Precedence Automata and Languages

Operator precedence grammars define a classical Boolean and deterministic context-free family (called Floyd languages or FLs). FLs have been shown to strictly include the well-known visibly pushdown languages, and enjoy the same nice closure properties. We introduce here Floyd automata, an equivalent operational formalism for defining FLs. This also permits to extend the class to deal with infinite strings to perform for instance model checking.Comment: Extended version of the paper which appeared in Proceedings of CSR 2011, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 6651, pp. 291-304, 2011. Theorem 1 has been corrected and a complete proof is given in Appendi

In order to make it […] easy’ : metalinguistic discourse in 18th-century British Medical Writing

During the 18th-century, the advances in medicine as well as a growing awareness of health issues favoured the circulation of an expanding medical vocabulary (cfr. Loudon 1992, Lane 2001, Harrison 2010) and the publication of multifarious medical texts (cfr. Fissel 2007: 110; cfr. also Lindemann 2010: 111-112). Reference works for experts at different levels (scholars, physicians, surgeons, practitioners, apothecaries, etc.) and non-experts (educated readers) began to circulate \u2018massively\u2019 (cfr. Lane 2001: 24 ff.). The authors aimed at \u201cdiffusing medical knowledge among the people\u201d (Buchan 1772: xxiii). This also meant that medical writers needed to develop disciplinary communicative strategies to deal with a complex and challenging matter (cfr. Banks 2008) \u201cto render the book[s] more generally useful [\u2026] as well as acceptable to the intelligent part of mankind\u201d (Buchan 1772: xi). This debate, more often than not carried on in the prefaces to reference works, is particularly intense in the second half of the 18th century

The Dissemination of Medical Practice in Late Modern Europe : The Case of Buchan’s Domestic Medicine

The aim of this study is the investigation of prefaces, introductory sections, tables of contents, indices, appendices and glossaries in the Italian and French translations of William Buchan\u2019s Domestic Medicine (1st ed., Edinburgh, 1769). The editions under scrutiny here are the 6th in English (1779, London), the 2nd in French (1780-, Paris) and the Italian edition issued in Milan (1785-). The analysis will focus on the methodology adopted in the process of translation and adaptation, as they emerge from paratextual sections; the same sections (particularly tables of contents, indices, appendices), along with extracts from the main body, will exemplify textual and discourse features in the three languages (similarities, correspondences, differences, additions, adaptations, omissions, etc.)

Communicating Medicine. British Medical Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Reference Works

This study investigates eighteenth-century medical writing, particularly concerning the elaboration and the communication of medicine in such reference works as universal dictionaries of arts and sciences, medical dictionaries, and handbooks. Most of the vernacular texts under scrutiny here were issued in the second half of the century, a period in which the advancements in medical research, medical education and medical practice favoured the circulation of an expanding medical vocabulary and stimulated medical writing as a whole. A vast amount of reference works was produced for experts and non-experts alike: medical topics were common in social settings, in personal and communal letters, in specialised journals, in pamphlets and in magazines. All this unprecedented activity certainly contributed to the vernacularisation, and the dissemination of medicine in different kinds of works and different text types. The texts examined in the study are representative of their authors’ effort to expand medical knowledge and to define medicine as an independent science based on strict observation, as well as to establish intelligibility within and outside the disciplinary discourse community

Compensation for wrongful convictions in Italy

Miscarriages of justice are an eventuality innate in the exercise of the judiciary function. It is therefore necessary for the legislation to set forth the conditions under which the persons who have suffered a miscarriage of justice are eligible for compensation. This chapter analyses the elements of the statutory compensation regime laid down by the Italian code of criminal procedure for miscarriages of justice stricto sensu, namely the ones arising from an exoneration upon judicial review of a final judgment of conviction. Specifically, the matter will first be analysed in light of the relevant constitutional and supranational principles, in order to be able to deal with the different theories on the legal nature of the remedy. Subsequently, a description will be provided of the provisions laid down in the Italian code of criminal procedure on the compensation schemes for miscarriages of justice resulting from a wrongful final conviction (legislative requirements, bars to compensation, proceedings and criteria for compensation)

GRAMMAR, or the Consideration of LANGUAGE’” : metalinguistic assumptions in 18th-century British dictionaries of arts and sciences

Background. At the start of the Eighteenth century, a new emerging genre helped change the representation, the conceptualisation, and the vernacularisation of the world: this turning point was marked by the publication of universal dictionaries of arts and sciences, or encyclop\ue6dias, arranged in alphabetical order. These reference works were mainly addressed to a lay, non-expert audience of educated readers, and promoted the dissemination of traditional \u2018knowledges\u2019 and new ideas in eighteenth-century British society and across Europe (Yeo 1991, 1996, 2001, 2003; Kafker 1981 and 1994a-b). The alphabetical order made topics easily retrievable, and a complex system of cross-references established connections between terms and disciplines. Language and metalinguistic issues \u2013 terminology and ideas \u2013 represent one of the major fields of interest, due to the contemporary debate on variation and variants vs. regularisation and standardisation. Aims and method. The general aim of this paper is a survey of the most relevant headwords/entries concerning language and metalinguistic awareness. The starting point are general notions as defined and discussed within individual entries, e.g. s.v. language, grammar, English, dialect, idiom, word, syllable, letter, vowel, consonant, pronunciation, writing, orthography, etc. across encyclop\ue6dias. A further step would emphasise the network of ideas established by cross-references, to make a more comprehensive discourse on (meta)language emerge, and to verify traditional approaches vs. innovations throughout the century. Sources (British dictionaries of arts and sciences published between 1704 and 1788). The following works are the most relevant over the century, and the main focus of the study: Harris\u2019s Lexicon Technicum (1704, 1-folio vol., hereafter LT), Chambers\u2019s Cyclop\ue6dia (1728 [1727], 2 in-folio voll., hereafter Cy), Encyclop\ue6dia Britannica (1768-1771, 3 in-quarto voll., hereafter EB), and Rees\u2019s Cyclop\ue6dia (1778-1788, 5 in-folio voll., hereafter ReCy). The reference is usually to the first edition of the preceding works, where different, it will be marked by a left superscript number (e.g. 5thCy, 5thLT). Discussion. The discussion will include extracts drawn from paratextual and prefatory matter, this section mainly concerns the general principles. More detailed examples will be drawn from the main body, that is to say the entries (see above). This will highlight both specific contents and (meta)language issues, and intra-textual connections to further headword/entries, in order to systematise an apparently fragmented discourse on (the English) language

Implications of teacher educators’ practices in assessment for student learning in Tanzania

This study presents findings on teacher educators’ practices in assessment and their implications for student learning in Tanzania. Research on classroom assessment has been dichotomizing assessment and teaching-learning processes instead of viewing assessment as an integral part of the teachinglearning process. It is against this background that this study delved into teacher educators’ practices in assessment and their implications for student learning in Tanzania. Data were collected using in-depth interviews and analysed using thematic coding. The findings show that teacher educators perceive assessment as a one-shot activity in terms of tests and examinations. Consequently, teaching, learning and assessment are performed disjointedly. Despite believing that learning is an active process, teachers predominantly use deductive teaching methods, which render students passive recipients of knowledge. It is concluded that although students need to see assessment as an essential measure of their learning and as an indication of opportunities for their improvement, teacher educators are still caught in a dilemma of either facilitating students’ meaningful learning or preparing students who can earn high grades.Keywords: Teacher education; Assessment for learning; Innovatio

Strategies to scan pictures with automata based on Wang tiles

Wang automata are devices for picture language recognition recently introduced by us, which characterize the class REC of recognizable picture languages. Thus, Wang automata are equivalent to tiling systems or online tessellation acceptors, and are based like Wang systems on labeled Wang tiles. The present work focus on scanning strategies, to prove that the ones Wang automata are based on are those following four kinds of movements: boustrophedonic, ``L-like'', ``U-like'', and spirals

Didacticiel pour la gestion des données de recherche au sein de l'Institut de plurilinguisme de Fribourg

Sous la dictée du programme européen Horizon 2020, la gestion des données de recherche (GDR) est devenue l’un des enjeux majeurs des institutions scientifiques suisses auxquels faire face. Dans cet environnement en évolution très rapide, les bibliothèques universitaires, les archives et les centres de documentation sont appelés à jouer un rôle primaire dans les services de gestion et d’archivage des données, ainsi que d’accompagnement et de formation des chercheurs de toutes les disciplines, y compris les sciences humaines et sociales (SHS). Pour ce faire, la formation des professionnels de l’information destinés à accomplir ces nouvelles tâches est devenue prioritaire, surtout dans les SHS, plutôt réfractaires aux enjeux de l’open data à cause des spécificités de leurs données. Dans le cadre du projet national de formation des formateurs Train2Dacar, ce travail a pour objet la création d’un cours en présentiel sur la GDR dans les SHS, partant de l’exemple complexe de l’Institut de plurilinguisme (IDP) de Fribourg et de son Centre scientifique de compétence sur le plurilinguisme (CSP). Afin de pouvoir réaliser notre but, après le rappel à la littérature pour les spécificités et les problématiques des données des SHS, un échantillon représentatif des formations à la GDR dans ce domaine scientifique est analysé. Pour passer de la théorie à notre cas concret, l’analyse des données produites par les chercheurs de l’Institut en sociolinguistique, psycholinguistique et didactique des langues, ainsi que l’évaluation des services de GDR mis sur pied par le Centre de documentation du CSP représentent un point essentiel du travail. Cette étude est préparatoire à la conceptualisation des unités d’apprentissage et au développement des activités, basées sur les fondements de la didactique et sur les pratiques de la « ludo-andragogie ». La planification du cours s’encadre également dans le contexte de la formation Train2Dacar, prévue en automne 2016 à Genève et à Zurich, avec une réflexion sur les limites du dispositif formatif et des recommandations pour son déroulement. Pour conclure, des pistes de transposition du dispositif sous format elearning sont proposées pour la valorisation et la capitalisation du savoir lié à la GDR au sein de l’Institut

Deterministic recognizability of picture languages with Wang automata

special issue dedicated to the second edition of the conference AutoMathA: from Mathematics to ApplicationsInternational audienceWe present a model of automaton for picture language recognition, called Wang automaton, which is based on labeled Wang tiles. Wang automata combine features of both online tessellation acceptors and 4-way automata: as in online tessellation acceptors, computation assigns states to each picture position; as in 4-way automata, the input head visits the picture moving from one pixel to an adjacent one, according to some scanning strategy. Wang automata recognize the class REC, i.e. they are equivalent to tiling systems or online tessellation acceptors, and hence strictly more powerful than 4-way automata. We also introduce a natural notion of determinism for Wang automata, and study the resulting class, extending the more traditional approach of diagonal-based determinism, used e. g. by deterministic tiling systems. In particular, we prove that the concept of row (or column) ambiguity defines the class of languages recognized by Wang automata directed by boustrophedonic scanning strategies