Driving Through the Debate: Metaphoric Language in Media Coverage of Climate Change

Environmental issues, and climate change in particular, are high on the agenda nowadays. Since mass media are the main mediator in communicating scientific knowledge to the general public, media coverage of environmental issues presents a special interest. Previous research has focused largely on its content characteristics. The present study is an attempt to contribute a linguistic perspective to the existing research in the field of media coverage of the matters related to climate change and its influence on the formation of public opinion and public attitudes to this environmental problem. Forty five news articles from three newspapers are analysed in terms of metaphoric sets, the frames they construct, and evaluations in readers’ perception that these frames lead to. Two largest metaphoric sets identified in the data under consideration are that of religion and that of a journey. Together with smaller metaphoric sets, they respectively construct the frames ‘the world’s environmental future does not depend on humans’ and ‘the world’s environmental future is in humans’ hands’, the former taking significant precedence and thus exercising the most tangible influence on the formation of public opinion

General Equilibrium Effects of Insurance Expansions: Evidence from Long-Term Care Labor Markets

Arrow (1963) hypothesized that demand-side moral hazard induced by health insurance leads to supply-side expansions in healthcare markets. Capturing these effects empirically has been challenging, as non-marginal insurance expansions are rare and detailed data on healthcare labor and capital is sparse. We combine administrative labor market data with the geographic variation in the rollout of a universal insurance program—the introduction of long-term care (LTC) insurance in Germany in 1995—to document a substantial expansion of the inpatient LTC labor market in response to insurance expansion. A 10 percentage point expansion in the share of insured elderly leads to 0.05 (7%) more inpatient LTC firms and four (13%) more workers per 1,000 elderly in Germany. Wages did not rise, but the quality of newly hired workers declined. We find suggestive evidence of a reduction in old-age mortality. Using a machine learning algorithm, we characterize counterfactual labor market biographies of potential inpatient LTC hires, finding that the reform moved workers into LTC jobs from unemployment and out of the labor force rather than from other sectors of the economy. We estimate that employing these additional workers in LTC is socially efficient if patients value the care provided by these workers at least at 25% of the market price for care. We show conceptually that, in the spirit of Harberger (1971), in a second-best equilibrium in which supply-side labor markets do not clear at perfectly competitive wages, subsidies for healthcare consumption along with the associated demand-side moral hazard can be welfare-enhancing

Предикторы достоверности в нарративах женщин — доноров ооцитов

This article analyses protocols of in-depth interviews of oocyte donors using a comprehensive methodology that combines aspects of psychology, semiotics, pragmatics, and cognitive linguistics. The authors examine discursive markers of oral dialogic speech that indirectly indicate the reliability of the statements of the interviewees or their desire to disguise information during the conversation. The interdisciplinary nature of the study is provided by the synthesis of psychological and linguistic methodological approaches to the analysis of linguistic material, united around the logical-philosophical category of modality. A similar methodological approach is found in the authorial methods of criteria analysis by A. Vrij. Within the framework of the first method, the authors consider the cognitive operations transmitted by the interviewee while describing the ongoing events, as well as the structural and lexical-semantic makeup of the text as indicators of the reliability of the information presented, which corresponds to the linguistic interpretation of modality. The second method of analysis is developed to a greater extent in line with the psychological approach to the definition of modality: the presence of accurate sensory information in the narrative of the interviewees is a significant indicator of the speaker’s truthfulness. The analysis of interviews with oocyte donors using these methods reveals that perceptual and affective information updated in a communication situation is more indicative of the truthfulness of the speaker than the mental representation of the events and facts presented. In addition, truth-tellers provide more detail, also related to the realm of sensory perception. The desire to disguise any information is often accompanied by a reference to forgetfulness and a transition to another topic of the storyline. The applied research results may be of interest to a wide range of interviewers on different topics while the scholarly results can be used in interdisciplinary art and social science studies.Исследование посвящено анализу протоколов глубинного интервью доноров ооцитов с применением комплексной методологии, сочетающей элементы психологии, лингвосемиотики, прагмалингвистики, когнитивной лингвистики. На материале устной диалогической речи рассмотрены дискурсивные маркеры, опосредованно указывающие на достоверность высказываний участниц интервью или желание скрыть определенную информацию в ходе беседы. Междисциплинарный характер исследования обеспечивается синтезом психологических и лингвистических методологических подходов к анализу языкового материала, объединенных вокруг логико-философской категории модальности. Подобный методологический подход обнаруживается в авторских методиках критериального анализа А. Врая. В рамках первой методики исследуются когнитивные операции, транслируемые участником интервью в ходе описания происходящих событий, а также структурное и лексико-семантическое оформление текста высказывания как показатели достоверности излагаемой информации, что соответствует лингвистической интерпретации модальности. Вторая методика анализа выстраивается в большей степени в русле психологического подхода к определению модальности: наличие точной сенсорной информации в нарративе участников интервью является значимым показателем правдивости говорящего. Анализ интервью доноров ооцитов с использованием данных методик показал, что перцептивная, аффективная информация, актуализируемая в ситуации общения, в большей степени свидетельствует о правдивости говорящего, чем ментальная репрезентация излагаемых событий и фактов. Кроме того, говорящие правду приводят больше деталей, также относящихся к сфере чувственного восприятия. Желание скрыть какую-либо информацию часто сопровождается ссылкой на нарушения памяти и переходом на другую тему повествования. Прикладные результаты исследования могут представлять интерес для широкого круга лиц, проводящих собеседования по различной тематике. Научные результаты могут быть использованы при проведении междисциплинарных исследований социально-гуманитарного профиля

Septic tanks for residential houses: comparative constructional requirements

In this work the main terms and conceptions are defined. There are a short description of operating principle of anaerobic septic tank, its application conditions, advantages, and disadvantages. This article also introduces requirements for anaerobic septic tank’s construction as one of the autonomic systems of sewage water treatment. Article contains the list of documents, which should be delivered with anaerobic septic tank. Article represents descriptions of septic tanks’ constructions, which are popular in Russia, with their cost, sizes and value of purification rates of grey water. This research includes conformance review of construction and documents, with the conclusion about the real opportunities and advantages of septic tanks, which are declared by its manufacturers

Translucency and Color Stability of a Simplified Shade Nanohybrid Composite after Ultrasonic Scaling and Air-Powder Polishing

We aimed to assess the influence of professional dental prophylaxis on the translucency and color stability of a novel simplified shade nanohybrid composite material. Sixty composite disks (5 mm in diameter and 2 mm thick) of light (n = 30) and dark (n = 30) shades were prepared. The specimens were randomly divided into the following three groups (n = 10) according to the prophylaxis procedure used: ultrasonic scaling, air-powder polishing with sodium bicarbonate, and controls. The specimens were submitted to translucency and color analysis based on the CIELab system. Two measurements were performed before and after 48-h storage in coffee. Translucency values of untreated light and dark specimens were 9.15 ± 0.38 and 5.28 ± 1.10, respectively. Airpowder polishing decreased the translucency of the light composite specimens. Storage in coffee resulted in color changes (∆E) ranging between 2.69 and 12.05 and a mean translucency decrease ranging between −0.88 and −6.91. The samples in the light group tended to exhibit greater staining; the treatment method had no effect on ∆E. It can be concluded that light-shade composite restorations are more prone to translucency and color changes resulting from air-powder polishing and contact with staining media. However, further research using other composites and powders is required

Mindreading From the Eyes Declines With Aging - Evidence From 1,603 Subjects.

Social cognition, in particular mindreading, enables the understanding of another individual's feelings, intentions, desires, and mental states. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) captures the ability to identify mental states from gaze. We investigated RMET accuracy in the context of age and cognition across the whole adult age-range (19-79 years) in a very large population-based sample (N = 1,603) with linear regression models accounting for cognitive abilities, neurological diseases, and psychiatric disorders. Higher age predicted lower RMET performance in women and men, suggesting difficulties to infer mental states from gaze at older age. Effects remained stable when taking other cognitive abilities and psychiatric disorders or neurological diseases into account. Our results show that RMET performance as a measure of social cognition declines with increasing age

Методология диагностики финансовой неустойчивости банков

This article is devoted to the issues of timely detection of negative trends in bank’s operation on the basis of data from financial statements. The authors determined that revealing certain sequences of events in credit institutions activities (negative development scenarios) permits to reduce the risk of license withdrawal prediction error. A set of the most common negative scenarios was discovered and described by the authors. Discovering such scenarios based on the financial statement data allows all interested parties to be proactive in preventing closing down of a credit institution at the initiative of the Bank of Russia or in protecting themselves from negative consequences of this event. The conclusions were confirmed by the mathematical modeling results using classification trees from CART methodology, which have never been applied before to predict license withdrawal.Данная публикация посвящена вопросам своевременного выявления отрицательных тенденций в деятельности банка на основании данных его официальной отчетности. Авторами было установлено, что обнаружение некоторых последовательностей событий в жизни кредитной организации (негативных сценариев развития) позволяет снизить риск ошибочного прогнозирования отзыва лицензии. Ряд наиболее распространенных негативных сценариев был выявлен и описан авторами. Обнаружение подобных сценариев на основании данных отчетности позволяет всем заинтересованным сторонам заранее принять необходимые меры либо для предотвращения закрытия кредитной организации по инициативе Банка России, либо для защиты от негативных последствий этого события. Выводы были подтверждены результатами математического моделирования с использованием деревьев классификации из методологии CART, ранее для прогнозирования отзыва лицензии не применявшихся