Topical Closure Research Articles

The (inter)subjectification ofbottom linephrases

AbstractBottom lineoccurs in several phrases, including the [(the) N is] construction. Its constructionalization is more advanced than that of other nouns: it can now be used as a true discourse marker, in the left or in the right periphery. The data confirm the influence of position on pragmatic function. Cataphoricbottom linemainly fulfills discursive functions (summation, contradiction, sub-topic shift or topic-resumption), while anaphoricbottom lineis an intersubjective expression that signals turn and topic closure and aims at pre-empting potential disalignment. However, the cataphoric discourse marker is also undergoing incipient intersubjectification. This is due to the deletion of the copula, which allowsbottom lineto have scope over the interlocutor’s discourse rather than simply over its host sentence.

How Speakers Orient to the Notable Absence of Talk: A Conversation Analytic Perspective on Silence in Psychodynamic Therapy.

Silence has gained a prominent role in the field of psychotherapy because of its potential to facilitate a plethora of therapeutically beneficial processes within patients’ inner dynamics. This study examined the phenomenon from a conversation analytical perspective in order to investigate how silence emerges as an interactional accomplishment and how it attains interactional meaning by the speakers’ adjacent turns. We restricted our attention to one particular sequential context in which a patient’s turn comes to a point of possible completion and receives a continuer by the therapist upon which a substantial silence follows. The data collection consisted of 74 instances of such post-continuer silences. The analysis revealed that silence (1) can retroactively become part of a topic closure sequence, (2) can become shaped as an intra-topic silence, and (3) can be explicitly characterized as an activity in itself that is relevant for the therapy in process. Only in this last case, the absence of talk is actually treated as disruptive to the ongoing talk. Although silence is often seen as a therapeutic instrument that can be implemented intentionally and purposefully, our analysis demonstrated how it is co-constructed by speakers and indexically obtains meaning by adjacent turns of talk. In the ensuing turns, silence indeed shows to facilitate access to the patient’s subjective experience at unconscious levels.

Reformulating and Mirroring in Psychotherapy: A Conversation Analytic Perspective.

The conversational actions of reformulating and mirroring constitute some of the core intervention techniques of psychotherapy. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the way in which therapists in cognitive-behavioral (CBT) and psychodynamic therapy (PDT) use reformulating and mirroring strategies to return patients’ prior talk and how their differential usage can be viewed in light of the respective manualized recommendations. A mixed methods approach was applied using qualitative data that derived from a RCT. The data collection consisted of 200 excerpts assembled from both treatment conditions. The method of Conversation Analysis was used to determine the practices that accomplished instances of reformulating and mirroring, and to examine their distinct implications for subsequent talk. The quantitative analysis revealed that cognitive-behavioral therapists are significantly more likely to use reformulations, which is in harmony with what is suggested in CBT’s treatment manuals. Psychodynamic therapists’ frequent use of transformative formulations is, by contrast, unexpected in regard to the suggestions of the treatment protocol, as these interventions steer toward topical closure. Compared to the CBT condition, psychodynamic therapists were still significantly more likely to rely on mirroring strategies, which are in line with PDT’s theoretical preference. Our findings raise the question whether alleged differences in treatment styles, as they are imposed by RCT methodology, are actually tangible in manual-guided clinical practice.

A Narravite Cloud Storage Management using Multi-level Semantic Bonding Technique

The problem of cloud storage management has been well studied. The growing size and types of data increases the challenge in storage and retrieval. Number of approaches has been discussed for the problem of storage management. Text based clustering algorithms and Semantic based approaches are defined to improve the performance of storage management. However, the methods suffer to achieve higher performance in indexing and retrieval in terms of storage management. To solve this issue, an efficient semantic bonding measure based clustering and data management algorithm is presented. The method maintains ontology of various classes where each class has been mentioned in multiple levels. Each level of a class has specific properties and values. Using the semantic ontology, the method estimates MSB (Multi-level semantic Bonding) measure for different class of data. The same has been estimated for different level of semantic classes. Indexing of document class is performed based on MSB where the documents similarity has been measured using Topical Closure Measure (TCM). According to the value of TCM, the documents which are similar are identified and merge. The proposed algorithm improves the performance of document clustering and storage management in cloud environment

Topic-shift discourse markers in L2 Italian

Abstract This paper examines how native speakers (NS) and non-native speakers (NNS) of Italian approach topic organisation (topic shift, topic closure, digressions, topic recovery, and summary) in oral interactions. The research focuses on which discourse markers (DMs) are used when speakers try to organise discourse topics, and the differences between NS and NNS when performing such metadiscourse functions. The analysis is based on data from a spoken corpus designed to study conversational strategies in Spanish learners of L2 Italian. It reveals that the acquisition of metadiscourse functions progresses at different rates depending on the function: whereas learners have a good pragmatic competence in using DMs for the introduction of new topics in conversation, they have difficulties with other functions, such as topic closure or summary. In addition, the function of topic recovery after a digression is explicitly marked by NNS by DMs which are not found in native varieties.

Editorial: Health Care Financing and Affordability in the Emerging Global Markets

Editorial: Health Care Financing and Affordability in the Emerging Global Markets

Well-prefaced turns in English conversation: A conversation analytic perspective

This paper presents evidence that the discourse particle well functions as a generalized procedural alert that the turn it prefaces will privilege its speaker's perspectives, interests or project relative to the expectations for action established in the prior turn or sequence. Using data from a corpus of 748 well-prefaced turns, a range of contexts that enrich and specify this function are identified including (i) responses to questions, (ii) topic shift and topic closure, and (iii) ‘my side’ corroborations of descriptions and judgments.

LiquiBand® Surgical S topical adhesive versus sutures for the closure of laparoscopic wounds. A randomized controlled trial

Cyanoacrylate adhesives offer the surgeon and patient an alternative to subcuticular suturing. LiquiBand® Surgical S (LBSS) is a new formulation with a blend of monomeric n-butyl and 2-octyl cyanoacrylates. In this study, the effectiveness, safety, and clinical utility of LBSS was compared to Vicryl™ sutures for the closure of laparoscopic incisions. This was a prospective randomized study of LBSS skin adhesive versus Vicryl™ sutures for the topical closure of laparoscopic surgical incisions. Subjects were asked to return at 2 weeks postsurgery to report complications and adverse events. Wounds were evaluated for apposition and cosmesis using a modified Hollander Wound Evaluation Scale (HWES). The Shapiro–Wilk test of normality was done. Independent-samples T test, Mann Whitney U test, and chi-square test were used to compare variables between the two wound closure methods. A total of 114 subjects participated in this trial completing all aspects of the study. Fifty-five subjects received sutures for topical wound closure, with 59 subjects receiving LBSS. Surgeons were found to be satisfied with 100 % of all applications using the LBSS device. One hundred percent of wounds closed with sutures and 98.9 % wounds closed with LBSS achieving an optimal HWES of 0. There was no statistical difference in cosmesis or complications for either method. Closure with LBSS was significantly faster by a mean of 2 min. LiquiBand® Surgical S is as good as sutures for the closure of laparoscopic wounds in terms of cosmesis and complications with the added benefit of being significantly faster.

Phrenic nerve block as a novel adjunct to the local treatment of bronchopleural fistula.

Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) is a life threatening complication after pneumonectomy with an incidence of about 2-5% and a mortality rate of up to 50%. Topical treatment such as fibrin glue has been previously described with limited success. We present a novel case in which blocking the phrenic nerve assisted in a successful topical closure of the BPF.

Notionalization: The Transformation of Descriptions into Categorizations

This paper analyses one specific conversational practice of formulation called ‘notionalization’. It consists in the transformation of a description by a prior speaker into a categorization by the next speaker. Sequences of this kind are a “natural laboratory” for studying the differences between descriptions and categorizations regarding their semantic, interactional, and rhetorical properties: Descriptive/narrative versions are often vague and tentative, multi unit turns, which are temporalized and episodic, offering a lot of contingent, situational, and indexical detail. Notionalizations turn them into condensed, abstract, timeless, and often agentless categorizations expressed by a noun (phrase) within one turn constructional unit (TCU). Drawing on audio- and video-taped German data from various types of interaction, the paper focuses on one particular practice of notionalization, the formulation of purportedly common ground by TCUs prefaced with the connective also. The paper discusses their turn-constructional and morphological properties, pointing out affinities of notionalization with language for special purposes. Notionalizations are used for reducing detail and for topical closure. They provide grounds for emergent keywords, which can be reused to re-contextualize topical issues and interactional histories efficiently. Notionalizations are powerful means for accomplishing intersubjectivity while pursuing (sometimes one-sided) practical relevancies at the same time. Their inevitably perspective design thus may lead to re-open the issue they were deemed to settle. The paper closes with an outlook to other practices of notionalization, pointing to dimensions of interactionally relevant variation and commonalities.

Inshallah: Religious invocations in Arabic topic transition

AbstractThe phrase inshallah ‘God willing’ is well known, even to non-Arabic speakers, as a mitigator of any statement regarding the future, or hopes for the future. Here we use the methods of conversation analysis (CA) to examine a less salient but nonetheless pervasive and compelling interactional usage: in topic-transition sequences. We use a corpus of Levantine (predominantly Syrian) Arabic talk-in-interaction to pay detailed attention to the sequential contexts of inshallah and its cognates across a number of exemplars. It emerges that these invocations are used to secure possible sequence and topic closure, and that they may engender reciprocal invocations. Topical talk following invocations or their responses is subsequently shown to be suspended by both parties; this provides for a move to a new topic by either party. (Arabic, religious expressions, conversation, conversation analysis, topic)*

Transport equations in moving material Part I: Neutrons and photons

Transport equations are usually formulated against a static material background in transport applications for neutral (neutrons, photons, mesons) and charged (electrons, protons, ions) particles. When the background is moving, the equations need be modified and corrected. We discuss these modifications and corrections, in both relativistic and nonrelativistic regimes, and contrast equations across applications. Neutron, photon, electron, neutrino, and meson transport are treated in a two part series. This review collects, collates, and expands published and unpublished developments and equations for moving material transport in different particle arenas. Hopefully, such provides a useful reference and source for readers across disciplines, linking basic underlying dynamics and representations. Part I centers on neutrons and photons, and Part II deals with electrons and neutrinos, almost an historical split. While transport equations for these particles share much in common, there are fundamental differences between particles that interact pointwise versus continuously, particles of zero rest mass versus nonzero rest mass, particles with relativistic energy versus nonrelativistic energy, and particles with short range versus long range. Our focuses are the fundamental equations and underlying dynamics of transport in moving backgrounds.The impacts in applications, important and legion, are detailed in the literature as cited. Accordingly, and invoking topic closure, applications are not recounted. Also, numerical techniques, developed with the emergence of supercomputing, are not treated herein. Both applications and numerical techniques are probably subjects of a separate communication Some modern transport codes dealing with moving material issues, however, are cited for reader reference. Many codes have been in existence for 25+ years, undergoing continuous updating, modification, improvement, and physical extension. For Part I, the main points of discussion and development are seen in the following Table of Contents, divided into neutron and photon moving material transport. An attempt at coverage of moving material transport with brevity is sought, and hopefully references provide details minimized, or not recounted, herein.

Querying web metadata

In this article, we discuss the issues involved in adding a native score management system to object-relational databases, to be used in querying Web metadata (that describes the semantic content of Web resources). The Web metadata model is based on topics (representing entities), relationships among topics (called metalinks ), and importance scores (sideway values) of topics and metalinks. We extend database relations with scoring functions and importance scores. We add to SQL score-management clauses with well-defined semantics, and propose the sideway-value algebra (SVA), to evaluate the extended SQL queries. SQL extensions and the SVA algebra are illustrated through two Web resources, namely, the DBLP Bibliography and the SIGMOD Anthology.SQL extensions include clauses for propagating input tuple importance scores to output tuples during query processing, clauses that specify query stopping conditions, threshold predicates (a type of approximate similarity predicates for text comparisons), and user-defined-function-based predicates. The propagated importance scores are then used to rank and return a small number of output tuples. The query stopping conditions are propagated to SVA operators during query processing. We show that our SQL extensions are well-defined, meaning that, given a database and a query Q, under any query processing scheme, the output tuples of Q and their importance scores stay the same.To process the SQL extensions, we discuss two sideway value algebra operators, namely, sideway value algebra join and topic closure, give their implementation algorithms, and report their experimental evaluations.

Figures of speech: Figurative expressions and the management of topic transition in conversation

ABSTRACTIn conversation, speakers occasionally use figurative expressions such as “had a good innings,” “take with a pinch of salt,” or “come to the end of her tether.” This article investigates WHERE in conversation such expressions are used, in terms of their sequential distribution. One clear distributional pattern is found: Figurative expressions occur regularly in topic transition sequences, and specifically in the turn where a topic is summarized, thereby initiating the closing of a topic. The paper discusses some of the distinctive features of the topic termination/transition sequences with which figurative closings are associated, particularly participants' orientation to their moving to new topics. Finally, the interactional use of figurative expressions is considered in the context of instances where their use fails to secure topical closure, manifesting some conflict (disaffiliation, etc.) between the participants. (Figurative expressions, idioms, conversation, topic)

Figures of speech: Figurative expressions and the management of topic transition in conversation

In conversation, speakers occasionally use figurative expressions such as “had a good innings,” “take with a pinch of salt,” or “come to the end of her tether.” This article investigates WHERE in conversation such expressions are used, in terms of their sequential distribution. One clear distributional pattern is found: Figurative expressions occur regularly in topic transition sequences, and specifically in the turn where a topic is summarized, thereby initiating the closing of a topic. The paper discusses some of the distinctive features of the topic termination/transition sequences with which figurative closings are associated, particularly participants' orientation to their moving to new topics. Finally, the interactional use of figurative expressions is considered in the context of instances where their use fails to secure topical closure, manifesting some conflict (disaffiliation, etc.) between the participants. (Figurative expressions, idioms, conversation, topic)