"Shouldn't I use a polarquestion?" Proper Question Forms Disentangling Inconsistencies in Dialogue Systems

This work reports on the description of a specific class of clarification requests, adopted for the negotiation of pieces of information part of the common ground for argumentation strategies in human-machine interaction. Two studies are carried out to prove the adequateness of a specific form of polar question in a specific pragmatic situation, where a presupposition is contradicted by a new evidence. Whereas the first one proves the appropriateness of the negative form, the second one also demonstrate how the use of such a form, in the aforementioned pragmatic situation, can affect the principle of robustness, in terms of observability and recoverability, important in human–machine interaction applications. Given the results obtained in the two studies, dialogue systems with such capabilities are, therefore, a desirable goal, as they are expected to lead to improved usability and naturalness in conversation. For this reason, I present here a system capable of detecting conflicts and of using argumentation strategies to signal them consistently with previous observations

Silent pauses as clarification trigger

Among possible pragmatic feedback an interlocutor can use to acknowledge the degree of understanding of an utterance, clarification requests (CRs) are to be considered. The functional role of CRs can furthermore be expressed via silent pauses - or failed turn-giving moves - which express an understanding problem and are solved through a clarify speech act. In this work, we therefore hypothesise that some silent pauses, in specific conditions, may also have an interactional role which is interpreted by the speaker as a clarification need

Daniela De Liso, “Da Masaniello a Eleonora Pimentel. Napoli tra storia e letteratura”, Napoli, Loffredo, 2016, 288 pp.

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Approach to the production and distribution of Inca Pacajes style: Archaeometric study of fabrics

En este trabajo se pretende avanzar en el conocimiento acerca de la manufactura y circulación de vasijas de estilo Inca Pacajes o Saxamar. Para ello se pusieron a prueba dos estrategias analíticas (a) la petrografía de pastas en secciones delgadas (N = 33) y (b) el análisis químico por fluorescencia de rayos X (N = 18). Los resultados obtenidos de las muestras analizadas procedentes de sitios arqueológicos del noroeste argentino (NOA), sur de Bolivia y norte de Chile indicaron que la mayoría de las pastas conforman un mismo grupo composicional caracterizado por la presencia de abundantes inclusiones de pómez y trizas vítreas, aunque en las muestras del NOA se registraron las mayores diferencias composicionales. Se plantean alternativas para explicar dicha variación en un estilo con amplia distribución geográfica pero mínimamente representado en sitios de época incaica en el NOA.This paper aims to advance knowledge about the manufacture and circulation of Inca Pacajes or Saxamar style vessels. Two analytical strategies were tested: (a) fabric petrography in thin sections (N = 33), and (b) chemical analysis by X-ray Fluorescence (N = 18). The results obtained from the analyzed samples from archaeological sites in northwestern Argentina, southern Bolivia and northern Chile indicated that most of the fabrics are included in the same compositional group characterized by abundant fragments of pumiceous rock and volcanic glass, although more compositional differences were recorded in northwestern Argentine samples. Different alternatives to explain variation in a style with wide geographic distribution but minimally represented in northwestern Argentine Inca sites are provided.Fil: Cremonte, Maria Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Jujuy. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Jujuy; ArgentinaFil: Maro, Guadalupe. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy; ArgentinaFil: Albarracín de Díaz, Claudia. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. Instituto de Geología Minera; Argentin

Gender mainstreaming and the benchmarking fallacy of women in political decision-making

In this article the authors analyse the extent to which an explicitly gendered issue such as the position of wo/men in political decision-making has been approached from a gender mainstreaming perspective. They do so by exploring how the issue has been framed in three countries, the Netherlands, Spain, and Greece, and in the European Union. The analysis enables them both to provide a state of the art of how gender in political decision-making has been dealt with throughout the last decade in the selected case-studies and to offer insights on the potential for a gender mainstreaming approach of topics in which sex-related inequality is explicit. The main argument is that such policy issues contain a benchmarking fallacy. The easiness with which they can be quantified opens the door for an analysis and solution of problems of gender inequality in terms of numbers, without tackling underlying structural problemsIn this article the authors analyse the extent to which an explicitly gendered issue such as the position of wo/men in political decision-making has been approached from a gender mainstreaming perspective. They do so by exploring how the issue has been framed in three countries, the Netherlands, Spain, and Greece, and in the European Union. The analysis enables them both to provide a state of the art of how gender in political decision-making has been dealt with throughout the last decade in the selected case-studies and to offer insights on the potential for a gender mainstreaming approach of topics in which sex-related inequality is explicit. The main argument is that such policy issues contain a benchmarking fallacy. The easiness with which they can be quantified opens the door for an analysis and solution of problems of gender inequality in terms of numbers, without tackling underlying structural problems