Exploring the borderline between procedural encoding and pragmatic inference

Exploring the borderline between \ud procedural encoding and pragmatic \ud inference \ud Sperber & Wilson (1995) argue for a view of verbal communication as consisting of two in- \ud teracting processes: linguistic coding-decoding process and pragmatic inference processes. \ud This approach to verbal communication raises the question of where the borderline between \ud coding and inference should be drawn. Wilson & Sperber (1993) discussed this question and \ud pointed out that this borderline is characterized by two ways in which linguistic meaning \ud can interact with pragmatic inferences in intimate ways: one is by linguistically encoding \ud processing procedures, that is, inference patterns, and the other is by using linguistic forms \ud as catalysts for pragmatic inference processes (‘Linguistically communicated but not lin- \ud guistically encoded meaning’ in Wilson & Sperber’s terms). The phenomenon of procedural \ud encoding has received a lot of attention since Blakemore’s (1987) foundational work. Inves- \ud tigation of the phenomenon of linguistically communicated but not linguistically encoded \ud meaning has been largely confined to the study of coordination (for discussion, see Carston \ud 1993; Blakemore & Carston 2005, and Blass 1990 on a different aspect of conjunction). In this \ud paper I want to focus on some other types of linguistically communicated but not encoded \ud meanings, following leads by Gutt (2000) and Unger (2006). My hope is that this study will \ud not only enhance our view of the relation between pragmatics and semantics, but also our \ud understanding of the nature of procedural encoding. \ud Gutt discusses communicative clues, that is, properties of the stimulus (utterance) that the \ud communicator uses with the intent to guide the audience to the intended meaning. Those \ud properties may include the semantic contents of verbal expressions as well as non-linguistic \ud properties, but Gutt discusses quite a few linguistic communicative clues for unencoded \ud meaning. Unger (2006) explains the often noticed relation between tense-aspect-mood indi- \ud cators to indicate foreground events in narratives in similar terms. Since according to Unger \ud (2006) the notion of foreground and background in discourse cannot be satisfactorily de- \ud fined, this notion cannot be encoded and a purely pragmatic analysis is called for. Neverthe- \ud 1\ud less, since linguistic properties are involved in indicating foreground and background, these \ud discourse effects are linguistically communicated, although not linguistically encoded. \ud A possible objection to this analysis might be that the use of communicative clues such as us- \ud ing certain aspect forms not for their semantic value but for indicating fore- or background- \ud ing in discourse appear to be conventionalized. Would this not indicate that linguistic encod- \ud ing (presumably procedural encoding) is at work? Moreno (2007) points out that the cogni- \ud tive principle of relevance predicts that when an individual processes it the same properties \ud of stimuli in similar contexts repeatedly, the inferential steps—contextual assumptions, ad- \ud hoc concept constructions, implications—will become ever more easily accessible, a process \ud that can lead to the establishment of pragmatic routines. Pragmatic routines are still infer- \ud ential processes, they do not amount to encoded processing procedures. It is likely that the \ud conventionalization of some linguistic communicative clues for not linguistically encoded \ud meaning can be accounted for as pragmatic routines. This raises questions about the na- \ud ture of pragmatic routines and of encoded procedures. These questions will be discussed \ud recognizing that a deeper understanding of procedural encoding results not only from con- \ud trasting this phenomenon from conceptual encoding, but also with pragmatic routines, and \ud linguistically communicated but not encoded meaning in general. \ud If these observations are right, then it appears that the impact of inferential theories of prag- \ud matics on linguistics reaches beyond the recognition of the phenomenon of procedural en- \ud coding: besides linguistic encoding and pragmatic inference, the association of linguistic \ud expressions with pragmatic routines is an important factor in the use of language for com- \ud munication. \ud References \ud Blakemore, Diane. 1987. Semantic Constraints on Relevance. Oxford: Blackwell. \ud Blakemore, Diane & Robyn Carston. 2005. The pragmatics of sentential coordination with \ud and. Lingua, 115:569–589. \ud Blass, Regina. 1990. Relevance Relations in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. \ud Carston, Robyn. 1993. Conjunction, explanation, and relevance. Lingua, 90:27–48. \ud Gutt, Ernst-August. 2000. Textual properties, communicative clues, and the translator. In \ud P. Navarro Errasti, R. Lorés Sanz, S. Murillo Ornat & C. Buesa Gómez (eds.) Transcultural \ud communication: pragmalinguistic aspects, pp. 151–60. Zaragoza: ANUBAR. \ud Moreno, Rosa E. Vega. 2007. Creativity and Convention. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. \ud Sperber, Dan & Deirdre Wilson. 1995. Relevance. Oxford: Blackwell, 2 edn. First edition 1986. \ud Unger, Christoph. 2006. Genre, Relevance and Global Coherence. Basingstoke: Palgrave. \ud Wilson, D. & D. Sperber. 1993. Linguistic form and relevance. Lingua, 90(1/2):1–25. \ud

Global coherence, narrative structure, and expectations of relevance

A topic for both literary studies and discourse analysis is the global structure of texts. Studies of global text structure have largely been focused on narrative structure, where a major strand of research has been devoted to the role which grounding (sometimes called information staging or foreground-background articulation) has for discourse structuring. It is often claimed that grounding is an important aspect of the notion of global coherence, that the overt realisation of grounding effects in texts depend on their genre and that this is generally reflected in the verbal system of natural languages (e.g. Caenepeel 1995; Hooper 1998; Hopper 1979; Fleischmann 1985; 1990; Longacre 1983; 1989). However, the notions of foreground and background are notoriously vague. In this paper I will argue for an alternative account of grounding effects based on the relevance-theoretic claim that the fine-tuning of the addressee's expectations of relevance is an essential part of the on-line processing of complex ostensive stimuli such as texts (Unger 2001). Linguistic and non-linguistic clues can be used to point the addressee to gradations in information grounding within a text in ways which far extend the coding resources of natural languages. This account may provide an explanatory account for Gumperz' (1992) "contextualization clues" and thus open up a new line of interdisciplinary interaction of relevance-theoretic pragmatics with some strands of research in ethnomethodology. It also suggests the idea that the emergence of literary form may be facilitated by the relevance-orientedness of cognition and communication which suggests that the more clues the communicator can give for fine-tuning the addressee's expectation of relevance in complex stimuli, the better chance of successful communication he has, which in turn motivates the use of communicative clues far beyond the coding resources of given natural languages as well as adherence to cultural conventions regarding the form of texts

Influences of obese (ob/ob) and diabetes (db/db) genotype mutations on lumber vertebral radiological and morphometric indices: Skeletal deformation associated with dysregulated systemic glucometabolism

BACKGROUND: Both diabetes and obesity syndromes are recognized to promote lumbar vertebral instability, premature osteodegeneration, exacerbate progressive osteoporosis and increase the propensity towards vertebral degeneration, instability and deformation in humans. METHODS: The influences of single-gene missense mutations, expressing either diabetes (db/db) or obese (ob/ob) metabolic syndromes on vertebral maturation and development in C57BL/KsJ mice were evaluated by radiological and macro-morphometric analysis of the resulting variances in osteodevelopment indices relative to control parameters between 8 and 16 weeks of age (syndrome onset @ 4 weeks), and the influences of low-dose 17-B-estradiol therapy on vertebral growth expression evaluated. RESULTS: Associated with the indicative genotypic obesity and hyper-glycemic/-insulinemic states, both db/db and ob/ob mutants demonstrated a significant (P ≤ 0.05) elongation of total lumbar vertebrae column (VC) regional length, and individual lumbar vertebrae (LV1-5) lengths, relative to control VC and LV parameters. In contrast, LV1-5 width indices were suppressed in db/db and ob/ob mutants relative to control LV growth rates. Between 8 and 16 weeks of age, the suppressed LV1-5 width indices were sustained in both genotype mutant groups relative to control osteomaturation rates. The severity of LV1-5 width osteosuppression correlated with the severe systemic hyperglycemic and hypertriglyceridemic conditions sustained in ob/ob and db/db mutants. Low-dose 17-B-estradiol therapy (E2-HRx: 1.0 ug/ 0.1 ml oil s.c/3.5 days), initiated at 4 weeks of age (i.e., initial onset phase of db/db and ob/ob expressions) re-established control LV 1–5 width indices without influencing VC or LV lengths in db/db groups. CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate that the abnormal systemic endometabolic states associated with the expression of db/db and ob/ob genomutation syndromes suppress LV 1–5 width osteomaturation rates, but enhanced development related VC and LV length expression, relative to control indices in a progressive manner similar to recognized human metabolic syndrome conditions. Therapeutic E2 modulation of the hyperglycemic component of diabetes-obesity syndrome protected the regional LV from the mutation-induced osteopenic width-growth suppression. These data suggest that these genotype mutation models may prove valuable for the evaluation of therapeutic methodologies suitable for the treatment of human diabetes- or obesity-influenced, LV degeneration-linked human conditions, which demonstrate amelioration from conventional replacement therapies following diagnosis of systemic syndrome-induced LV osteomaturation-associated deformations

Mesofluidic Devices for DNA-Programmed Combinatorial Chemistry

Hybrid combinatorial chemistry strategies that use DNA as an information-carrying medium are proving to be powerful tools for molecular discovery. In order to extend these efforts, we present a highly parallel format for DNA-programmed chemical library synthesis. The new format uses a standard microwell plate footprint and is compatible with commercially available automation technology. It can accommodate a wide variety of combinatorial synthetic schemes with up to 384 different building blocks per chemical step. We demonstrate that fluidic routing of DNA populations in the highly parallel format occurs with excellent specificity, and that chemistry on DNA arrayed into 384 well plates proceeds robustly, two requirements for the high-fidelity translation and efficient in vitro evolution of small molecules

A meta-analysis of long-term effects of conservation agriculture on maize grain yield under rain-fed conditions

Conservation agriculture involves reduced tillage, permanent soil cover and crop rotations to enhance soil fertility and to supply food from a dwindling land resource. Recently, conservation agriculture has been promoted in Southern Africa, mainly for maize-based farming systems. However, maize yields under rain-fed conditions are often variable. There is therefore a need to identify factors that influence crop yield under conservation agriculture and rain-fed conditions. Here, we studied maize grain yield data from experiments lasting 5 years and more under rain-fed conditions. We assessed the effect of long-term tillage and residue retention on maize grain yield under contrasting soil textures, nitrogen input and climate. Yield variability was measured by stability analysis. Our results show an increase in maize yield over time with conservation agriculture practices that include rotation and high input use in low rainfall areas. But we observed no difference in system stability under those conditions. We observed a strong relationship between maize grain yield and annual rainfall. Our meta-analysis gave the following findings: (1) 92% of the data show that mulch cover in high rainfall areas leads to lower yields due to waterlogging; (2) 85% of data show that soil texture is important in the temporal development of conservation agriculture effects, improved yields are likely on well-drained soils; (3) 73% of the data show that conservation agriculture practices require high inputs especially N for improved yield; (4) 63% of data show that increased yields are obtained with rotation but calculations often do not include the variations in rainfall within and between seasons; (5) 56% of the data show that reduced tillage with no mulch cover leads to lower yields in semi-arid areas; and (6) when adequate fertiliser is available, rainfall is the most important determinant of yield in southern Africa. It is clear from our results that conservation agriculture needs to be targeted and adapted to specific biophysical conditions for improved impact

Clinical registry of dental outcomes in head and neck cancer patients (OraRad): rationale, methods, and recruitment considerations

Background Most head and neck (H&N) cancer patients receive high-dose external beam radiation therapy (RT), often in combination with surgery and/or chemotherapy. Unfortunately, high-dose RT has significant adverse effects on the oral and maxillofacial tissues, some of which persist for the life of the patient. However, dental management of these patients is based largely on individual and expert opinion, as few studies have followed patients prospectively to determine factors that predict adverse oral sequelae. In addition, many previous studies were conducted before wide-spread adoption of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and concurrent chemotherapy. The objective of this multi-center study is to systematically evaluate the oral health of subjects for 2 years after commencement of RT, with the goal of identifying risk factors that predict adverse oral outcomes post-RT. Methods This is a prospective multi-center longitudinal cohort study of H&N cancer patients who receive high-dose RT with curative intent. Planned enrollment is 756 subjects at 6 primary clinical sites (and their affiliated sites) in the USA. A baseline visit is conducted prior to the beginning of RT. Follow-up visits are conducted at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months from the start of RT. The primary outcome measure is the 2-year rate of tooth loss in patients who have received at least one session of external beam RT for H&N cancer. Secondary outcome measures include the incidence of exposed intraoral bone; incidence of post-extraction complications; change in Decayed Missing and Filled Surfaces (DMFS); change in periodontal measures; change in stimulated whole salivary flow rates; change in mouth opening; topical fluoride utilization; chronic oral mucositis incidence; changes in RT-specific quality of life measures; and change in oral pain scores. Discussion This study will contribute to a better understanding of the dental complications experienced by these patients. It will also enable identification of risk factors associated with adverse outcomes such as tooth loss and osteoradionecrosis. These findings will support the development of evidence-based guidelines and inform the planning of future interventional studies, with the goal of advancing improvements in patient care and outcomes. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT02057510 , registered 5 February 2014

The "lipid accumulation product" performs better than the body mass index for recognizing cardiovascular risk: a population-based comparison

BACKGROUND: Body mass index (BMI, kg/m(2)) may not be the best marker for estimating the risk of obesity-related disease. Consistent with physiologic observations, an alternative index uses waist circumference (WC) and fasting triglycerides (TG) concentration to describe lipid overaccumulation. METHODS: The WC (estimated population minimum 65 cm for men and 58 cm for women) and TG concentration from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (N = 9,180, statistically weighted to represent 100.05 million US adults) were used to compute a "lipid accumulation product" [LAP = (WC-65) × TG for men and (WC-58) × TG for women] and to describe the population distribution of LAP. LAP and BMI were compared as categorical variables and as log-transformed continuous variables for their ability to identify adverse levels of 11 cardiovascular risk factors. RESULTS: Nearly half of the represented population was discordant for their quartile assignments to LAP and BMI. When 23.54 million with ordinal LAP quartile > BMI quartile were compared with 25.36 million with ordinal BMI quartile > LAP quartile (regression models adjusted for race-ethnicity and sex) the former had more adverse risk levels than the latter (p < 0.002) for seven lipid variables, uric acid concentration, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Further adjustment for age did not materially alter these comparisons except for blood pressures (p > 0.1). As continuous variables, LAP provided a consistently more adverse beta coefficient (slope) than BMI for nine cardiovascular risk variables (p < 0.01), but not for blood pressures (p > 0.2). CONCLUSION: LAP (describing lipid overaccumulation) performed better than BMI (describing weight overaccumulation) for identifying US adults at cardiovascular risk. Compared to BMI, LAP might better predict the incidence of cardiovascular disease, but this hypothesis needs prospective testing

The search for transient astrophysical neutrino emission with IceCube-DeepCore

We present the results of a search for astrophysical sources of brief transient neutrino emission using IceCube and DeepCore data acquired between 2012 May 15 and 2013 April 30. While the search methods employed in this analysis are similar to those used in previous IceCube point source searches, the data set being examined consists of a sample of predominantly sub-TeV muon-neutrinos from the Northern Sky (-5 degrees < delta < 90 degrees) obtained through a novel event selection method. This search represents a first attempt by IceCube to identify astrophysical neutrino sources in this relatively unexplored energy range. The reconstructed direction and time of arrival of neutrino events are used to search for any significant self-correlation in the data set. The data revealed no significant source of transient neutrino emission. This result has been used to construct limits at timescales ranging from roughly 1 s to 10 days for generic soft-spectra transients. We also present limits on a specific model of neutrino emission from soft jets in core-collapse supernovae

Attitudes to smoking cessation and triggers to relapse among Chinese male smokers

BACKGROUND: Smoking is related to many diseases, and the relapse to smoking after cessation in China is noticeable. We examined the attitudes of Chinese male smokers regarding smoking cessation and reasons for relapse. METHODS: We interviewed 201 male smokers in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang province, China who had tried to quit smoking at least once in order to identify reasons for quitting and situations triggering relapse. RESULTS: The most significant reported reasons for quitting included personal health (77.1%), the cost of cigarettes (53.7%), and family pressures to quit (29.9%). The most common factors triggering relapse were social situations (34.3%), feeling negative or down (13.4%) and times of being alone (8.4%). CONCLUSION: Health and family concerns, personal factors, the influence of others and a lack of cessation resources were cited as salient factors concerning smoking cessation among male smokers in this study. Effective smoking control efforts in China will require attention to these influences if China is to curb its current smoking epidemic

Turbulent ‘stopping plumes’ and plume pinch-off in uniform surroundings

Observations of turbulent convection in the environment are of variously sus- tained plume-like flows or intermittent thermal-like flows. At different times of the day the prevailing conditions may change and consequently the observed flow regimes may change. Understanding the link between these flows is of practical importance meteorologically, and here we focus our interest upon plume-like regimes that break up to form thermal-like regimes. It has been shown that when a plume rises from a boundary with low conductivity, such as arable land, the inability to maintain a rapid enough supply of buoyancy to the plume source can result in the turbulent base of the plume separating and rising away from the source. This plume ‘pinch-off’ marks the onset of the intermittent thermal-like behavior. The dynamics of turbulent plumes in a uniform environment are explored in order to investigate the phenomenon of plume pinch-off. The special case of a turbulent plume having its source completely removed, a ‘stopping plume’, is considered in particular. The effects of forcing a plume to pinch-off, by rapidly reducing the source buoyancy flux to zero, are shown experi- mentally. We release saline solution into a tank filled with fresh water generating downward propagating steady turbulent plumes. By rapidly closing the plume nozzle, the plumes are forced to pinch-off. The plumes are then observed to detach from the source and descend into the ambient. The unsteady buoyant region produced after pinch-off, cannot be described by the power-law behavior of either classical plumes or thermals, and so the terminology ‘stopping plume’ (analogous to a ‘starting plume’) is adopted for this type of flow. The propagation of the stopping plume is shown to be approximately linearly dependent on time, and we speculate therefore that the closure of the nozzle introduces some vorticity into the ambient, that may roll up to form a vortex ring dominating the dynamics of the base of a stopping plume