The (In)Determinacy of the Pictorial Sign: Evaluating Health Education Illustrations from a Semiotic Perspective

[Abstract] The basic point of departure for the present study was one of Habermas' principles of communicative ethics, namely universalization, requiring the acceptance (Zustimmung) of the communicative norms at play by all concerned without coercion. The study focused on evaluating the communicative acceptability of health education illustrations meant for an elderly (mean age 71.7 years), pre-dominantly Sesothospeaking (84.7%) and primarily female (87.1%) target group in Sharpeville, South Africa. The emphasis was on the relationship between the semiotic other (members of the target group) and the semiotic self (the researcher), i.e. on the contractual axis of semiosis in Johansen's 'semiotic pyramid' model. The first phase comprised a survey with questionnaires (n=140) to obtain input about pictorial illustration preferences. The respondents indicated their preferred option among a range of different pictorial signs and illustration approaches, explaining their choice. On the strength of this input, an illustrated nutrition education calendar was produced and disseminated in the target group. The second phase involved follow-up questionnaires (n=137) approximately one year later. The second set of questionnaires measured whether the target group wanted to move away from the previously agreed on pictorial signs and consensus-based pictorial illustration approach. The outcome was that the target group strongly disagreed with the introduction of new pictorial signs and illustration approaches. This result highlights that evaluating the acceptability of pictorial signs and illustration approaches in a particular target group is not necessarily primarily a question of understanding the complex and tenuous relationship between the referent and the iconic sign, but also about how pictorial meaning may be stabilized, or de-stabilized, as a result of a shifting and evolving relationship between the semiotic other and the semiotic self

The (In)Determinacy of the Pictorial Sign: Evaluating health education illustrations from a semiotic perspective

Abstract. The basic point of departure for the present study was one of Habermas' principles of communicative ethics, namely universalization, requiring the acceptance (Zustimmung) of the communicative norms at play by all concerned without coercion. The study focused on evaluating the communicative acceptability of health education illustrations meant for an elderly (mean age 71.7 years), pre-dominantly Sesotho-speaking (84.7%) and primarily female (87.1%) target group in Sharpeville, South Africa. The emphasis was on the relationship between the semiotic other (members of the target group) and the semiotic self (the researcher), i.e. on the contractual axis of semiosis in Johansen's 'semiotic pyramid' model. The first phase comprised a survey with questionnaires (n=140) to obtain input about pictorial illustration preferences. The respondents indicated their preferred option among a range of different pictorial signs and illustration approaches, explaining their choice. On the strength of this input, an illustrated nutrition education calendar was produced and disseminated in the target group. The second phase involved follow-up questionnaires (n=137) approximately one year later. The second set of questionnaires measured whether the target group wanted to move away from the previously agreed on pictorial signs and consensus-based pictorial illustration approach. The outcome was that the target group strongly disagreed with the introduction of new pictorial signs and illustration approaches. This result highlights that evaluating the acceptability of pictorial signs and illustration approaches in a particular target group is not necessarily primarily a question of understanding the complex and tenuous relationship between the referent and the iconic sign, but also about how pictorial meaning may be stabilized, or de-stabilized, as a result of a shifting and evolving relationship between the semiotic other and the semiotic self

Improved estimates of percolation and anisotropic permeability from 3-D x-ray microtomography using stochastic analyses and visualization

X-ray microtomography (micro-CT) with micron resolution enables new ways of characterizing microstructures and opens pathways for forward calculations of multiscale rock properties. A quantitative characterization of the microstructure is the first step in this challenge. We developed a new approach to extract scale-dependent characteristics of porosity, percolation, and anisotropic permeability from 3-D microstructural models of rocks. The Hoshen-Kopelman algorithm of percolation theory is employed for a standard percolation analysis. The anisotropy of permeability is calculated by means of the star volume\ud distribution approach. The local porosity distribution and local percolation probability are obtained by using the local porosity theory. Additionally, the local anisotropy distribution is defined and analyzed through two empirical probability density functions, the isotropy index and the elongation index. For such a high-resolution data set, the typical data sizes of the CT images are on the order of gigabytes to tens of gigabytes; thus an extremely large number of calculations are required. To resolve this large memory problem parallelization in OpenMP was used to optimally harness the shared memory infrastructure on cache coherent Non-Uniform Memory Access architecture machines such as the iVEC SGI Altix 3700Bx2 Supercomputer. We see adequate visualization of the results as an important element in this first pioneering study

Second tectofugal pathway in a songbird (Taeniopygia guttata) revisited: Tectal and lateral pontine projections to the posterior thalamus, thence to the intermediate nidopallium

Birds are almost always said to have two visual pathways from the retina to the telencephalon: thalamofugal terminating in the Wulst, and tectofugal terminating in the entopallium. Often ignored is a second tectofugal pathway that terminates in the nidopallium medial to and separate from the entopallium (e.g., Gamlin and Cohen [1986] J Comp Neurol 250:296–310). Using standard tract‐tracing and electroanatomical techniques, we extend earlier evidence of a second tectofugal pathway in songbirds (Wild [1994] J Comp Neurol 349:512–535), by showing that visual projections to nucleus uvaeformis (Uva) of the posterior thalamus in zebra finches extend farther rostrally than to Uva, as generally recognized in the context of the song control system. Projections to “rUva” resulted from injections of biotinylated dextran amine into the lateral pontine nucleus (PL), and led to extensive retrograde labeling of tectal neurons, predominantly in layer 13. Injections in rUva also resulted in extensive retrograde labeling of predominantly layer 13 tectal neurons, retrograde labeling of PL neurons, and anterograde labeling of PL. It thus appears that some tectal neurons could project to rUva and PL via branched axons. Ascending projections of rUva terminated throughout a visually responsive region of the intermediate nidopallium (NI) lying between the nucleus interface medially and the entopallium laterally. Lastly, as shown by Clarke in pigeons ([1977] J Comp Neurol 174:535–552), we found that PL projects to caudal cerebellar folia. J. Comp. Neurol. 524:963–985, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Neurons Responsive to Global Visual Motion Have Unique Tuning Properties in Hummingbirds

Neurons in animal visual systems that respond to global optic flow exhibit selectivity for motion direction and/or velocity. The avian lentiformis mesencephali (LM), known in mammals as the nucleus of the optic tract (NOT), is a key nucleus for global motion processing [1–4]. In all animals tested, it has been found that the majority of LM and NOT neurons are tuned to temporo-nasal (back-to-front) motion [4–11]. Moreover, the monocular gain of the optokinetic response is higher in this direction, compared to naso-temporal (front-to-back) motion [12, 13]. Hummingbirds are sensitive to small visual perturbations while hovering, and they drift to compensate for optic flow in all directions [14]. Interestingly, the LM, but not other visual nuclei, is hypertrophied in hummingbirds relative to other birds [15], which suggests enhanced perception of global visual motion. Using extracellular recording techniques, we found that there is a uniform distribution of preferred directions in the LM in Anna’s hummingbirds, whereas zebra finch and pigeon LM populations, as in other tetrapods, show a strong bias toward temporo-nasal motion. Furthermore, LM and NOT neurons are generally classified as tuned to ‘‘fast’’ or ‘‘slow’’ motion [10, 16, 17], and we predicted that most neurons would be tuned to slow visual motion as an adaptation for slow hovering. However, we found the opposite result: most hummingbird LM neurons are tuned to fast pattern velocities, compared to zebra finches and pigeons. Collectively, these results suggest a role in rapid responses during hovering, as well as in velocity control and collision avoidance during forward flight of hummingbirds

Hot off the press! A comparative media analysis of energy storage framing in Canadian newspapers

The final publication is available at Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.06.011. © 2018. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Energy storage (ES) is a keystone technology for advancing low-carbon energy transitions, yet energy system change continues to be influenced by socio-political acceptance of emerging innovations such as storage. An initial Canadian contribution to the social-scientific study of ES, we conduct a comparative media analysis of news coverage on storage technologies in the provinces of Alberta and Ontario. Applying the Socio-Political Evaluation of Energy Deployment (SPEED) framework, we analyse representations of ES risks and benefits in 143 articles drawn from top-circulating Canadian newspapers between 2007–2017. We then evaluate frame and narrative trends describing ES in these provinces. In doing so, we identify: (1) a generally optimistic national perspective on ES, despite regional variance in risk and benefit framing; (2) greater attention paid to high-profile, smaller-scale ES technologies; (3) a prominence of sustainability and transition narratives around ES; and (4) a positive temporal shift in ES discourse, reflecting changing regional energy priorities and Canada’s increasing commitment to clean energy development. Our findings provide insight on interprovincial differences in social perception on ES and identify possible drivers for these variations to help inform future ES research, deployment and policy strategies in Canada and other evolving national energy markets.This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) as part of the NSERC Energy Storage Technology (NEST) Network (grant number 468468)

Theoretical study of dark resonances in micro-metric thin cells

We investigate theoretically dark resonance spectroscopy for a dilute atomic vapor confined in a thin (micro-metric) cell. We identify the physical parameters characterizing the spectra and study their influence. We focus on a Hanle-type situation, with an optical irradiation under normal incidence and resonant with the atomic transition. The dark resonance spectrum is predicted to combine broad wings with a sharp maximum at line-center, that can be singled out when detecting a derivative of the dark resonance spectrum. This narrow signal derivative, shown to broaden only sub-linearly with the cell length, is a signature of the contribution of atoms slow enough to fly between the cell windows in a time as long as the characteristic ground state optical pumping time. We suggest that this dark resonance spectroscopy in micro-metric thin cells could be a suitable tool for probing the effective velocity distribution in the thin cell arising from the atomic desorption processes, and notably to identify the limiting factors affecting desorption under a grazing incidence.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures theoretical articl

Cost-Effectiveness of Intensified Versus Conventional Multifactorial Intervention in Type 2 Diabetes: Results and projections from the Steno-2 study

OBJECTIVE—To assess the cost-effectiveness of intensive versus conventional therapy for 8 years as applied in the Steno-2 study in patients with type 2 diabetes and microalbuminuria

Testing the Higgs Mechanism in the Lepton Sector with multi-TeV e+e- Collisions

Multi-TeV e+e- collisions provide with a large enough sample of Higgs bosons to enable measurements of its suppressed decays. Results of a detailed study of the determination of the muon Yukawa coupling at 3 TeV, based on full detector simulation and event reconstruction, are presented. The muon Yukawa coupling can be determined with a relative accuracy of 0.04 to 0.08 for Higgs bosons masses from 120 GeV to 150 GeV, with an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse-ab. The result is not affected by overlapping two-photon background.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to J Phys G.: Nucl. Phy