Is meaning fraught with ought?

According to Normativism, what an expression means has immediate implications for how a subject should or may (not) employ that expression. Many view this thesis as imposing substantive constraints upon theories of linguistic meaning. In this paper, I shall not consider that view; instead, I shall address the prior issue of whether or not one should accept Normativism. Against certain recent prominent lines of attack common to a number of different anti-Normativist discussions, I shall defend both the Normativist thesis and an attempt to appeal to a certain platitude in its support

A Submodular Approach for Reference Recommendation

© 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. Choosing appropriate references for a given topic is an important, yet challenging task. The pool of potential candidates is typically very large, in the order of tens of thousands, and growing by the day. For this reason, this paper proposes an approach for automatically providing a reference list for a given manuscript. The approach is based on an original submodular inference function which balances relevance, coverage and diversity in the reference list. Experiments are carried out using an ACL corpus as a source for the references and evaluated by MAP, MRR and precision-recall. The results show the remarkable comparative performance of the proposed approach

Investigation of Swedish cases reveals an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis at a Norwegian hotel with possible links to in-house water systems

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In March 2007, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health was notified of Swedish individuals diagnosed with cryptosporidiosis after staying at a Norwegian hotel. In Norway, cryptosporidiosis is not reportable, and human infections are rarely diagnosed.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A questionnaire on illness and exposure history was e-mailed to seven organised groups who had visited the hotel in March. Cases were defined as persons with diarrhoea for more than two days or laboratory-confirmed cryptosporidiosis during or within two weeks of the hotel visit. The risk factor analysis was restricted to two groups with the highest attack rates (AR) and same hotel stay period. Local food safety authorities conducted environmental investigations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In total, 25 diarrhoeal cases (10 laboratory-confirmed) were identified among 89 respondents. Although environmental samples were negative, epidemiological data suggest an association with in-house water consumption. In one group, the AR was higher amongst consumers of water from hotel dispenser (relative risk [RR] = 3.0; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.9–9.8), tap water (RR = 2.3; CI: 0.9–5.8), and lower amongst commercial bottled water drinkers (RR = 0.6; CI: 0.4–1.0). Consumption of ice cubes was a risk-factor (RR = 7.1; CI: 1.1–45.7) in the two groups combined.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This outbreak would probably have remained undetected without the alert from Swedish health authorities, illustrating the difficulties in outbreak detection due to low health care seeking behaviour for diarrhoea and limited parasite diagnostics in Norway. Awareness of cryptosporidiosis should be raised amongst Norwegian medical personnel to improve case and outbreak detection, and possible risks related to in-house water systems should be assessed.</p

Meaning behind measurement : self-comparisons affect responses to health related quality of life questionnaires

Purpose The subjective nature of quality of life is particularly pertinent to the domain of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) research. The extent to which participants’ responses are affected by subjective information and personal reference frames is unknown. This study investigated how an elderly population living with a chronic metabolic bone disorder evaluated self-reported quality of life. Methods Participants (n = 1,331) in a multi-centre randomised controlled trial for the treatment of Paget’s disease completed annual HRQOL questionnaires, including the SF-36, EQ-5D and HAQ. Supplementary questions were added to reveal implicit reference frames used when making HRQOL evaluations. Twenty-one participants (11 male, 10 female, aged 59–91 years) were interviewed retrospectively about their responses to the supplementary questions, using cognitive interviewing techniques and semi-structured topic guides. Results The interviews revealed that participants used complex and interconnected reference frames to promote response shift when making quality of life evaluations. The choice of reference frame often reflected external factors unrelated to individual health. Many participants also stated that they were unclear whether to report general or disease-related HRQOL. Conclusions It is important, especially in clinical trials, to provide instructions clarifying whether ‘quality of life’ refers to disease-related HRQOL. Information on selfcomparison reference frames is necessary for the interpretation of responses to questions about HRQOL.The Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates, The PRISM funding bodies (the Arthritis Research Campaign, the National Association for the Relief of Paget’s disease and the Alliance for Better Bone Health)Peer reviewedAuthor final versio

Thrombocytopenic, thromboembolic and haemorrhagic events following second dose with BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1: self-controlled case series analysis of the English national sentinel cohort

Thrombosis associated with thrombocytopenia was a matter of concern post first and second doses of BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 COVID-19 vaccines. Therefore, it is important to investigate the risk of thrombocytopenic, thromboembolic and haemorrhagic events following a second dose of BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 COVID-19 vaccines. We conducted a large-scale self-controlled case series analysis, using routine primary care data linked to hospital data, among 12.3 million individuals (16 years old and above) in England. We used the nationally representative Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) sentinel network database with baseline and risk periods between 8th December 2020 and 11th June 2022. We included individuals who received two vaccine (primary) doses of the BNT162b2 mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech) and two vaccine doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) vaccines in our analyses. We carried out a self-controlled case series (SCCS) analysis for each outcome using a conditional Poisson regression model with an offset for the length of risk period. We reported the incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of thrombocytopenic, thromboembolic (including arterial and venous events) and haemorrhagic events, in the period of 0-27 days after receiving a second dose of BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1 vaccines compared to the baseline period (14 or more days prior to first dose, 28 or more days after the second dose and the time between 28 or more days after the first and 14 or more days prior to the second dose). We adjusted for a range of potential confounders, including age, sex, comorbidities and deprivation. Between December 8, 2020 and February 11, 2022, 6,306,306 individuals were vaccinated with two doses of BNT162b2 and 6,046,785 individuals were vaccinated with two doses of ChAdOx1. Compared to the baseline, our analysis show no increased risk of venous thromboembolic events (VTE) for both BNT162b2 (IRR 0.71, 95% CI: 0.65-0.770) and ChAdOx1 (IRR 0.91, 95% CI: 0.84-0.98); and similarly there was no increased risk for cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) for both BNT162b2 (IRR 0.87, 95% CI: 0.41-1.85) and ChAdOx1 (IRR 1.73, 95% CI: 0.82-3.68). We additionally report no difference in IRR for pulmonary embolus, and deep vein thrombosis, thrombocytopenia, including idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), and haemorrhagic events post second dose for both BNT162b2. Reassuringly, we found no associations between increased risk of thrombocytopenic, thromboembolic and haemorrhagic events post vaccination with second dose for either of these vaccines. Data and Connectivity: COVID-19 Vaccines Pharmacovigilance study

Expressed Sequence Tags from Cephalic Chemosensory Organs of the Northern Walnut Husk Fly, Rhagoletis suavis, Including a Putative Canonical Odorant Receptor

Rhagoletis fruit flies are important both as major agricultural pests and as model organisms for the study of adaptation to new host plants and host race formation. Response to fruit odor plays a critical role in such adaptation. To better understand olfaction in Rhagoletis, an expressed sequence tag (EST) study was carried out on the antennae and maxillary palps of Rhagoletis suavis (Loew) (Diptera: Tephritidae), a common pest of walnuts in eastern United States. After cDNA cloning and sequencing, 544 ESTs were annotated. Of these, 66% had an open reading frame and could be matched to a previously sequenced gene. Based on BLAST sequence homology, 9% (49 of 544 sequences) were nuclear genes potentially involved in olfaction. The most significant finding is a putative odorant receptor (OR), RSOr1, that is homologous to Drosophila melanogaster Or49a and Or85f. This is the first tephritid OR discovered that might recognize a specific odorant. Other olfactory genes recovered included odorant binding proteins, chemosensory proteins, and putative odorant degrading enzymes

The role of the right temporoparietal junction in perceptual conflict: detection or resolution?

The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) is a polysensory cortical area that plays a key role in perception and awareness. Neuroimaging evidence shows activation of rTPJ in intersensory and sensorimotor conflict situations, but it remains unclear whether this activity reflects detection or resolution of such conflicts. To address this question, we manipulated the relationship between touch and vision using the so-called mirror-box illusion. Participants' hands lay on either side of a mirror, which occluded their left hand and reflected their right hand, but created the illusion that they were looking directly at their left hand. The experimenter simultaneously touched either the middle (D3) or the ring finger (D4) of each hand. Participants judged, which finger was touched on their occluded left hand. The visual stimulus corresponding to the touch on the right hand was therefore either congruent (same finger as touch) or incongruent (different finger from touch) with the task-relevant touch on the left hand. Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was delivered to the rTPJ immediately after touch. Accuracy in localizing the left touch was worse for D4 than for D3, particularly when visual stimulation was incongruent. However, following TMS, accuracy improved selectively for D4 in incongruent trials, suggesting that the effects of the conflicting visual information were reduced. These findings suggest a role of rTPJ in detecting, rather than resolving, intersensory conflict