Structured prediction models for argumentative claim parsing from text

The internet abounds with opinions expressed in text. While a number of natural language processing techniques have been proposed for opinion analysis from text, most offer only a shallow analysis without providing any insights into reasons supporting the opinions. In online discussions, however, opinions are typically expressed as arguments, consisting of a set of claims endowed with internal semantic structure amenable to deeper analysis. In this article, we introduce the task of argumentative claim parsing (ACP), which aims at extracting semantic structures of claims from argumentative text. The task is split into two subtasks: claim segmentation and claim structuring. We present a new dataset on two discussion topics with claims manually annotated for both subtasks. Inspired by structured prediction approaches, we propose a number of supervised machine learning models for the ACP task, including deep learning, chain classifier, and joint learning models. Our experiments reveal that claim segmentation is a relatively feasible task, with the best-performing model achieving up to 0.37 and 0.79 exact and lenient macro-averaged F1-score, respectively. Claim structuring, however, proved to be a more challenging task, with the best-performing models achieving at most 0.08 macro-averaged F1-score

Microneedle Devices And Methods Of Manufacture And Use Thereof

Microneedle devices are provided for transport of molecules across tissue barriers and for use as microflameholders. In a preferred embodiment for transport across tissue, the microneedles are formed of a biodegradable polymer. Methods of making these devices, which can include hollow and/or porous microneedles, are also provided. A preferred method for making a microneedle includes forming a micromold having sidewalls which define the outer surface of the microneedle, electroplating the sidewalls to form the hollow microneedle, and then removing the micromold from the microneedle. In a preferred method of use, the microneedle device is used to deliver material into or across a biological barrier from chambers in connection with at least one of the microneedles. The device preferably further includes a means for controlling the flow of material through the microneedles. Representative examples of these means include the use of permeable membranes, fracturable impermeable membranes, valves, and pumps.Georgia Tech Research Corporatio

The naturalistic turn in economics: implications for the theory of finance

Economics is increasingly adopting the methodological standards and procedures of the natural sciences. The paper analyzes this 'naturalistic turn' from the philosophical perspective on naturalism, and I discuss the implications for the field of finance. The theory of finance is an interesting case in point for the methodological issues, as it manifests a paradigmatic tension between the pure theory of finance and Behavioral Finance. I distinguish between three kinds of naturalism: mark I, the reduction of behavior on psychoneural phenomena, mark II, the transfer of patterns of causal explanations from the natural sciences to the social sciences, mark III, the enrichment of the ontology from observer-independent to observer-relative facts. Building an integrated naturalistic paradigm from these three ingredients, I show that naturalism in economics will only be completed by a simultaneous linguistic turn, with language being analyzed from the naturalistic viewpoint. I relate this proposition with recent results of research into finance, especially connecting Behavioral Finance with the sociology of finance. --Naturalism,causation in economics,neuroeconomics,behavioral finance,social ontology,sociology of finance

The construction of Turkish modern architecture in architectural history writing

Thesis (Master)--İzmir Institute of Technology, Architecture, İzmir, 2003Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 108-111)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishvi, 111 leavesThis study concentrates on architectural historiography, which functions as an independent medium of activity and production within the discipline of architecture and affects architectural practice directly or indirectly. Historiography, which has been handled as one of the realms of discourse production, has been evaluated in terms of the formation of conditions in the framework of this study. Besides restrictions that stem from discourse's own structure, the compelling factors, which are caused by these formative conditions, have been examined, and extant methods to overcome these problems have been discussed in the realm of architectural historiography. In this framework, this study claims that history writing of architecture has to be handled in terms of its own epistemology in order to attain efficacy. The study aims at evaluating the historiography of Turkish modern architecture in the frame of the phenomenon of an emergent discourse as the indicator of the nation-state ideology and its exclusions.Within the scope of the study, the historiography of Turkish modern architecture has been evaluated critically, and different conceptions of modernity have been interrogated. The concept of modernity, which is a self-generating social process that started in the Ottoman Empire, and the concept of modernity, which was produced by nation-state ideology and based on the physical indicators of the process of Western modernization, have been comparatively evaluated in terms of how they handled the realm of architectural historiography. The study argues critically that one of the two different architectural practices, which were developed the different conceptions of modernity, found focus on in architectural historiography. Thus the other was excluded.As a result of this evaluation, the study proposes that a different architectural historiographic method, which includes what was so far been the excluded, has to be developed.Keywords: historiography, architectural historiography, modernism, nation-state, historiography of Turkish modern architecture

Translation as a Rhetoric of Meaning

From early romanticism to more recent post-structuralist and post-colonial studies, all the possibilities and impossibilities that are inherent in translation have fueled debate about authorship, intent, readership, functional equivalence, world view, the building of national literatures, power differentials, ethics, and gender issues—among many others. And, of course, about the nature of “meaning,” as the alleged sole legal tender of “all things translation.” Translation has less often been scrutinized as a form of rhetorical transaction: fundamentally, all translations are attempts, in and of themselves, to persuade their readership about some degree of correspondence with their source. However, the relationship between Translation and Rhetoric surpasses this ontological threshold of persuasion and metatextual transcendence in a far more sophisticated way, exceeding also the sheer plane of textual mechanics. This paper seeks to demonstrate how a systematic inclusion of rhetoric-centered approaches in Translation Studies, and vice versa, would cross-fertilize not just those two fields, but how it also would help to shed light on some areas where a monolingual focus has all too often imposed significant limitations to progress. It will also provide a quick overview of what I define as a “Rhetoric of Meaning in Translation Studies,” and will also explore how the study of rhetorical correspondence at the micro level in source and target languages and texts may be substantially hindered by significant structural disparities at the macro level that may have not been systematically or successfully incorporated in the wider theoretical framework of Translation Studies

The interactional organisation of initial business-to-business sales calls with prospective clients

The aim of this thesis is to break new ground by investigating the interactional organisation of real events that comprise live business-to-business cold calls. Despite being a ubiquitous part of everyday life, we know very little about how cold calls are initiated, progressed, and completed. Cold calls are unsolicited telephone encounters, initiated by salespeople aiming to get prospective clients ( prospects ) interested in their services, with the distal goal of turning them into clients and the proximal goal of getting them to agree to an initial meeting. Cold calls are often treated as a nuisance by call-takers, and salespeople must deal with reluctant gatekeepers, recurrent sales resistance, and the occasional hang-up. The training they receive often draws on outdated theories of communication and is rarely supported by empirical evidence. Thus, this study not only addresses an important domain for interactional research, but also fulfils a practical necessity for empirical research that will inform sales training and improve callers and call-takers experiences. The data comprise 150 recorded calls supplied by three British companies that sell, service, and lease office equipment. The data were collected, transcribed, and analysed within an ethnomethodological framework using conversation analysis and discursive psychology. The first analytic chapter outlines the overall structural organisation of cold calling. It documents the constituent activities within the opening, the business of the call, and the closing. It identifies and describes two types of cold calls. Freezing calls are initiated by salespeople who are contacting a prospect for the very first time. Lukewarm calls feature salespeople who claim to have been in contact with the prospect s organisation in the past. The second chapter excavates the initial turns of lukewarm calls in which salespeople ask to speak to another person within the company, with whom they indicate to be acquainted. The analysis revealed that this third-party acquaintanceship was crucial for establishing the legitimacy of the switchboard request and for improving the chances of getting it granted. The third chapter focused on appointment-making sequences in both freezing and lukewarm calls, showing that they comprise two components: a preamble and a meeting request sequence. I also highlight how salespeople exploit sequential and turn-taking mechanisms to secure meetings with prospects without giving the latter the opportunity to refuse. The final chapter examines two practices for enacting resistance in cold calls blocks and stalls and documents the range of methods salespeople employ for dealing with each type of resistance. Sales blocks expose the salesperson s commercial agenda, attempt to stop the prospecting activity, and move towards call pre-closure. In response, salespeople can challenge, counter, or circumvent blocks as well as redo their initiating actions. Stalls slow down the progress of the sales process by delaying the next phase of the sale or by proposing less commitment-implicative alternatives. Salespeople deal with stalls by either justifying their initial proposal or by spontaneously introducing new action plans, both being more conducive to the progress of the sale. The thesis contributes to a growing body of interactional research on commercial encounters by shedding empirical light on a previously unexamined setting, business-to-business cold calls. It also moves forward discursive psychology s project of respecifying psychological phenomena by documenting the communicative practices associated with persuasion and resistance. Finally, it expands the extant conversation analytic toolkit by examining new practices (such as appointment-making) and by providing new insights into key conversation analytic topics (such as requests, pre-sequences, and accounts for calling). Overall, the findings presented in this thesis challenge existing conceptions of prospecting through cold calling that are prevalent in the sales literature. The thesis puts forward a strong argument for opening the black box of cold calls to better understand these interactions and to identify good practices as the basis for communication training. Research presented in this thesis has already been used in the development of CARM (Conversation Analytic Role-play Method) training for salespeople, who reported having doubled their appointment rates. Based on the findings in this thesis, I plan to develop further training not only for salespeople but also for prospective customers, thus improving the overall outcome of cold call encounters

Neural coding strategies and mechanisms of competition

A long running debate has concerned the question of whether neural representations are encoded using a distributed or a local coding scheme. In both schemes individual neurons respond to certain specific patterns of pre-synaptic activity. Hence, rather than being dichotomous, both coding schemes are based on the same representational mechanism. We argue that a population of neurons needs to be capable of learning both local and distributed representations, as appropriate to the task, and should be capable of generating both local and distributed codes in response to different stimuli. Many neural network algorithms, which are often employed as models of cognitive processes, fail to meet all these requirements. In contrast, we present a neural network architecture which enables a single algorithm to efficiently learn, and respond using, both types of coding scheme

Kind Historicism & Biological Ontology

This thesis develops a new theory of natural kinds for the biological world, called ‘Kind Historicism’, and addresses the relationship between natural kind theorizing and scientific reasoning. Applied to natural kinds and individuals in biology, Kind Historicism provides an ontology of the biological world. Discussions of biological ontology have struggled to balance insights from scientific practice with tools from analytic philosophy, metaphysics, and ontology. Ontological questions and practical/epistemic questions are often entangled. This thesis separates the two enquires, explaining why an ontological account of ‘what-there-is’ in biology should not straightforwardly dictate scientific categories, objects, or concepts. More precisely this thesis provides, in two parts, the development of Kind Historicism in light of discussions of natural kinds, essentialism, and monism, followed by the application of Kind Historicism to the natural kind status of biochemicals and to the problem of biological individuality. Finally, the success of Kind Historicism is measured against its ability to account for ‘intrinsic heterogeneity’ and ‘theoretical pluralism’, features of the biological world and science, respectively, believed to preclude biological natural kinds

Serbia and Kosovo between secession and normalisation: exploring media discourses on the Washington Agreement (2020)

The Washington Agreement on Kosovo and Serbia economic normalisation (2020) is the subject of this enquiry, while its aim is to examine the role of news media in Serbia in the discourse on normalisation between Belgrade and Pristina. The main hypothesis is that the Washington Agreement was manipulatively used for self-promotion of political elites that negotiated in Washington. The research relies on Critical Discourse Studies, instrumentalist approaches to secession, media framing and agenda-setting theories. We conclude that the issue of Serbia and Kosovo normalisation in Serbian media is mostly framed with aim to mobilises citizens’ support for executive authorities. The media thus reproduce political hegemony within Serbian society, while pluralism is obstructed in a manner characteristic for competitive authoritarianism

Gender as an \u27Interplay of Rules\u27: Detecting Epistemic Interplay of Medical and Legal Discourse with Sex and Gender Classification in Four Editions of the Dewey Decimal Classification

When groups of people are represented in classification systems, potential exists for them to be structurally or linguistically subordinated, erased or otherwise misrepresented (Olson & Schlegl, 2001). As Bowker & Star (1999) have shown, the real-world application of classification to people can have legal, economic, medical, social, and educational consequences. The purpose of this research is to contribute to knowledge organization by showing how the epistemological stance underlying specific classificatory discourses interactively participates in the formation of concepts. The medical and legal discourses in three timeframes are examined using Foucauldian genealogical discourse analysis to investigate how their depictions of gender and epistemic foundations correspond and interplay with conceptualizations of similar concepts in four editions of the Dewey Decimal Classification. As knowledge organization research seeks solutions to manage the paradigm change from assumptions of universal knowledge to instability of knowledge, recognition of epistemological underpinnings of classification systems is necessary to understand the very real consequences of corresponding classifications of gender