Search results for: word meaning retrieval
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2195

Search results for: word meaning retrieval

1835 Understanding the Interactive Nature in Auditory Recognition of Phonological/Grammatical/Semantic Errors at the Sentence Level: An Investigation Based upon Japanese EFL Learners’ Self-Evaluation and Actual Language Performance

Authors: Hirokatsu Kawashima

Abstract:

One important element of teaching/learning listening is intensive listening such as listening for precise sounds, words, grammatical, and semantic units. Several classroom-based investigations have been conducted to explore the usefulness of auditory recognition of phonological, grammatical and semantic errors in such a context. The current study reports the results of one such investigation, which targeted auditory recognition of phonological, grammatical, and semantic errors at the sentence level. 56 Japanese EFL learners participated in this investigation, in which their recognition performance of phonological, grammatical and semantic errors was measured on a 9-point scale by learners’ self-evaluation from the perspective of 1) two types of similar English sound (vowel and consonant minimal pair words), 2) two types of sentence word order (verb phrase-based and noun phrase-based word orders), and 3) two types of semantic consistency (verb-purpose and verb-place agreements), respectively, and their general listening proficiency was examined using standardized tests. A number of findings have been made about the interactive relationships between the three types of auditory error recognition and general listening proficiency. Analyses based on the OPLS (Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structure) regression model have disclosed, for example, that the three types of auditory error recognition are linked in a non-linear way: the highest explanatory power for general listening proficiency may be attained when quadratic interactions between auditory recognition of errors related to vowel minimal pair words and that of errors related to noun phrase-based word order are embraced (R2=.33, p=.01).

Keywords: auditory error recognition, intensive listening, interaction, investigation

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1834 Integrating Data Mining with Case-Based Reasoning for Diagnosing Sorghum Anthracnose

Authors: Mariamawit T. Belete

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Cereal production and marketing are the means of livelihood for millions of households in Ethiopia. However, cereal production is constrained by technical and socio-economic factors. Among the technical factors, cereal crop diseases are the major contributing factors to the low yield. The aim of this research is to develop an integration of data mining and knowledge based system for sorghum anthracnose disease diagnosis that assists agriculture experts and development agents to make timely decisions. Anthracnose diagnosing systems gather information from Melkassa agricultural research center and attempt to score anthracnose severity scale. Empirical research is designed for data exploration, modeling, and confirmatory procedures for testing hypothesis and prediction to draw a sound conclusion. WEKA (Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis) was employed for the modeling. Knowledge based system has come across a variety of approaches based on the knowledge representation method; case-based reasoning (CBR) is one of the popular approaches used in knowledge-based system. CBR is a problem solving strategy that uses previous cases to solve new problems. The system utilizes hidden knowledge extracted by employing clustering algorithms, specifically K-means clustering from sampled anthracnose dataset. Clustered cases with centroid value are mapped to jCOLIBRI, and then the integrator application is created using NetBeans with JDK 8.0.2. The important part of a case based reasoning model includes case retrieval; the similarity measuring stage, reuse; which allows domain expert to transfer retrieval case solution to suit for the current case, revise; to test the solution, and retain to store the confirmed solution to the case base for future use. Evaluation of the system was done for both system performance and user acceptance. For testing the prototype, seven test cases were used. Experimental result shows that the system achieves an average precision and recall values of 70% and 83%, respectively. User acceptance testing also performed by involving five domain experts, and an average of 83% acceptance is achieved. Although the result of this study is promising, however, further study should be done an investigation on hybrid approach such as rule based reasoning, and pictorial retrieval process are recommended.

Keywords: sorghum anthracnose, data mining, case based reasoning, integration

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1833 The Relation between Cognitive Fluency and Utterance Fluency in Second Language Spoken Fluency: Studying Fluency through a Psycholinguistic Lens

Authors: Tannistha Dasgupta

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This study explores the aspects of second language (L2) spoken fluency that are related to L2 linguistic knowledge and processing skill. It draws on Levelt’s ‘blueprint’ of the L2 speaker which discusses the cognitive issues underlying the act of speaking. However, L2 speaking assessments have largely neglected the underlying mechanism involved in language production; emphasis is given on the relationship between subjective ratings of L2 speech sample and objectively measured aspects of fluency. Hence, in this study, the relation between L2 linguistic knowledge and processing skill i.e. Cognitive Fluency (CF), and objectively measurable aspects of L2 spoken fluency i.e. Utterance Fluency (UF) is examined. The participants of the study are L2 learners of English, studying at high school level in Hyderabad, India. 50 participants with intermediate level of proficiency in English performed several lexical retrieval tasks and attention-shifting tasks to measure CF, and 8 oral tasks to measure UF. Each aspect of UF (speed, pause, and repair) were measured against the scores of CF to find out those aspects of UF which are reliable indicators of CF. Quantitative analysis of the data shows that among the three aspects of UF; speed is the best predictor of CF, and pause is weakly related to CF. The study suggests that including the speed aspect of UF could make L2 fluency assessment more reliable, valid, and objective. Thus, incorporating the assessment of psycholinguistic mechanisms into L2 spoken fluency testing, could result in fairer evaluation.

Keywords: attention-shifting, cognitive fluency, lexical retrieval, utterance fluency

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1832 Interpretation of the Russia-Ukraine 2022 War via N-Gram Analysis

Authors: Elcin Timur Cakmak, Ayse Oguzlar

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This study presents the results of the tweets sent by Twitter users on social media about the Russia-Ukraine war by bigram and trigram methods. On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a military operation against Ukraine, and all eyes were turned to this war. Many people living in Russia and Ukraine reacted to this war and protested and also expressed their deep concern about this war as they felt the safety of their families and their futures were at stake. Most people, especially those living in Russia and Ukraine, express their views on the war in different ways. The most popular way to do this is through social media. Many people prefer to convey their feelings using Twitter, one of the most frequently used social media tools. Since the beginning of the war, it is seen that there have been thousands of tweets about the war from many countries of the world on Twitter. These tweets accumulated in data sources are extracted using various codes for analysis through Twitter API and analysed by Python programming language. The aim of the study is to find the word sequences in these tweets by the n-gram method, which is known for its widespread use in computational linguistics and natural language processing. The tweet language used in the study is English. The data set consists of the data obtained from Twitter between February 24, 2022, and April 24, 2022. The tweets obtained from Twitter using the #ukraine, #russia, #war, #putin, #zelensky hashtags together were captured as raw data, and the remaining tweets were included in the analysis stage after they were cleaned through the preprocessing stage. In the data analysis part, the sentiments are found to present what people send as a message about the war on Twitter. Regarding this, negative messages make up the majority of all the tweets as a ratio of %63,6. Furthermore, the most frequently used bigram and trigram word groups are found. Regarding the results, the most frequently used word groups are “he, is”, “I, do”, “I, am” for bigrams. Also, the most frequently used word groups are “I, do, not”, “I, am, not”, “I, can, not” for trigrams. In the machine learning phase, the accuracy of classifications is measured by Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and Naïve Bayes (NB) algorithms. The algorithms are used separately for bigrams and trigrams. We gained the highest accuracy and F-measure values by the NB algorithm and the highest precision and recall values by the CART algorithm for bigrams. On the other hand, the highest values for accuracy, precision, and F-measure values are achieved by the CART algorithm, and the highest value for the recall is gained by NB for trigrams.

Keywords: classification algorithms, machine learning, sentiment analysis, Twitter

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1831 The Meaning of Adolescent Mothers' Experience with Childrearing and Studying Simultaneously

Authors: Benyapa Thitimapong

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Teenage pregnancy and adolescent mothers have become a matter of increasing concern in Thailand. Since adolescent mothers have been a big problem for two main consequences; health outcomes and socio-economic impacts. Adolescent mothers often endure poor living conditions; limited financial resources while also experience high stress, family instability, and limited educational opportunities. These disadvantages are negative and have long-term effects on adolescent mothers, their families, and the community. The majority of pregnant students and adolescent mothers dropped out of school after becoming pregnant, and some of them return to study again after they gave birth. This research aimed to explain the meaning of adolescent mothers who had undergone with childrearing and studying simultaneously after childbirth. A phenomenological qualitative approach was undertaken to investigate this study. The participants were 20 adolescent mothers each of whom became a mother and a student concurrently within less than 2 years after giving birth to a healthy baby and had also undergone the experience of childrearing and studying in non-formal education. In-depth interview was carried out for data collection, and the data were analyzed using content analysis method. ‘Learning to move forward’ was the meaning of adolescent mothers who experienced with childrearing and studying simultaneously. Their expressions were classified into two categories 1) having more responsibility, and 2) conceding and going on. The result of this study can be used as evidence for health care providers, especially nurses to facilitate and support pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers to continue their education. Also, it can be used to guide policy to promote in all educational system to enable these groups to remain in school for their life-long success in the future.

Keywords: adolescent mothers, childrearing, studying, teenage pregnancy

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1830 Objectives of the Standardization of Technical Terminology Nowadays in Albanian

Authors: Gani Pllana

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In the conditions of the rapid development of technics and technology in recent years, the cooperation of the scientific-technical language with the standard Albanian language is continuing with a higher intensity than before. We notice a vigor of enrichment in the vocabulary of technical terminology, due to the birth and formation of new fields and subfields of technics, technology, as computing, mechatronics, telemetry, a multitude of concepts many of which, on the one hand, are marked with names of the languages they come from, mainly from English, but on the other hand, they meet their needs with the lexical mother tongue composition (by common words being raised to terms) and with the activation of other layers, such as compound word terms. Thus, for example, in the field of computing, we notice in it the inclusion of the ordinary vocabulary for reproductive reasons, like mi, dritare, flamur, adresë, skedar (Engl: mouse, window, flag, address, file), and along with them, the compound word terms, serving to differentiate relevant concepts, like, adresë e hiperlidhjes, adresë e uebit, adresë relative, adresë virtuale (Engl. address hyperlink, web address, relative address, virtual address) etc.

Keywords: common words, Albanian language, technical terminology, standardization

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1829 Generation Z: Insights into Travel Behavior

Authors: Joao Ferreira Do Rosario, Nuno Gustavo, Ana Machado, Lurdes Calisto, Luisa Carvalho, Georgette Andraz

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Currently, tourism small and medium enterprises (TSMEs) face serious economic and financial problems, making recovery efforts difficult. How the pandemic will affect tourists' behavior is still to be known. Will tourists be even more cautious regarding their choices or, on the contrary, will they be more adventurers with an enormous desire to travel in search of the lost freedom? Tourists may become even more demanding when traveling, more austere, or less concerned and eager to socialize. Adjusting to this "new tourist" is an added challenge for tourism service providers. Generation Z made up of individuals born in 1995 and following years, currently tends to assume a particular role and meaning in the present and future economic and social context, considering that we are facing the youngest workforce as well as tomorrow's consumers. This generation is distinguished from others as it is the first generation to combine a high level of education and technological knowledge and to fully experience the digital world. These young people are framed by a new value system that can explain new behaviours and consumption, namely, in the context of tourism. All these considerations point to the importance of investigating this target group as it is essential to understand how these individuals perceive, understand, act, and can be involved in a new environment built around a society regulated by new priorities and challenges of a sustainable nature. This leads not only to a focus on short-term market choices but mainly to predict future choices from a longer-term perspective. Together with the social background of a person, values are considered a stable antecedent of behavior and might therefore predict not just immediate, but also future choices. Furthermore, the meaning attributed to travel has a general connotation and goes beyond a specific travel choice or experience. In other words, values and travel's meaning form a chain of influences on the present and future travel behavior. This study explores the social background and values of Generation Z travelers vs the meaning these tourists give to travel. The aim is to discover in their present behavior cues to predict travel choices so that the future of tourism can be secured. This study also provides data for predicting the tourism choices of youngsters in the more immediate future. Methodologically, a quantitative approach was adopted based on the collection of data through a survey. Since academic research on Generation Z of tourists is still scarce, it is expected to contribute to deepening scientific knowledge in this area. Furthermore, it is expected that this research will support tourism professionals in defining differentiated marketing strategies and adapted to the requirements of this target, in a new time.

Keywords: Generation Z, travel behavior, travel meaning, Generation Z Values

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1828 Nation Branding: Guidelines for Identity Development and Image Perception of Thailand Brand in Health and Wellness Tourism

Authors: Jiraporn Prommaha

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The purpose of this research is to study the development of Thailand Brand Identity and the perception of its image in order to find any guidelines for the identity development and the image perception of Thailand Brand in Health and Wellness Tourism. The paper is conducted through mixed methods research, both the qualitative and quantitative researches. The qualitative focuses on the in-depth interview of executive administrations from public and private sectors involved scholars and experts in identity and image issue, main 11 people. The quantitative research was done by the questionnaires to collect data from foreign tourists 800; Chinese tourists 400 and UK tourists 400. The technique used for this was the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), this was to determine the relation between the structures of the variables by categorizing the variables into group by applying the Varimax rotation technique. This technique showed recognition the Thailand brand image related to the 2 countries, China and UK. The results found that guidelines for brand identity development and image perception of health and wellness tourism in Thailand; as following (1) Develop communication in order to understanding of the meaning of the word 'Health and beauty tourism' throughout the country, (2) Develop human resources as a national agenda, (3) Develop awareness rising in the conservation and preservation of natural resources of the country, (4) Develop the cooperation of all stakeholders in Health and Wellness Businesses, (5) Develop digital communication throughout the country and (6) Develop safety in Tourism.

Keywords: brand identity, image perception, nation branding, health and wellness tourism, mixed methods research

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1827 Fashion, Art and Culture in the Anthropological Management Model

Authors: Lucia Perez, Maria Gaton y Santa Palella

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Starting from the etymology of the word culture, the Latin term ‘colere’, whose meaning is to cultivate, we understand that the society that cultivates its knowledge is laying the foundations for new possibilities. In this sense, art and fashion contain the same attributes: concept, aesthetic principles, and refined techniques. Both play a crucial role, communication, and this implies a sense of community, relationship with tradition, and innovation. This is the mirror in which to contemplate, but also the space that helps to grow. This is the framework where our object of study opens up: the anthropological management or the mission management model applied to fashion exhibitions in museums and cultural institutions. For this purpose, a bibliographic review has been carried out with its subsequent analysis, a case study of three successful exhibitions: ‘Christian Dior: designer of dreams’, ‘Balenciaga and the Spanish painting’, and ‘China: Through the Looking Glass’. The methodology has been completed with interviews focused on the curators. Amongst the results obtained, it is worth highlighting the fundamental role of transcendent leadership, which, in addition to being results-oriented, must align the motivations of the collaborators with the mission. The anthropological management model conceives management as a service, and it is oriented to the interests of the staff and the public, in short, of the person; this is what enables the objectives of effectiveness, efficiency, and social value to be achieved; dimensions, all necessary for the proper development of the mission of the exhibitions. Fashion, understood as art, is at the service of culture, and therefore of the human being, which defines a transcendent mission. We conclude that the profile of an anthropological management model applied to fashion exhibitions in museums is the ideal one to achieve the purpose of these institutions.

Keywords: art, culture, fashion, anthropological model, fashion exhibitions

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1826 Social Media Marketing Efforts to Influence Brand Equity and Consumer Behavior: The Case of Luxury Fashion Brands in Pakistan

Authors: Syed Rashid Hussain Shah, Sumera Syed, Nida Mushtaq

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Social media is not only acting as a medium of communication; rather it has provided a platform where customers can actually live with the brands they so dearly envy and interact with others with same interest. Organizations are making social media marketing efforts (SMME) to convert this opportunity into a meaningful experience. It may be resembled or considered as an act of branding where the notion is not only to understand the consumer behavior but also developing a strong link with them. Ultimately the quest is to influence and bend it into a mutual benefit of the stakeholders. This study investigates SMME of brands with the help of five dimensions (i.e., entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization and word of mouth). The study has found that there is no significant impact of SMME as a construct on brand equity and consumer behavior. However, few of the dimensions (i.e. customization and word of mouth), have been found to have influence on brand equity (brand association, brand image) and consumer response (brand preferences).

Keywords: social media marketing efforts (SMME), brand equity, preference, loyalty price premium, luxury brands, international

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1825 From the “Movement Language” to Communication Language

Authors: Mahmudjon Kuchkarov, Marufjon Kuchkarov

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The origin of ‘Human Language’ is still a secret and the most interesting subject of historical linguistics. The core element is the nature of labeling or coding the things or processes with symbols and sounds. In this paper, we investigate human’s involuntary Paired Sounds and Shape Production (PSSP) and its contribution to the development of early human communication. Aimed at twenty-six volunteers who provided many physical movements with various difficulties, the research team investigated the natural, repeatable, and paired sounds and shape productions during human activities. The paper claims the involvement of Paired Sounds and Shape Production (PSSP) in the phonetic origin of some modern words and the existence of similarities between elements of PSSP with characters of the classic Latin alphabet. The results may be used not only as a supporting idea for existing theories but to create a closer look at some fundamental nature of the origin of the languages as well.

Keywords: body shape, body language, coding, Latin alphabet, merging method, movement language, movement sound, natural sound, origin of language, pairing, phonetics, sound and shape production, word origin, word semantic

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1824 Examining the Dubbing Strategies Used in the Egyptian Dubbed Version of Mulan (1998)

Authors: Shaza Melies, Saadeya Salem, Seham Kareh

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Cartoon films are multisemiotic as various modes integrate in the production of meaning. This study aims to examine the cultural and linguistic specific references in the Egyptian dubbed cartoon film Mulan. The study examines the translation strategies implemented in the Egyptian dubbed version of Mulan to meet the cultural preferences of the audience. The study reached the following findings: Using the traditional translation strategies does not deliver the intended meaning of the source text and causes loss in the intended humor. As a result, the findings showed that in the dubbed version, translators tend to omit, change, or add information to the target text to be accepted by the audience. The contrastive analysis of the Mulan (English and dubbed versions) proves the connotations that the dubbing has taken to be accepted by the target audience. Cartoon films are multisemiotic as various modes integrate in the production of meaning. This study aims to examine the cultural and linguistic specific references in the Egyptian dubbed cartoon film Mulan. The study examines the translation strategies implemented in the Egyptian dubbed version of Mulan to meet the cultural preferences of the audience. The study reached the following findings: Using the traditional translation strategies does not deliver the intended meaning of the source text and causes loss in the intended humor. As a result, the findings showed that in the dubbed version, translators tend to omit, change, or add information to the target text to be accepted by the audience. The contrastive analysis of the Mulan (English and dubbed versions) proves the connotations that the dubbing has taken to be accepted by the target audience.

Keywords: domestication, dubbing, Mulan, translation theories

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1823 Specialized Building Terminology of the 19th Century

Authors: Klara Kroftova, Martin Ebel

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Human history is characterized by continuous evolution. As mankind developed, so did crafts, doctrine, and, of course, language. Each field of human activity, science, and art or architecture has its own vocabulary, terms with its specific, well-defined meaning. These are words or phrases that may have a general meaning in a certain context, but which, when used in specific contexts, are characterized by their expertise. The development of architecture in this area is, therefore, closely related to the development of architecture. People discovered new building materials, building constructions, decorating, furnishings, etc. and with each new knowledge came a new name. Architecture and construction were specific to individual nations, but throughout human history, they were also copied differently from other nations. Thus, the terminology of the Czech language was established, but also adopted from foreign languages. In this paper, we will focus on the linguistic analysis of terms that we most often encounter in the study of 19th-century architecture in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The article is supplemented by a small picture dictionary.

Keywords: tenement houses, 19th century, terminology, Austro-Hungarian monarchy

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1822 A Method for the Extraction of the Character's Tendency from Korean Novels

Authors: Min-Ha Hong, Kee-Won Kim, Seung-Hoon Kim

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The character in the story-based content, such as novels and movies, is one of the core elements to understand the story. In particular, the character’s tendency is an important factor to analyze the story-based content, because it has a significant influence on the storyline. If readers have the knowledge of the tendency of characters before reading a novel, it will be helpful to understand the structure of conflict, episode and relationship between characters in the novel. It may therefore help readers to select novel that the reader wants to read. In this paper, we propose a method of extracting the tendency of the characters from a novel written in Korean. In advance, we build the dictionary with pairs of the emotional words in Korean and English since the emotion words in the novel’s sentences express character’s feelings. We rate the degree of polarity (positive or negative) of words in our emotional words dictionary based on SenticNet. Then we extract characters and emotion words from sentences in a novel. Since the polarity of a word grows strong or weak due to sentence features such as quotations and modifiers, our proposed method consider them to calculate the polarity of characters. The information of the extracted character’s polarity can be used in the book search service or book recommendation service.

Keywords: character tendency, data mining, emotion word, Korean novel

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1821 Odor-Color Association Stroop-Task and the Importance of an Odorant in an Odor-Imagery Task

Authors: Jonathan Ham, Christopher Koch

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There are consistently observed associations between certain odors and colors, and there is an association between the ability to imagine vivid visual objects and imagine vivid odors. However, little has been done to investigate how the associations between odors and visual information effect visual processes. This study seeks to understand the relationship between odor imaging, color associations, and visual attention by utilizing a Stroop-task based on common odor-color associations. This Stroop-task was designed using three fruits with distinct odors that are associated with the color of the fruit: lime with green, strawberry with red, and lemon with yellow. Each possible word-color combination was presented in the experimental trials. When the word matched the associated color (lime written in green) it was considered congruent; if it did not, it was considered incongruent (lime written in red or yellow). In experiment I (n = 34) participants were asked to both imagine the odor of the fruit on the screen and identify which fruit it was, and each word-color combination was presented 20 times (a total of 180 trials, with 60 congruent and 120 incongruent instances). Response time and error rate of the participant responses were recorded. There was no significant difference in either measure between the congruent and incongruent trials. In experiment II participants (n = 18) followed the identical procedure as in the previous experiment with the addition of an odorant in the room. The odorant (orange) was not the fruit or color used in the experimental trials. With a fruit-based odorant in the room, the response times (measured in milliseconds) between congruent and incongruent trials were significantly different, with incongruent trials (M = 755.919, SD = 239.854) having significantly longer response times than congruent trials (M = 690.626, SD = 198.822), t (1, 17) = 4.154, p < 0.01. This suggests that odor imagery does affect visual attention to colors, and the ability to inhibit odor-color associations; however, odor imagery is difficult and appears to be facilitated in the presence of a related odorant.

Keywords: odor-color associations, odor imagery, visual attention, inhibition

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1820 Corporate Cautionary Statement: A Genre of Professional Communication

Authors: Chie Urawa

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Cautionary statements or disclaimers in corporate annual reports need to be carefully designed because clear cautionary statements may protect a company in the case of legal disputes and may undermine positive impressions. This study compares the language of cautionary statements using two corpora, Sony’s cautionary statement corpus (S-corpus) and Panasonic’s cautionary statement corpus (P-corpus), illustrating the differences and similarities in relation to the use of meaningful cautionary statements and critically analyzing why practitioners use the way. The findings describe the distinct differences between the two companies in the presentation of the risk factors and the way how they make the statements. The word ability is used more for legal protection in S-corpus whereas the word possibility is used more to convey a better impression in P-corpus. The main similarities are identified in the use of lexical words and pronouns, and almost the same wordings for eight years. The findings show how they make the statements unique to the company in the presentation of risk factors, and the characteristics of specific genre of professional communication. Important implications of this study are that more comprehensive approach can be applied in other contexts, and be used by companies to reflect upon their cautionary statements.

Keywords: cautionary statements, corporate annual reports, corpus, risk factors

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1819 An Empirical Study on the Integration of Listening and Speaking Activities with Writing Instruction for Middles School English Language Learners

Authors: Xueyan Hu, Liwen Chen, Weilin He, Sujie Peng

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Writing is an important but challenging skill For English language learners. Due to the small amount of time allocated for writing classes at schools, students have relatively few opportunities to practice writing in the classroom. While the practice of integrating listening and speaking activates with writing instruction has been used for adult English language learners, its application for young English learners has seldom been examined due to the challenge of listening and speaking activities for young English language learners. The study attempted to integrating integrating listening and speaking activities with writing instruction for middle school English language learners so as to improving their writing achievements and writing abilities in terms of the word use, coherence, and complexity in their writings. Guided by Gagne's information processing learning theory and memetics, this study conducted a 8-week writing instruction with an experimental class (n=44) and a control class (n=48) . Students in the experimental class participated in a series of listening and retelling activities about a writing sample the teacher used for writing instruction during each period of writing class. Students in the control class were taught traditionally with teachers’ direction instruction using the writing sample. Using the ANCOVA analysis of the scores of students’ writing, word-use, Chinese-English translation and the text structure, this study showed that the experimental writing instruction can significantly improve students’ writing performance. Compared with the students in the control class, the students in experimental class had significant better performance in word use and complexity in their essays. This study provides useful enlightenment for the teaching of English writing for middle school English language learners. Teachers can skillfully use information technology to integrate listening, speaking, and writing teaching, considering students’ language input and output. Teachers need to select suitable and excellent composition templates for students to ensure their high-quality language input.

Keywords: wring instruction, retelling, English language learners, listening and speaking

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1818 Exploring the Vocabulary and Grammar Advantage of US American over British English Speakers at Age 2;0

Authors: Janine Just, Kerstin Meints

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The research aims to compare vocabulary size and grammatical development between US American English- and British English-speaking children at age 2;0. As there is evidence that precocious children with large vocabularies develop grammar skills earlier than their typically developing peers, it was investigated if this also holds true across varieties of English. Thus, if US American children start to produce words earlier than their British counterparts, this could mean that US children are also at an advantage in the early developmental stages of acquiring grammar. This research employs a British English adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates CDI Words and Sentences (Lincoln Toddler CDI) to compare vocabulary and also grammar scores with the updated US Toddler CDI norms. At first, the Lincoln TCDI was assessed for its concurrent validity with the Preschool Language Scale (PLS-5 UK). This showed high correlations for the vocabulary and grammar subscales between the tests. In addition, the frequency of the Toddler CDI’s words was also compared using American and British English corpora of adult spoken and written language. A paired-samples t-test found a significant difference in word frequency between the British and the American CDI demonstrating that the TCDI’s words were indeed of higher frequency in British English. We then compared language and grammar scores between US (N = 135) and British children (N = 96). A two-way between groups ANOVA examined if the two samples differed in terms of SES (i.e. maternal education) by investigating the impact of SES and country on vocabulary and sentence complexity. The two samples did not differ in terms of maternal education as the interaction effects between SES and country were not significant. In most cases, scores were not significantly different between US and British children, for example, for overall word production and most grammatical subscales (i.e. use of words, over- regularizations, complex sentences, word combinations). However, in-depth analysis showed that US children were significantly better than British children at using some noun categories (i.e. people, objects, places) and several categories marking early grammatical development (i.e. pronouns, prepositions, quantifiers, helping words). However, the effect sizes were small. Significant differences for grammar were found for irregular word forms and progressive tense suffixes. US children were more advanced in their use of these grammatical categories, but the effect sizes were small. In sum, while differences exist in terms of vocabulary and grammar ability, favouring US children, effect sizes were small. It can be concluded that most British children are ‘catching up’ with their US American peers at age 2;0. Implications of this research will be discussed.

Keywords: first language acquisition, grammar, parent report instrument, vocabulary

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1817 Analytical Study of Symbolism in Literary Texts: A Pragma-Stylistic Approach

Authors: Hussain Hameed Mayuuf

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We may find multiple functions that are required to exist in order for meaning, in any certain context, to manifest and act accordingly. Pragmatic function and symbolic function need to be contributing in a combined effort towards that manifestation in order for meaning to be acquired or achieved from within a structure too complex to detect meaning in it by employing any other means. This paper inspects symbolism pragma-stylistically in literary texts. Thus, it principally aims at showing the ways writers utilize symbolism to contribute to the themes of their works and, consequently, pinpointing the most frequently flouted maxim involved in symbolic interpretations in addition to the reason(s) behind the writer's exploitation of that maxim in the literary work. E. E. Cummings' play Him constitutes rich data for the present study. Thus, to achieve its aims, the present study hypothesizes that the descriptions of scenes, the playwright’s remarks, and the characters’ references are all manipulated symbolically to contribute to the themes of the play. It is also hypothesized that the maxim of manner is the most frequently flouted maxim involved in symbolic interpretations in the play, which comes as a result of the intended ambiguity and obscurity manipulated in the descriptions of the scenes, the playwright’s remarks and the characters’ references. In order to achieve the aims of the study and test its hypotheses, a theoretical background about symbolism in general and symbolism from pragma-stylistic points of view is presented. Then, (six) extracts of Him according to Eco’s (1984) model Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language are analyzed. The findings of the analysis verify the above-mentioned hypotheses.

Keywords: pragmatic function, stylistic function, Symbolism, pragma-stylistics, Cummings

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1816 The Representation of J. D. Salinger’s Views on Changes in American Society in the 1940s in The Catcher in the Rye

Authors: Jessadaporn Achariyopas

Abstract:

The objectives of this study aim to analyze both the protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye in terms of ideological concepts and narrative techniques which influence the construction of the representation and the relationship between the representation and J. D. Salinger’s views on changes in American society in the 1940s. This area of study might concern two theories: namely, a theory of representation and narratology. In addition, this research is intended to answer the following three questions. Firstly, how is the production of meaning through language in The Catcher in the Rye constructed? Secondly, what are J. D. Salinger’s views on changes in American society in the 1940s? Lastly, how is the relationship between the representation and J. D. Salinger’s views? The findings showed that the protagonist’s views, J. D. Salinger’s views, and changes in American society in the 1940s are obviously interrelated. The production of meaning which is the representation of the protagonist’s views was constructed of narrative techniques. J. D. Salinger’s views on changes in American society in the 1940s were the same antisocial perspectives as Holden Caulfield’s which are phoniness, alienation and meltdown.

Keywords: representation, construction of the representation, systems of representation, phoniness, alienation, meltdown

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1815 Optimization of SWL Algorithms Using Alternative Adder Module in FPGA

Authors: Tayab D. Memon, Shahji Farooque, Marvi Deshi, Imtiaz Hussain Kalwar, B. S. Chowdhry

Abstract:

Recently single-bit ternary FIR-like filter (SBTFF) hardware synthesize in FPGA is reported and compared with multi-bit FIR filter on similar spectral characteristics. Results shows that SBTFF dominates upon multi-bit filter overall. In this paper, an optimized adder module for ternary quantized sigma-delta modulated signal is presented. The adder is simulated using ModelSim for functional verification the area-performance of the proposed adder were obtained through synthesis in Xilinx and compared to conventional adder trees. The synthesis results show that the proposed adder tree achieves higher clock rates and lower chip area at higher inputs to the adder block; whereas conventional adder tree achieves better performance and lower chip area at lower number of inputs to the same adder block. These results enhance the usefulness of existing short word length DSP algorithms for fast and efficient mobile communication.

Keywords: short word length (SWL), DSP algorithms, FPGA, SBTFF, VHDL

Procedia PDF Downloads 344
1814 The Effect of Information vs. Reasoning Gap Tasks on the Frequency of Conversational Strategies and Accuracy in Speaking among Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

Authors: Hooriya Sadr Dadras, Shiva Seyed Erfani

Abstract:

Speaking skills merit meticulous attention both on the side of the learners and the teachers. In particular, accuracy is a critical component to guarantee the messages to be conveyed through conversation because a wrongful change may adversely alter the content and purpose of the talk. Different types of tasks have served teachers to meet numerous educational objectives. Besides, negotiation of meaning and the use of different strategies have been areas of concern in socio-cultural theories of SLA. Negotiation of meaning is among the conversational processes which have a crucial role in facilitating the understanding and expression of meaning in a given second language. Conversational strategies are used during interaction when there is a breakdown in communication that leads to the interlocutor attempting to remedy the gap through talk. Therefore, this study was an attempt to investigate if there was any significant difference between the effect of reasoning gap tasks and information gap tasks on the frequency of conversational strategies used in negotiation of meaning in classrooms on one hand, and on the accuracy in speaking of Iranian intermediate EFL learners on the other. After a pilot study to check the practicality of the treatments, at the outset of the main study, the Preliminary English Test was administered to ensure the homogeneity of 87 out of 107 participants who attended the intact classes of a 15 session term in one control and two experimental groups. Also, speaking sections of PET were used as pretest and posttest to examine their speaking accuracy. The tests were recorded and transcribed to estimate the percentage of the number of the clauses with no grammatical errors in the total produced clauses to measure the speaking accuracy. In all groups, the grammatical points of accuracy were instructed and the use of conversational strategies was practiced. Then, different kinds of reasoning gap tasks (matchmaking, deciding on the course of action, and working out a time table) and information gap tasks (restoring an incomplete chart, spot the differences, arranging sentences into stories, and guessing game) were manipulated in experimental groups during treatment sessions, and the students were required to practice conversational strategies when doing speaking tasks. The conversations throughout the terms were recorded and transcribed to count the frequency of the conversational strategies used in all groups. The results of statistical analysis demonstrated that applying both the reasoning gap tasks and information gap tasks significantly affected the frequency of conversational strategies through negotiation. In the face of the improvements, the reasoning gap tasks had a more significant impact on encouraging the negotiation of meaning and increasing the number of conversational frequencies every session. The findings also indicated both task types could help learners significantly improve their speaking accuracy. Here, applying the reasoning gap tasks was more effective than the information gap tasks in improving the level of learners’ speaking accuracy.

Keywords: accuracy in speaking, conversational strategies, information gap tasks, reasoning gap tasks

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1813 Altasreef: Automated System of Quran Verbs for Urdu Language

Authors: Haq Nawaz, Muhammad Amjad Iqbal, Kamran Malik

Abstract:

"Altasreef" is an automated system available for Web and Android users which provide facility to the users to learn the Quran verbs. It provides the facility to the users to practice the learned material and also provide facility of exams of Arabic verbs variation focusing on Quran text. Arabic is a highly inflectional language. Almost all of its words connect to roots of three, four or five letters which approach the meaning of all their inflectional forms. In Arabic, a verb is formed by inserting the consonants into one of a set of verb patterns. Suffixes and prefixes are then added to generate the meaning of number, person, and gender. The active/passive voice and perfective aspect and other patterns are than generated. This application is designed for learners of Quranic Arabic who already have learn basics of Arabic conjugation. Application also provides the facility of translation of generated patterns. These translations are generated with the help of rule-based approach to give 100% results to the learners.

Keywords: NLP, Quran, Computational Linguistics, E Learning

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1812 Consumer’s Behavioral Responses to Corporate Social Responsibility Marketing: Mediating Impact of Customer Trust, Emotions, Brand Image, and Brand Attitude

Authors: Yasir Ali Soomro

Abstract:

Companies that demonstrate corporate social responsibilities (CSR) are more likely to withstand any downturn or crises because of the trust built with stakeholders. Many firms are utilizing CSR marketing to improve the interactions with their various stakeholders, mainly the consumers. Most previous research on CSR has focused on the impact of CSR on customer responses and behaviors toward a company. As online food ordering and grocery shopping remains inevitable. This study will investigate structural relationships among consumer positive emotions (CPE) and negative emotions (CNE), Corporate Reputation (CR), Customer Trust (CT), Brand Image (BI), and Brand attitude (BA) on behavioral outcomes such as Online purchase intention (OPI) and Word of mouth (WOM) in retail grocery and food restaurants setting. Hierarchy of Effects Model will be used as theoretical, conceptual framework. The model describes three stages of consumer behavior: (i) cognitive, (ii) affective, and (iii) conative. The study will apply a quantitative method to test the hypotheses; a self-developed questionnaire with non-probability sampling will be utilized to collect data from 500 consumers belonging to generation X, Y, and Z residing in KSA. The study will contribute by providing empirical evidence to support the link between CSR and customer affective and conative experiences in Saudi Arabia. The theoretical contribution of this study will be empirically tested comprehensive model where CPE, CNE, CR, CT, BI, and BA act as mediating variables between the perceived CSR & Online purchase intention (OPI) and Word of mouth (WOM). Further, the study will add more to how the emotional/ psychological process mediates in the CSR literature, especially in the Middle Eastern context. The proposed study will also explain the effect of perceived CSR marketing initiatives directly and indirectly on customer behavioral responses.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, corporate reputation, consumer emotions, loyalty, online purchase intention, word-of-mouth, structural equation modeling

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1811 The Effect of Explicit Focus on Form on Second Language Learning Writing Performance

Authors: Keivan Seyyedi, Leila Esmaeilpour, Seyed Jamal Sadeghi

Abstract:

Investigating the effectiveness of explicit focus on form on the written performance of the EFL learners was the aim of this study. To provide empirical support for this study, sixty male English learners were selected and randomly assigned into two groups of explicit focus on form and meaning focused. Narrative writing was employed for data collection. To measure writing performance, participants were required to narrate a story. They were given 20 minutes to finish the task and were asked to write at least 150 words. The participants’ output was coded then analyzed utilizing Independent t-test for grammatical accuracy and fluency of learners’ performance. Results indicated that learners in explicit focus on form group appear to benefit from error correction and rule explanation as two pedagogical techniques of explicit focus on form with respect to accuracy, but regarding fluency they did not yield any significant differences compared to the participants of meaning-focused group.

Keywords: explicit focus on form, rule explanation, accuracy, fluency

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1810 Reduplication In Urdu-Hindi Nonsensical Words: An OT Analysis

Authors: Riaz Ahmed Mangrio

Abstract:

Reduplication in Urdu-Hindi affects all major word categories, particles, and even nonsensical words. It conveys a variety of meanings, including distribution, emphasis, iteration, adjectival and adverbial. This study will primarily discuss reduplicative structures of nonsensical words in Urdu-Hindi and then briefly look at some examples from other Indo-Aryan languages to introduce the debate regarding the same structures in them. The goal of this study is to present counter-evidence against Keane (2005: 241), who claims “the base in the cases of lexical and phrasal echo reduplication is always independently meaningful”. However, Urdu-Hindi reduplication derives meaningful compounds from nonsensical words e.g. gũ mgũ (A) ‘silent and confused’ and d̪əb d̪əb-a (N) ‘one’s fear over others’. This needs a comprehensive examination to see whether and how the various structures form patterns of a base-reduplicant relationship or, rather, they are merely sub lexical items joining together to form a word pattern of any grammatical category in content words. Another interesting theoretical question arises within the Optimality framework: in an OT analysis, is it necessary to identify one of the two constituents as the base and the other as reduplicant? Or is it best to consider this a pattern, but then how does this fit in with an OT analysis? This may be an even more interesting theoretical question. Looking for the solution to such questions can serve to make an important contribution. In the case at hand, each of the two constituents is an independent nonsensical word, but their echo reduplication is nonetheless meaningful. This casts significant doubt upon Keane’s (2005: 241) observation of some examples from Hindi and Tamil reduplication that “the base in cases of lexical and phrasal echo reduplication is always independently meaningful”. The debate on the point becomes further interesting when the triplication of nonsensical words in Urdu-Hindi e.g. aẽ baẽ ʃaẽ (N) ‘useless talk’ is also seen, which is equally important to discuss. The example is challenging to Harrison’s (1973) claim that only the monosyllabic verbs in their progressive forms reduplicate twice to result in triplication, which is not the case with the example presented. The study will consist of a thorough descriptive analysis of the data for the purpose of documentation, and then there will be OT analysis.

Keywords: reduplication, urdu-hindi, nonsensical, optimality theory

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1809 A Phenomenological Approach to Computational Modeling of Analogy

Authors: José Eduardo García-Mendiola

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In this work, a phenomenological approach to computational modeling of analogy processing is carried out. The paper goes through the consideration of the structure of the analogy, based on the possibility of sustaining the genesis of its elements regarding Husserl's genetic theory of association. Among particular processes which take place in order to get analogical inferences, there is one which arises crucial for enabling efficient base cases retrieval through long-term memory, namely analogical transference grounded on familiarity. In general, it has been argued that analogical reasoning is a way by which a conscious agent tries to determine or define a certain scope of objects and relationships between them using previous knowledge of other familiar domain of objects and relations. However, looking for a complete description of analogy process, a deeper consideration of phenomenological nature is required in so far, its simulation by computational programs is aimed. Also, one would get an idea of how complex it would be to have a fully computational account of the analogy elements. In fact, familiarity is not a result of a mere chain of repetitions of objects or events but generated insofar as the object/attribute or event in question is integrable inside a certain context that is taking shape as functionalities and functional approaches or perspectives of the object are being defined. Its familiarity is generated not by the identification of its parts or objective determinations as if they were isolated from those functionalities and approaches. Rather, at the core of such a familiarity between entities of different kinds lays the way they are functionally encoded. So, and hoping to make deeper inroads towards these topics, this essay allows us to consider that cognitive-computational perspectives can visualize, from the phenomenological projection of the analogy process reviewing achievements already obtained as well as exploration of new theoretical-experimental configurations towards implementation of analogy models in specific as well as in general purpose machines.

Keywords: analogy, association, encoding, retrieval

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1808 Etymological Studies and their Role in Consolidating the Identity of the Cultural Heritage; Terminology Related to the Traditional Dagger Making in the Sultanate of Oman as a Model

Authors: Muhammed Muvaffak Alhasan, Ali Alriyami, Ali Almanei

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Despite the extreme importance of etymological studies in documenting the linguistic heritage, and showing its roots and connections in the classical language; However, etymological dictionaries are still rare in the Arab library in general. Etymology is the science of etymology that investigates how vocabulary is reproduced and reproduced, by exploring the origin of words and the phonetic and semantic changes that occurred in them over time, trying to reconfigure an identity card for the word showing its origin and the path it took through time until it reached its current state. This research seeks to make an etymological study on the terminology used in the traditional dagger making in the Sultanate of Oman through the following steps: 1. Collecting the terms relating to traditional dagger making and recording them in order to document and preserve them. 2. Arranging them alphabetically in order to facilitate searching and dealing with them. 3. Setting up a historical identification card for each word by applying an etymological study that shows its source from which they descended its links with standard and the phonological and semantic changes it underwent until it reached its current form.

Keywords: cultural heritage, etymology, Omani dagger, Oman

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1807 Animated Poetry-Film: Poetry in Action

Authors: Linette van der Merwe

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It is known that visual artists, performing artists, and literary artists have inspired each other since time immemorial. The enduring, symbiotic relationship between the various art genres is evident where words, colours, lines, and sounds act as metaphors, a physical separation of the transcendental reality of art. Simonides of Keos (c. 556-468 BC) confirmed this, stating that a poem is a talking picture, or, in a more modern expression, a picture is worth a thousand words. It can be seen as an ancient relationship, originating from the epigram (tombstone or artefact inscriptions), the carmen figuratum (figure poem), and the ekphrasis (a description in the form of a poem of a work of art). Visual artists, including Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Goethe, wrote poems and songs. Goya, Degas, and Picasso are famous for their works of art and for trying their hands at poetry. Afrikaans writers whose fine art is often published together with their writing, as in the case of Andries Bezuidenhout, Breyten Breytenbach, Sheila Cussons, Hennie Meyer, Carina Stander, and Johan van Wyk, among others, are not a strange phenomenon either. Imitating one art form into another art form is a form of translation, transposition, contemplation, and discovery of artistic impressions, showing parallel interpretations rather than physical comparison. It is especially about the harmony that exists between the different art genres, i.e., a poem that describes a painting or a visual text that portrays a poem that becomes a translation, interpretation, and rediscovery of the verbal text, or rather, from the word text to the image text. Poetry-film, as a form of such a translation of the word text into an image text, can be considered a hybrid, transdisciplinary art form that connects poetry and film. Poetry-film is regarded as an intertwined entity of word, sound, and visual image. It is an attempt to transpose and transform a poem into a new artwork that makes the poem more accessible to people who are not necessarily open to the written word and will, in effect, attract a larger audience to a genre that usually has a limited market. Poetry-film is considered a creative expression of an inverted ekphrastic inspiration, a visual description, interpretation, and expression of a poem. Research also emphasises that animated poetry-film is not widely regarded as a genre of anything and is thus severely under-theorized. This paper will focus on Afrikaans animated poetry-films as a multimodal transposition of a poem text to an animated poetry film, with specific reference to animated poetry-films in Filmverse I (2014) and Filmverse II (2016).

Keywords: poetry film, animated poetry film, poetic metaphor, conceptual metaphor, monomodal metaphor, multimodal metaphor, semiotic metaphor, multimodality, metaphor analysis, target domain, source domain

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1806 Using Visualization Techniques to Support Common Clinical Tasks in Clinical Documentation

Authors: Jonah Kenei, Elisha Opiyo

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Electronic health records, as a repository of patient information, is nowadays the most commonly used technology to record, store and review patient clinical records and perform other clinical tasks. However, the accurate identification and retrieval of relevant information from clinical records is a difficult task due to the unstructured nature of clinical documents, characterized in particular by a lack of clear structure. Therefore, medical practice is facing a challenge thanks to the rapid growth of health information in electronic health records (EHRs), mostly in narrative text form. As a result, it's becoming important to effectively manage the growing amount of data for a single patient. As a result, there is currently a requirement to visualize electronic health records (EHRs) in a way that aids physicians in clinical tasks and medical decision-making. Leveraging text visualization techniques to unstructured clinical narrative texts is a new area of research that aims to provide better information extraction and retrieval to support clinical decision support in scenarios where data generated continues to grow. Clinical datasets in electronic health records (EHR) offer a lot of potential for training accurate statistical models to classify facets of information which can then be used to improve patient care and outcomes. However, in many clinical note datasets, the unstructured nature of clinical texts is a common problem. This paper examines the very issue of getting raw clinical texts and mapping them into meaningful structures that can support healthcare professionals utilizing narrative texts. Our work is the result of a collaborative design process that was aided by empirical data collected through formal usability testing.

Keywords: classification, electronic health records, narrative texts, visualization

Procedia PDF Downloads 116