--defined as the recognition of an acute life-threatening event that occurs as a result of disease, surgery, treatment, or medication. The literature, research studies, and meta-analyses from a variety of disciplines, and personal clinical experience serve as the data sources for this article. The current nursing diagnoses in the NANDA International Classification are inaccurate or inadequate for describing nursing care during life-threatening situations. The lack of standardized nursing terminology creates a barrier that may impede critical communication and patient care during life-threatening situations. Coining and defining a novel nursing terminology, CIND, for patient care during life-threatening situations are important and fill the gap in the current standardized nursing terminology. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE. Refining the NANDA International Classification will permit nursing researchers, among others, to conduct studies on nursing diagnoses in conjunction with the proposed novel nursing terminology: CIND. Parts 2 and 3 of this series will propose additional nursing terminology: critical incident nursing intervention and critical incident control, respectively.

Self-Neglect: A Proposed New NANDA Diagnosis

To propose a new NANDA diagnosis, self-neglect. Research studies and literature published from a variety of disciplines including nursing as well as primary research. This diagnosis can be used to describe a constellation of self-care problems of varying severity and impact on the health and well-being of people who self-neglect. Included are two subtypes of self-neglect based on the degree of intentionality. Clarification of self-neglect is long overdue because self-neglect presents conceptual, identification, and intervention problems for nurses, healthcare workers, and for medicolegal systems across settings and in many countries. The proposed diagnosis, self-neglect, fills a gap in current standardized terminology. This diagnosis will contribute significantly to nurses leading the way in the explication of an interdisciplinary and international health concern. PRACTICE AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS: Developing self-neglect as a recognized nursing label is vital to clinicians and policy makers within and across countries. Appreciating less serious/non-life-threatening presentations will give nurses a care perspective to improve the health and well-being of those in earlier stages of self-neglect. Definitions for this phenomenon will contribute to care planning and interventions, leading to consistency in practice and research.

Concept Based Retrieval Using Generalized Retrieval Functions

One of the essential goals in information retrieval is to bridge the gap between the way users would prefer to specify their information needs and the way queries are required to be expressed. Rule Based Information Retrieval by Computer (RUBRIC) is one of the approaches proposed to achieve this goal. This approach involves the use of production rules to capture user-query concepts (or topics). In RUBRIC, a set of related production rules is represented as an AND/OR tree, or alternatively by a disjunction of Minimal Term Sets (MTSs). The retrieval output is determined by the evaluation of the weighted Boolean expressions of the AND/OR tree, and processing efficiency can be enhanced by employing MTSs. However, since the weighted Boolean expression ignores the term-term association unless it is explicitly represented in the tree, the terminological gap between users' queries and their information needs may still remain. To solve this problem, we adopt the generalized vector space model (GVSM) and the p-norm based extended Boolean model. Experiments are performed for two variations of the RUBRIC model, extended with GVSM, as well as for the integrated use of RUBRIC with the p-norm based extended Boolean model. The results are compared to the original RUBRIC model based on recall-precision.

Enhancing Concept-Based Retrieval Based onMinimal Term Sets

There is considerable interest in bridging the terminological gap that exists between the way users prefer to specify their information needs and the way queries are expressed in terms of keywords or text expressions that occur in documents. One of the approaches proposed for bridging this gap is based on technologies for expert systems. The central idea of such an approach was introduced in the context of a system called Rule Based Information Retrieval by Computer (RUBRIC). In RUBRIC, user query topics (or concepts) are captured in a rule base represented by an AND/OR tree. The evaluation of AND/OR tree is essentially based on minimum and maximum weights of query terms for conjunctions and disjunctions, respectively. The time to generate the retrieval output of AND/OR tree for a given query topic is exponential in number of conjunctions in the DNF expression associated with the query topic. In this paper, we propose a new approach for computing the retrieval output. The proposed approach involves preprocessing of the rule base to generate Minimal Term Sets (MTSs) that speed up the retrieval process. The computational complexity of the on-line query evaluation following the preprocessing is polynomial in m. We show that the computation and use of MTSs allows a user to choose query topics that best suit their needs and to use retrieval functions that yield a more refined and controlled retrieval output than is possible with the AND/OR tree when document terms are binary. We incorporate p-Norm model into the process of evaluating MTSs to handle the case where weights of both documents and query terms are non-binary.

Relating objective measurements to expert evaluation of voice quality in Western classical singing: critical perceptual parameters.

Communication between voice pedagogues and voice scientists is often impeded by reliance on colorful and sometimes seemingly contradictory descriptions of vocal production and voice quality. A recent study identified perceptual criteria which are generally used by voice experts for the assessment of voice quality in classical singing. In the present study, performances by singers of various voice types and levels of accomplishment were rated by panels of expert voice teachers according to four perceptual criteria: "resonance/ring," "color/warmth," "clarity/focus," and "appropriate vibrato." Subjective ratings were related to objective measurements taken from acoustic analysis of the voice signal. Possible acoustic correlates of critical perceptual parameters influencing judgments of voice quality were thus identified. Results could help bridge the terminology gap between vocal artists and scientists, and help to promote understanding of the way in which acoustic stimuli influence perception of voice quality.

Progress in equine locomotion terminology

A workshop was conducted to provide input for the development of a comprehensive glossary of equine locomotion terminology. The organisers plan to utilise the recommendations to complete revisions of a glossary for submission for publication in late 1994. Many equine locomotion investigators have emphasised a need to clarify and render more precise communications among scientists working in the field. Several individuals have presented recommendations for English language terminology concerning equine locomotion (Leach et al. 1984; Clayton 1989). Recently a set of general recommendations was made following the First International Workshop on Animal Locomotion (Leach 1993). However, there is still a lack of agreement on consistent terminology in many aspects of locomotion that are the subjects of ongoing study. Scientists agree on the need to define terms objectively, but laboratories working in the equine locomotion field tend to differ in the terminology they have adopted. Some terms for gait parameters are slightly different because they are defined and measured differently or are newly defined by emergent technologies. However, some locomotion researchers use different words for describing the same variable. This lack of consistency creates problems in decoding communications between specialists in the field and makes it difficult for new students of locomotion or non-English speakers to understand the (largely English language) scientific literature. A terminology gap is also apparent between technical analyses of equine locomotion and practice in the field, with some glossaries available that are designed to address this (Shively 1984). Veterinarians, farriers and horse owners tend to differ in their descriptions of equine locomotion, so developing a common terminology therefore would be helpful in clarifying communications in sports-medical applications and promoting effective cooperation in rehabilitative efforts. Furthermore, equine sports biomechanics researchers are beginning to enter areas of investigation, such as dressage and show jumping, previously studied only by the experienced eye of the equestrian. The terminology and definitions must continue to evolve to meet new needs in these areas. Many terms in use are defined by the rules of sport governing bodies, primarily the FCdCration Equestre Internationale (I99 I , 1992), since objective definitions are necessary to make fair and consistent judgements regarding sports performances. However, other terms employed by judges or used in rule books are vaguely defined or subjective (USDF 1993). Some terms are used quite differently by divergent horse industry or disciplines. Investigators are in agreement that they would be unlikely to effect major changes in jargon in common usage in the horse industry. It would be beneficial, however, for specialists to identify the terms that are in common use which may be defined or objectively and then to settle on appropriate biomechanical definitions, while also identifying purely subjective terms used as aesthetic descriptors by equestrians and judges.

Electron spectroscopic investigation of biphenyl and Cs: A model system for doping conducting polymers

Thin layers of biphenyl molecules and Cs on a Pd(110) single crystal substrate have been prepared by evaporation in an ultrahigh vacuum environment. The electronic interactions between Cs atoms and the organic molecules have been studied by electron spectroscopic techniques such as ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), whereas the energetics of the mixed Cs and biphenyl layers has been investigated by thermal desorption mass spectrometry (TDS). TDS experiments revealed attractive interaction between Cs and biphenyl and the formation of a molecular complex. The electronic structure of the Cs/biphenyl complex is distinctly different from the sum of the individual constituents. New electronic states appear in the region between the molecular HOMO and LUMO's (that is in the band gap in solid state terminology). Two states have been observed in UPS, and excitations involving these new gap states have been detected in EELS. The implications of this very model system for the conducting mechanism in doped polymers will be discussed.

Towards a pluralistic concept of function function statements in biology

The meaning of function statements is not clear. Several authors have come up with different explications. By interviewing biologists I tried to get a picture of how they think about ‘function’. Two explications of “Feature X of organism S has function F” came to the fore: (1) “X contributes to F and F contributes to survival/reproduction of S” and (2) “X does F and that contributes to the evolutionary development of X in S via natural selection”. Most biologists also related function to adaptation. Gould and Vrba criticize the ordinary use of ‘adaptation’ in biology. They propose to use it only in the sense of features developed by natural selection for their current role and to use ‘exaptation’ for features enhancing fitness, but not developed for this by natural selection. This, however, leaves a terminological gap, because as a consequence only effects of adaptations are functions. Effects of exaptations and effects which are not beneficial, like the production of heart sounds, are placed on the same level. That is not in accordance with the practice of biology. That is why a distinction is made between general, adaptive and exaptive functions: function as a pluralistic concept.

Medical Law for the Attending Physician: A Case-Oriented Analysis

Numerous heroic attempts have been made to brief physicians on the legal principles that affect their practices, ranging from heavy tomes on legal medicine to breezy videotapes. Most have met with serious problems inherent in the challenge: disciplinary gaps in terminology, complexity of legal process, and temptations to relate "bad doctor" or "worst possible results" examples and to engage in pedantic preaching. Coupled with too generous assumptions about physicians' attention spans, authors have generally failed to do more than frighten readers by the chapter headings: medical malpractice liability, patients' rights, public reporting responsibilities, and antitrust issues. Now there is a book that makes another valiant effort to bridge the chasm between lawyer's law and physician's law. Dr Fiscina, who is trained as both a physician and a lawyer, seems to have found a way to explain legal principles in medical language. By paraphrasing rather than merely editing the reported court

Nomenclature for Sedimentary Rocks

Despite the many excellent papers on classification of sedimentary rocks, there is still so much loose and variable usage of names that it is not possible to be certain of--or in some cases even to guess at--the intended meanings of terms found in the literature. This paper is presented to redraw attention to this confusion, to plead for wider employment of clearly defined terms, and to offer a general system of nomenclature which could provide greater uniformity and precision in terminology. This system is not revolutionary, but merely proposes restricted meaning for many current names and a general scheme for systematically deriving other names. The classical concept of sedimentary rocks as mixtures of mechanical and chemical fractions is the principal nomenclatural bas s in this system. The main name reflects the most abundant constituent of the dominant fraction. A finer division of silicate sandstone than customary is believed practical and desirable. Three terms are proposed to fill a conspicuous gap in terminology. Aggregal and integral describe textures of mechanical and chemical origin, respectively, but are defined petrographically. Accretic, a term correlative with clastic, describes aggregal textures composed of grains formed by accretion. The most important criterion for a nomenclature is that it must enable the reader to understand the terms employed by the writer. This understanding can be assured if the writer refers to an explicit classification or nomenclatural system.

Nomenclature for Sedimentary Rocks: ABSTRACT

Despite the many excellent papers on classification of sedimentary rocks, there is still so much loose and variable usage of names that it is not possible to be certain--or, at times, to have even a good notion--of the intended meanings of names found in the literature. If intelligible communication contributes anything to progress in sedimentary petrology, then the existing state of affairs must constitute an appreciable drag on progress. This paper is presented to re-draw End_Page 483------------------------------ attention to this lamentable state, to plead for wider employment of clearly defined names, and to offer a general system of nomenclature which could provide a means of achieving greater uniformity and precision in terminology. This system is not in the least revolutionary but merely proposes restricted meaning for many existing names and a general scheme for systematically deriving other names. Guiding principles are: (1) names should be based on petrographic features; (2) these features should be established, not inferred; (3) the system for naming rocks should be flexible enough to apply both in the field and in the laboratory; and (4) names should be just as quantitative as the means of examination permits. The classical concept of sedimentary rocks as mixtures of mechanical and chemical fractions is the principal nomenclatural basis in this system. The main name reflects the most abundant constituent of the dominant fraction. A finer division of silicate sandstone than is customarily made is believed practical and desirable. Three terms are proposed to fill a conspicuous gap in terminology. Aggregal and integral describe textures of mechanical and chemical origin, respectively, but are defined petrographically. Accretic, a correlative term with clastic, describes aggregal textures composed of grains formed by accretion. Integral textures include those which are crystalline and amorphous. The most important point concerning nomenclature is that the reader understand the terminology employed by the writer. This can be assured by reference to an explicit classification or nomenclatural system. End_of_Article - Last_Page 484------------