352 research outputs found
Semantic Influences on Syntactic Acceptability Ratings
A high prevalence of syntactic gradience is well attested, but a comprehensive explanation is still needed. In the present paper, we look into the question of whether semantic influences could account for parts of the observed gradience. Results from two experiments suggest that semantic influences can have a degrading effect on the acceptability of grammatical items. However, we did not observe that they had an ameliorating effect, which still leaves a good deal of the observed gradience in need of an explanation
Exploring syntactic and semantic acceptability: A case study on semantic restriction violations and aspectual mismatches
The present study investigates the interaction between syntax and semantics, and its effects on acceptability. The study compares ratings from two experiments – a syntactic rating task and a semantic one – the latter asking for meaningfulness/plausibility. The focus is on two phenomena: semantic restriction violations and aspectual mismatches with for-PPs. For comparison, the experiments also include two reference phenomena: resumptive pronouns, which are ungrammatical but in principle meaningful/plausible, and semantic contradictions, which are not meaningful/plausible but grammatical. Further, we include anchor items of various degrees of grammaticality and meaningfulness/plausibility, in order to calibrate the scale and probe the rating space. The results for the resumptive pronouns and the semantic contradictions, as well as the anchor items, indicate that our participants struggled to distinguish between the two tasks to some degree. Semantic deviations seem to drag down syntactic acceptability, and syntactic anomalies drag down perceived meaningfulness/plausibility. Importantly, however, the results remain interpretable. We observe that the impact of semantic anomaly on syntactic acceptability differs across phenomena, as did the impact of syntactic deviations on semantic acceptability. Furthermore, the semantic restriction violations seem to affect semantic acceptability more than syntactic acceptability. By contrast, the for-PPs received reduced ratings in both tasks. Our findings further substantiate the notion that the border between syntax and semantics is not clear-cut and that the interface between the two is complex
Data convergence in syntactic theory and the role of sentence pairs
Most acceptability judgments reported in the syntactic literature are obtained by linguists being their own informants. For well-represented languages
like English, this method of data collection is best described as a process of community agreement, given that linguists typically discuss their judgments with colleagues. However, the process itself is comparably opaque, and the reliability of its
output has been questioned. Recent studies looking into this criticism have shown
that judgments reported in the literature for English can be replicated in quantitative experiments to a near-perfect degree. However, the focus of those studies
has been on testing sentence pairs. We argue that replication of only contrasts
is not sufcient, because theory building necessarily includes comparison across
pairs and across papers. Thus, we test items at large, i. e. independent of counterparts. We created a corpus of grammaticality judgments on sequences of American English reported in articles published in Linguistic Inquiry and then collected
experimental ratings for a random subset of them. Overall, expert ratings and experimental ratings converge to a good degree, but there are numerous instances
in which ratings do not converge. Based on this, we argue that for theory-critical
data, the process of community agreement should be accompanied by quantitative methods whenever possible
PMS67 HEALTH GAINS FOREGONE DUETO THE SUSTAINED DELAY OF ADEQUATE UTILIZATION OF EVIDENCE BASED TREATMENTS: THE CASE OF BISPHOSPHONATES FOR THE TREATMENT OF OSTEOPOROSIS
POB4 USING CLAIMS DATA TO UNDERSTAND THE COSTS OF DIFFERENT HEALTH STATES FOR PATIENTS WITH CARDIOMETABOLIC RISK
78 Pseudomonas aeruginosa cupA encoded fimbria expression is regulated by a GGDEF and EAL domain dependent modulation of the intracellular level of cyclic diguanylate
Nonequilibrium coupled Brownian phase oscillators
A model of globally coupled phase oscillators under equilibrium (driven by
Gaussian white noise) and nonequilibrium (driven by symmetric dichotomic
fluctuations) is studied. For the equilibrium system, the mean-field state
equation takes a simple form and the stability of its solution is examined in
the full space of order parameters. For the nonequilbrium system, various
asymptotic regimes are obtained in a closed analytical form. In a general case,
the corresponding master equations are solved numerically. Moreover, the
Monte-Carlo simulations of the coupled set of Langevin equations of motion is
performed. The phase diagram of the nonequilibrium system is presented. For the
long time limit, we have found four regimes. Three of them can be obtained from
the mean-field theory. One of them, the oscillating regime, cannot be predicted
by the mean-field method and has been detected in the Monte-Carlo numerical
experiments.Comment: 9 pages 8 figure
Barriers and Facilitators of Safe Communication in Obstetrics: Results from Qualitative Interviews with Physicians, Midwives and Nurses.
Patient safety is an important objective in health care. Preventable adverse events (pAEs) as the counterpart to patient safety are harmful incidents that fell behind health care standards and have led to temporary or permanent harm or death. As safe communication and mutual understanding are of crucial importance for providing a high quality of care under everyday conditions, we aimed to identify barriers and facilitators that impact safe communication in obstetrics from the subjective perspective of health care workers. A qualitative study with 20 semi-structured interviews at two university hospitals in Germany was conducted to explore everyday perceptions from a subjective perspective (subjective theories). Physicians, midwives, and nurses in a wide span of professional experience and positions were enrolled. We identified a structural area of conflict at the professional interface between midwives and physicians. Mandatory interprofessional meetings, acceptance of subjective mistakes, mutual understanding, and debriefings of conflict situations are reported to improve collaboration. Additionally, emergency trainings, trainings in precise communication, and handovers are proposed to reduce risks for pAEs. Furthermore, the participants reported time-constraints and understaffing as a huge burden that hinders safe communication. Concluding, safety culture and organizational management are closely entwined and strategies should address various levels of which communication trainings are promising
Hybrid administrative interfaces : authority delegation and reversion in strategic alliances
Steering committees are pivotal for governing complex collaborations by consensus to facilitate coordination and knowledge sharing. Although consensus-based governance promotes mutuality, it can also cause deadlocks, stalling expeditious decision making. We examine the conditions under which alliance partners delegate decision-making authority to steering committees as well as the conditions under which authority over discordant matters can be relocated to one of the alliance partners. We argue that joint coordination concerns increase the likelihood of authority delegation, whereas the higher costs and stakes associated with decision stalemates provide grounds for authority reversion. Empirical analyses of strategic alliances in the biopharmaceutical industry support our arguments. Our paper demonstrates the versatility of contractually defined administrative interfaces in alliance governance, allowing partners to coordinate bilaterally and adapt hierarchically as and when required
Mesoscopic Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in metallic rings
We study the amplitude of mesoscopic Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in
quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) diffusive rings. We consider first the
low-temperature limit of a fully coherent sample. The variance of oscillation
harmonics is calculated as a function of the length of the leads attaching the
ring to reservoirs. We further analyze the regime of relatively high
temperatures, when the dephasing due to electron-electron interaction
suppresses substantially the oscillations. We show that the dephasing length
L_phi^AB governing the damping factor exp(-2pi R /L_phi^AB) of the oscillations
is parametrically different from the common dephasing length for the Q1D
geometry. This is due to the fact that the dephasing is governed by energy
transfers determined by the ring circumference 2pi R, making L_phi^AB
R-dependent.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, to appear in proceedings of NATO/Euresco
Conference "Fundamental Problems of Mesoscopic Physics: Interactions and
Decoherence", Granada (Spain), September 200
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