How can semantic annotation help us to analyse the discourse of climate change in online user comments?

User comments in response to newspaper articles published online offer a unique resource for studying online discourse. The number of comments that articles often elicit poses many methodological challenges and analyses of online user comments have inevitably been cursory when limited to a manual content or thematic analysis. Corpus analysis tools can systematically identify features such as keywords in large datasets. This article reports on the semantic annotation feature of the corpus analysis tool Wmatrix which also allows us to identify key semantic domains. Building on this feature, I introduce a novel method of sampling key comments through an examination of user comment threads taken from The Guardian website on the topic of climate change

Uncertainty discourses in the context of climate change: a corpus-assisted analysis of UK national newspaper articles

Uncertainty is intrinsic to science, to knowledge acquisition and risk assessment. When communicating about climate change however, uncertainty can be used and understood as ‘not knowing’, i.e. as ignorance. In this article we aim to understand how ‘uncertainty’ is used in a specific cultural and media context at two important periods in time. Using a corpus linguistic approach, we examine how ‘uncertainty’ is used in the context of UK press coverage of climate change in 2010 (following ‘Climategate’) and in 2014-15, after the latest IPCC report had been published. We find that after climategate and the (failed) Copenhagen summit ‘uncertainty’ was used to question the authority and credibility of climate science; after the latest IPCC report and in the run-up to the (more successful) Paris summit discussions focused on uncertainties inherent in various climate change mitigation activities and associated with the economy, environment and politics more generally

Exploring empowerment in conversation: delivering video interaction guidance to families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing

Introduction: This work explored the concept of ‘empowerment’ in health care. A concept map of ‘empowerment’ was generated based on theories of linguistic analysis to locate aspects of empowerment in conversational data. The process of empowerment was understood within the theory of transformative learning as ‘perspective change’. A ten phase model of the transformative learning process was used to provide evidence of perspective transformation. The empowerment process was explored through the delivery of the intervention Video Interaction Guidance to 16 hearing families of pre-lingual deaf children. Methods: The parents of the deaf children and the intervention guide engaged in conversations reviewing video clips of the parent and child in interaction. These conversations were processed through a corpus analysis software programme to discern key extracts of the participants’ conversational data. These extracts were to subject to discourse analysis to find evidence of transformative learning. Analysis: Transformative learning was observed in 10 families. Transcript extracts representing the model of transformative learning were variable. Principles of conversation analysis were applied to explore the learning process in interaction. Participant speech was tagged to assess their level of engagement. Outcomes: The corpus analysis-driven tagging process offers an original approach to representing the key content of large sets of interview data but in this work, was limited in showing how the interaction created opportunities for learning. Transformative learning processes were variable and the ten phase model could not be characterised in terms of discourse features alone. The intervention encouraged critical reflection but warrants directed focus to achieve learning. The participants were effective in acting as co-collaborators in the intervention process. Discussion and concluding remarks: Models of empowerment must focus on the process, of the ways in which the guide and the participant create learning opportunities and evidence of this must be multimodal. Patient-centred interventions should be supported by an open, communicative relationship with the health service provider

Exploring empowerment in conversation: delivering video interaction guidance to families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing

Introduction: This work explored the concept of ‘empowerment’ in health care. A concept map of ‘empowerment’ was generated based on theories of linguistic analysis to locate aspects of empowerment in conversational data. The process of empowerment was understood within the theory of transformative learning as ‘perspective change’. A ten phase model of the transformative learning process was used to provide evidence of perspective transformation. The empowerment process was explored through the delivery of the intervention Video Interaction Guidance to 16 hearing families of pre-lingual deaf children. Methods: The parents of the deaf children and the intervention guide engaged in conversations reviewing video clips of the parent and child in interaction. These conversations were processed through a corpus analysis software programme to discern key extracts of the participants’ conversational data. These extracts were to subject to discourse analysis to find evidence of transformative learning. Analysis: Transformative learning was observed in 10 families. Transcript extracts representing the model of transformative learning were variable. Principles of conversation analysis were applied to explore the learning process in interaction. Participant speech was tagged to assess their level of engagement. Outcomes: The corpus analysis-driven tagging process offers an original approach to representing the key content of large sets of interview data but in this work, was limited in showing how the interaction created opportunities for learning. Transformative learning processes were variable and the ten phase model could not be characterised in terms of discourse features alone. The intervention encouraged critical reflection but warrants directed focus to achieve learning. The participants were effective in acting as co-collaborators in the intervention process. Discussion and concluding remarks: Models of empowerment must focus on the process, of the ways in which the guide and the participant create learning opportunities and evidence of this must be multimodal. Patient-centred interventions should be supported by an open, communicative relationship with the health service provider

Participants' use of enacted scenes in research interviews: a method for reflexive analysis in health and social care

In our study of a workforce intervention within a health and social care context we found that participants who took part in longitudinal research interviews were commonly enacting scenes from their work during one-to-one interviews. Scenes were defined as portions of the interviews in which participants directly quoted the speech of at least two actors. Our analysis in this paper focuses on these enacted scenes, and compares the content of them before and after the intervention. We found that, whilst the tensions between consistency and change, and change management, were common topics for scene enactment in both pre and post-intervention data, following the intervention participants were much more likely to present themselves as active agents in that change. Post-intervention enacted scenes also showed participants' reports of taking a service user perspective, and a focus on their interactions with service users that had been absent from pre-intervention data. In addition, descriptions of positive feeling and emotions were present in the post-intervention enacted scenes. We suggest that this analysis confirms the importance of enacted scenes as an analytic resource, and that this importance goes beyond their utility in identifying the impact of this specific intervention. Given the congruence between the themes prominent in enacted scenes, and those which emerged from a more extensive qualitative analysis of these data, we argue that enacted scenes may also be of wider methodological importance. The possibility of using scene enactment as an approach to the validation of inductive analysis in health and social care settings could provide a useful methodological resource in settings where longitudinal ethnographic observation of frontline care staff is impossible or impractical

How certain is ‘certain’?: exploring how the English-language media reported the use of calibrated language in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report

This article presents findings from an analysis of English-language media reports following the publication of the fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report in September 2013. Focusing on the way they reported the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s use of ‘calibrated’ language, we find that of 1906 articles relating to the issuing of the report only 272 articles (14.27%) convey the use of a deliberate and systematic verbal scale. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s carefully calibrated language was rarely discussed or explicated, but in some instances scientists, political actors or journalists would attempt to contextualise or elaborate on the reported findings by using analogies to other scientific principles or examples of taking action despite uncertainty. We consider those analogies in terms of their efficacy in communicating (un)certainty

How certain is ‘certain’?: exploring how the English-language media reported the use of calibrated language in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report

This article presents findings from an analysis of English-language media reports following the publication of the fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report in September 2013. Focusing on the way they reported the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s use of ‘calibrated’ language, we find that of 1906 articles relating to the issuing of the report only 272 articles (14.27%) convey the use of a deliberate and systematic verbal scale. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s carefully calibrated language was rarely discussed or explicated, but in some instances scientists, political actors or journalists would attempt to contextualise or elaborate on the reported findings by using analogies to other scientific principles or examples of taking action despite uncertainty. We consider those analogies in terms of their efficacy in communicating (un)certainty

A linguistic approach to the psychosis continuum: (dis)similarities and (dis)continuities in how clinical and non-clinical voice-hearers talk about their voices

Introduction: “Continuum” approaches to psychosis have generated reports of similarities and differences in voice-hearing in clinical and non-clinical populations at the cohort level, but not typically examined overlap or degrees of difference between groups. Methods: We used a computer-aided linguistic approach to explore reports of voice-hearing by a clinical group (Early Intervention in Psychosis service-users; N = 40) and a non-clinical group (spiritualists; N = 27). We identify semantic categories of terms statistically overused by one group compared with the other, and by each group compared to a control sample of non-voice-hearing interview data (log likelihood (LL) value 6.63+=p < .01; effect size measure: log ratio 1.0+). We consider whether individual values support a continuum model. Results: Notwithstanding significant cohort-level differences, there was considerable continuity in language use. Reports of negative affect were prominent in both groups (p < .01, log ratio: 1.12+). Challenges of cognitive control were also evident in both cohorts, with references to “disengagement” accentuated in service-users (p < .01, log ratio: 1.14+). Conclusion: A corpus linguistic approach to voice-hearing provides new evidence of differences between clinical and non-clinical groups. Variability at the individual level provides substantial evidence of continuity with implications for cognitive mechanisms underlying voice-hearing

Progress in the development of a biopesticide for the structural treatment of grain stores

Chemical insecticides are used to protect stored grain from infestation by stored product insects and mites. In the UK only a limited number of products are available for application and there are concerns about safety, pest resistance and environmental impact of these conventional pesticides. Biological control offers an alternative to the use of chemical insecticides. The potential for biological control of storage pests in the UK using an insect-specific fungus, Beauveria bassiana, to treat the structure of the stores, has previously been established. However, this study also highlighted areas where improvements were needed; specifically to improve the uptake of the fungal conidia by the pests and to improve their germination and penetration into the pests. In addition it was necessary to ensure that potential formulations had a good shelf-life and to develop a mass production method to consistently produce high quality fungal conidia. A four year project has recently been completed examining these  areas in detail. The work has concentrated on two different fungal isolates of B. bassiana, both of which were found from insects in UK grain stores. Optimisation of production methods, formulation and delivery systems has resulted in prototype formulations that exhibit good viability over periods up to one year and that have good efficacy against a range of storage insect pests under conditions that are likely to be found in UK grain stores. Pilot scale trials using three species of stored product beetle have shown that significant levels of control can be achieved. An overview of the key findings is presented. The study has made a significant contribution to the development of a biopesticide as a structural treatment for grain storage areas in the UK.Keywords: Biological control; Beauveria bassiana; Oryzaephilus surinamensis; Structural treatment; Biopesticid

On Glauber modes in Soft-Collinear Effective Theory

Gluon interactions involving spectator partons in collisions at hadronic machines are investigated. We find a class of examples in which a mode, called Glauber gluons, must be introduced to the effective theory for consistency.Comment: 19 pages, three figures. Uses JHEP3.cl