			Home About us Contact

Lexicon

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Chemistry	27%
Humanities and Social Sciences	23%
Psychology	20%
Medical Sciences	16%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	3%
3 Other Domains	11%

Selected Abstracts

A LEXICON FOR TEXTURE AND FLAVOR CHARACTERISTICS OF FRESH AND PROCESSED TOMATOES

JOURNAL OF SENSORY STUDIES, Issue 5 2008
PAIRIN HONGSOONGNERN
ABSTRACT A lexicon for describing the sensory flavor and texture characteristics of fresh and processed tomatoes was developed. A six-member highly trained, descriptive sensory panel identified, defined and referenced 33 sensory attributes for fresh and processed tomatoes. Forty products including a variety of raw, canned, concentrated and dried tomatoes, as well as tomato-based products including ketchup and simple pasta sauce, were evaluated in the study. These products represented a wide range of sensory characteristics in raw and processed tomatoes. The lexicon established included 5 aroma attributes, 10 texture attributes and 18 flavor attributes including 6 taste and mouthfeel attributes. The lexicon provides attribute descriptors, definitions and references that often are lacking in previous literature. Reducing the number of attributes may be appropriate when testing specific tomato products. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Increased consumption of tomato products has expanded interest in improving the sensory characteristics of tomatoes and subsequent products. This research provides a list of sensory flavor and texture terms that can be used to describe the sensory characteristics of both fresh and processed tomatoes. This information will help researchers, breeders and processors better understand the flavor and texture properties of fresh and processed tomatoes, and the tomato characteristics of tomato products. Taste attributes, often used in previous literature, are important but are not enough to describe the characteristics of tomatoes. In addition to flavor attributes, aroma and texture properties are important for describing tomato characteristics but have not been thoroughly established in previous research. [source]

SIMPLIFIED LEXICON TO DESCRIBE FLAVOR CHARACTERISTICS OF WESTERN EUROPEAN CHEESES

JOURNAL OF SENSORY STUDIES, Issue 4 2008
MARTIN TALAVERA-BIANCHI
ABSTRACT Many researchers have developed useful lexicons to describe flavor characteristics of different cheeses. The objectives of this study were to determine if the terminology established in previous studies was adequate to evaluate a wide range of European cheeses, and to determine if a simplified "general" lexicon can be developed for the description of cheese. A descriptive panel evaluated the flavor of 65 western European cheeses that varied in region produced, milk source, maturation time and processing method. The panel reviewed previously published cheese attributes, definitions and references prior to beginning the testing. During testing, the panel detected and added new descriptors and eliminated terms which did not appear in any of the cheeses. Data inspection, in addition to factor analysis, suggests that 25 attributes are needed to explain the common flavor characteristics found in cheese. However, 19 additional attributes may be used occasionally to describe targeted specific flavor characteristics. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The flavor of cheese, an increasingly popular food, is critical to producers and consumers. A large number of sensory descriptors can be used to describe flavor characteristics of cheese. The research indicates a lexicon with a reduced number of terms that can be used to describe most general flavor characteristics. Other characteristics are needed occasionally to describe specific characteristics of some cheeses. [source]

A LEXICON FOR FLAVOR DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF GREEN TEA

JOURNAL OF SENSORY STUDIES, Issue 3 2007
JEEHYUN LEE
ABSTRACT A lexicon for describing green tea was developed using descriptive analysis methods. A highly trained, descriptive sensory panel identified, defined and referenced 31 flavor attributes for green tea. One-hundred and thirty-eight green tea samples from nine countries , China, India, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania and Vietnam , were selected to represent a wide range of green teas. Attributes could be categorized as "Green" (asparagus, beany, Brussels sprout, celery, parsley, spinach, green beans, green herb-like); "Brown" (ashy/sooty, brown spice, burnt/scorched, nutty, tobacco); "Fruity/Floral" (fruity, floral/perfumy, citrus, fermented); "Mouthfeel" (astringent, tooth-etching); "Basic Tastes" (overall sweet, bitter); and other attributes (almond, animalic, grain, musty/new leather, mint, seaweed, straw-like). Some attributes, such as green, brown, bitter, astringent and tooth-etching, were found in most samples, but many attributes were found in only a few samples. Green tea processors, food industry, researchers and consumers will benefit from this lexicon with precise definitions and references that reliably differentiate and characterize the sensory attributes of green teas. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Green tea (and white tea) processors, food industrialists, researchers and consumers will benefit from this lexicon with precise definitions and references that reliably differentiate and characterize the sensory attributes of green tea. [source]

Lexicon for Soft Tissue Implants

DERMATOLOGIC SURGERY, Issue 2009
ROD J. ROHRICH MD
First page of article [source]

It's Time to Eliminate the Term Seizure Disorder from Our Lexicon

EPILEPSIA, Issue 3 2005
Carl E. Stafstrom
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

Methodological Rigor in the Study of Transfer: Identifying L1 Influence in them Interlanguage Lexicon

LANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue 2 2000
Scott Jarvis
Numerous conflicting claims exist concerning the nature of L1 influence. This article argues that much of the confusion could be eliminated if a unified framework were established for this area of inquiry. Such a framework would minimally require transfer studies to consider at least 3 potential effects of L1 influence: (a) intra-L1-group similarities, (b) inter-L1-group differences, and (c) L1-IL performance similarities. This study examines all three types ofevidence in the English lexical reference of Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking Finns at multiple levels of age and L2 exposure in three different but related elicitation tasks. The results suggest a subtle yet demonstrable presence for L1 influence in this area of interlanguage performance. [source]

A Colonial Lexicon: Of Birth Ritual, Medicalization, and Mobility in the Congo

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2001
Janice Boddy
. Colonial Lexicon: Of Birth Ritual, Medicalization, and Mobility in the Congo. Nancy Rose Hunt. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999. xii+475 pp. [source]

From Impossible Words to Conceptual Structure: the Role of Structure and Processes in the Lexicon

MIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 3 2004
Kent Johnson
At the same time, most contemporary linguists posit a great deal of structure in words. Such a trend makes some atomists about concepts uncomfortable. The details of linguistic methodology undermine several strategies for avoiding positing structure in words. I conclude by arguing that there is insufficient evidence to hold that word-structure bears any interesting relation to the structure of concepts. [source]

Two Exhibitions Resignify Aboriginality and Photographyin Australia's Visual Lexicon

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 1 2008
Sabra Thorner
ABSTRACT Photography has long been central to the construction of Aboriginal peoples in the Australian national imaginary. In the last 20 years, the social role of photography has shifted: from origins in scopic regimes that racialized and dispossessed Aboriginal peoples to an era of contemporary reappropriation, recontextualizing colonial archives, and producing new Indigenous high art photography. Photographs are no longer stable, visible testimony of Indigenous peoples' presumed imminent decline or innate savagery but are, rather, colonial objectifications now available for resignification as evidence of kinship networks, land claims, and local knowledge systems. In July 2006, two exhibitions were spearheading these important transitions. "Colliding Worlds" opened at Melbourne Museum, and "Michael Riley: Sights Unseen" premiered at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra. Together, these exhibitions destabilize historical legacies of the visual in Australia's national imaginary, resignifying photography as a medium of new knowledge production, aesthetic expression, and social change. [source]

Reorganizing the Lexicon by Learning a New Word: Japanese Children's Interpretation of the Meaning of a New Word for a Familiar Artifact

CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2002
Etsuko Haryu
This research investigated how children interpret the meaning of a new word associated with a familiar artifact. The existing literature has shown that syntactic form,class information plays an important role in making this kind of inference. However, this information is not available to Japanese children, because Japanese language does not have a grammatical distinction between count nouns and mass nouns, proper nouns and common nouns, or singular and plural. In Study 1, 12 three,year,old monolingual Japanese children were tested to examine whether they interpreted a new noun associated with a familiar artifact to be a material name or a new label for the object. They interpreted the new word as a new category label for the object, rather than as a name for the material. How children related the new category to the old familiar one was then examined in Studies 2 and 3. The results of Study 2, in which 24 three,year,olds participated, showed that children could flexibly shift between two interpretations using shape information. When the named object had a typical shape for the familiar category, they mapped the new word to a subordinate category. In contrast, when the shape of the named object was atypical, they mapped the new word to a new category that was mutually exclusive to the familiar category by excluding the named object from the familiar category. In Study 3, 12 three,year,olds were tested to examine relative importance of shape and functional information in this inference process. The results of the three studies suggest that children flexibly recruit clues from multiple sources, but the clues are weighed in hierarchical order so that they can determine the single most plausible solution in a given situation when different clues suggest different solutions. [source]

On the Meaning of Words and Dinosaur Bones: Lexical Knowledge Without a Lexicon

COGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009
Jeffrey L. Elman
Abstract Although for many years a sharp distinction has been made in language research between rules and words,with primary interest on rules,this distinction is now blurred in many theories. If anything, the focus of attention has shifted in recent years in favor of words. Results from many different areas of language research suggest that the lexicon is representationally rich, that it is the source of much productive behavior, and that lexically specific information plays a critical and early role in the interpretation of grammatical structure. But how much information can or should be placed in the lexicon? This is the question I address here. I review a set of studies whose results indicate that event knowledge plays a significant role in early stages of sentence processing and structural analysis. This poses a conundrum for traditional views of the lexicon. Either the lexicon must be expanded to include factors that do not plausibly seem to belong there; or else virtually all information about word meaning is removed, leaving the lexicon impoverished. I suggest a third alternative, which provides a way to account for lexical knowledge without a mental lexicon. [source]

MATCHING RESULTS OF TWO INDEPENDENT HIGHLY TRAINED SENSORY PANELS USING DIFFERENT DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS METHODS,

JOURNAL OF SENSORY STUDIES, Issue 5 2002
VARAPHA LOTONG
ABSTRACT Two independent, highly trained panels separately conducted descriptive analysis of orange juices using different descriptive analysis methods and sets of samples. Lexicons were developed independently. One panel evaluated 23 orange juice products and identified and referenced 24 attributes. The other panel evaluated 17 products and identified 17 attributes for testing. Though not identical, the lexicons developed by both panels were similar overall. To compare the sensory space of the product category, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and sensory maps were developed separately for each panel. The comparison showed that the underlying sample spaces obtained from both panels were comparable in many ways. Key flavor characteristics for the same types of orange juice products were described similarly by both panels. These data indicate that the process of using highly trained panels that define attributes and use reference standards for descriptive sensory analysis can give objective and comparable information for a product category across different panels. [source]

Decentralization and Democracy in Indonesia: A Critique of Neo-Institutionalist Perspectives

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2004
Vedi R. Hadiz
This article assesses some of the major premises of neo-institutionalist explanations of decentralization policy and practices, but focuses especially on the relationship between decentralization and democracy, in the context of the recent and ongoing Indonesian experience with decentralization. In the last two decades ,decentralization' has become, along with ,civil society', ,social capital' and ,good governance', an integral part of the contemporary neo-institutionalist lexicon, especially that part which is intended to draw greater attention to ,social' development. The concern of this article is to demystify how, as a policy objective, decentralization has come to embody a barely acknowledged political, not just theoretical, agenda. It also suggests alternative ways of understanding why decentralization has often failed to achieve its stated aims in terms of promoting democracy, ,good governance', and the like. What is offered is an understanding of decentralization processes that more fully incorporates the factors of power, struggle and interests, which tend to be overlooked by neo-institutionalist perspectives. The current Indonesian experience clearly illustrates the way in which institutions can be hijacked by a wide range of interests that may sideline those that champion the worldview of ,technocratic rationality'. [source]

Taxonomy and structure of the Polish personality lexicon

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 6 2007
Piotr Szarota
Abstract We identified 1839 person-descriptive adjectives from a Polish dictionary, and 10 judges classified those adjectives into five descriptive categories. Two hundred ninety adjectives (16 per cent) were classified by most judges as ,Dispositions' (i.e. relatively stable personality traits and abilities). We examined the structure of those 290 adjectives in self-ratings from 350 respondents. In the five-factor solution, two dimensions closely resembled Big Five Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, and two others represented rotated variants of Extraversion and Emotional Stability. The fifth factor was dominated by Intellect, containing little Imagination and no Unconventionality content. A six-factor solution closely resembled the cross-language HEXACO structure (but with ,Intellect' rather than ,Openness to Experience'). Analyses of 369 peer ratings revealed five- and six-factor solutions nearly identical to those of self-ratings. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Cognitive style: a psycholexically-derived personality-centred model

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 2 2003
John RoodenburgArticle first published online: 20 FEB 200
Cognitive style suffers from a confusing multitude of conceptualizations, and dominance by information-processing type measures. This study sought to elucidate a comprehensive and universal set of personality-centred cognitive style constructs. A grounded approach based on the psycholexical hypothesis (effective in personality modelling) was adapted, explicating cognitive styles as evident in late adolescents. Approximately 700 Australian secondary teachers generated a lexicon of 1040 style adjectives, which were consolidated into 99 key words. 596 teachers rated 1192 senior secondary students against these. After removing acquiescence and a ubiquitous good,bad-ability factor, optimum structure appears to be a spherex abridgeable as three circumplexes, reported across six factor pure and 24 blended facets. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The structure of the French personality lexicon

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 4 2001
Kathleen Boies
The structure of the French personality lexicon was investigated. Self-ratings on the 388 most frequently used French personality-descriptive adjectives were obtained from 415 French-speaking people. The scree plot of eigenvalues indicated six large factors. In the varimax-rotated six-factor solution, the four largest factors, in order of size, corresponded fairly closely to the Big Five dimensions of Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness. The fifth factor was similar to the Honesty dimension found in several other languages. The sixth factor was defined by Imagination-related terms, but not by Intellect-related terms. Solutions involving one to five factors were also investigated and correlations between the factors that emerged from these different solutions are presented. The results are discussed in relation to other lexical studies of personality structure. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

In Memoriam: Mordecai Kaffman, M.D. (1917,2005)

FAMILY PROCESS, Issue 2 2005
Yoel Elizur Ph.D.
A word of warning: the following ideas will be presented in plain everyday language, avoiding any type of professional lexicon. It may be that this down-to-earth form of presentation will disappoint some of my potential readers who are accustomed to peruse material presented in sophisticated meta-systemic language. All I can do is plead guilty, and in self-defense put forward two arguments. First, that I cannot escape the universal truth, "the style is the man," and second, that the simple ideas which I am to present here are all, without exception, the result of concrete clinical experience, with no admixture of theoretical armchair speculation. [source]

Marginalized for a lifetime: The everyday experiences of gulag survivors in post-Soviet Magadan

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2006
John Round
Abstract Over the past decade notions of social capital have become embedded in the social development lexicon, often presented as the ,missing link' within development theory. Much social capital-based research takes Robert Putnam's theorization of the subject as its starting point. Putnam's work argues that social capital can be measured by a region's levels of trust and civic engagement. While its use, and conceptualization, has undergone much academic debate, often formal institutions still employ this very narrow, and arguably Western-centric, reading of the subject. This paper argues that while at the micro-level social capital has little to do with the civic engagement and trust theories posited by Putnam, it still has relevance to the lives of marginalized individuals and is an important factor in their continued survival. To explore this, drawing on extensive qualitative research conducted in Magadan, Moscow and St Petersburg, I critically examine the construction of everyday survival strategies among Gulag survivors living in Russia's far northeast city of Magadan. Denied a return to their ,homeland' upon their release, this group experienced considerable marginalization in the post-Stalin period. This was exacerbated when the collapse of the Soviet Union saw pensions in the far northeast of Russia fall to below 50% of the state-set subsistence minimum. The paper demonstrates the importance of social capital to this group by showing how their survival is based on far more than interactions with formal and informal organizations. [source]

Late acquisition of literacy in a native language

HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 1 2007
Jubin Abutalebi
Abstract With event-related functional MRI (fMRI) and with behavioral measures we studied the brain processes underlying the acquisition of native language literacy. Adult dialect speakers were scanned while reading words belonging to three different conditions: dialect words, i.e., the native language in which subjects are illiterate (dialect), German words, i.e., the second language in which subjects are literate, and pseudowords. Investigating literacy acquisition of a dialect may reveal how novel readers of a language build an orthographic lexicon, i.e., establish a link between already available semantic and phonological representations and new orthographic word forms. The main results of the study indicate that a set of regions, including the left anterior hippocampal formation and subcortical nuclei, is involved in the buildup of orthographic representations. The repeated exposure to written dialect words resulted in a convergence of the neural substrate to that of the language in which these subjects were already proficient readers. The latter result is compatible with a "fast" brain plasticity process that may be related to a shift of reading strategies. Hum Brain Mapp, 2007. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Bilingual lexical development: a Persian,Swedish word association study

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2004
Shidrokh Namei
Previous word association studies show that the first language (L1) mental lexicon is organized mainly on a semantic basis, while the organization of the second language (L2) mental lexicon in the early stages of development is phonologically based, indicating a less profound lexical knowledge. This study examines whether or not this is the case by comparing 100 Persian,Swedish bilingual subjects with 100 native speakers of Swedish and Persian. The elicitation instrument was the Kent-Rosanoff association list (1910), and the subjects' task was to give a single-word response to each stimulus word. The results show that phonologically-based associations occur in both the L1 and the L2 as a function of the degree of word knowledge. Phonologically-based organization is a primary acquisition feature of every individual word, and it is not abandoned even during the advanced stages of language proficiency, whether in the L1 or the L2. It was found that words that are barely known may elicit phonologically-based associations, those that are partially known may have a strong syntactic organization, and well-known words are connected to other words mainly on a semantic basis. [source]

The psychological contract: A critical review

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 2 2006
Niall Cullinane
Literature on the psychological contract has blossomed progressively over the last ten years to the extent that it is now firmly located within the lexicon of the Human Resource Management (HRM) discipline. Yet as this review indicates, the theoretical assumptions that seem to pervade the psychological contract literature are not without major deficiencies, which in turn pose serious questions around the continued sustainability of the construct as currently constituted. This paper addresses some of the central problems presently confronting the theoretical side of the psychological contract literature. In seeking to advance knowledge and understanding, this review calls for an alternative approach to studying the psychological contract on the basis of a more critical and discursive literature analysis. From this, the authors unpick the construct of the psychological contract as portrayed in much of the extant literature and argue that, in its present form, it symbolizes an ideologically biased formula designed for a particular managerialist interpretation of contemporary work and employment. [source]

Has ,lifetime prevalence' reached the end of its life?

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODS IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH, Issue 4 2009
An examination of the concept
Abstract Many cross-sectional surveys in psychiatric epidemiology report estimates of lifetime prevalence, and the results consistently show a declining trend with age for such disorders as depression and anxiety. In a closed cohort with no mortality, lifetime prevalence should increase or remain constant with age. For mortality to account for declining lifetime prevalence, mortality rates in those with a disorder must exceed those without a disorder by a sufficient extent that more cases would be removed from the prevalence pool than are added by new cases, and this is unlikely to occur across most of the age range. We argue that the decline in lifetime prevalence with age cannot be explained by period or cohort effects or be due to a survivor effect, and are likely due to a variety of other factors, such as study design, forgetting, or reframing. Further, because lifetime prevalence is insensitive to changes in treatment effectiveness or demand for services, it is a parameter that should be dropped from the lexicon of psychiatric epidemiology. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The Global Financial Crisis and Migrant Workers in China: ,There is No Future as a Labourer; Returning to the Village has No Meaning'

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2010
KAM WING CHAN
Abstract This essay examines the impact of the global financial crisis on rural migrant labour in China, with a focus on unemployment. It illustrates the interaction of global and China-specific processes in the context of the worldwide recession. The essay first summarizes China's unique socio-economic system and the mechanisms that have created a system of ,rural migrant labour' and ,super-cheapened' it to help make China the ,world's factory'. The main part of the essay examines the unemployment situation for migrants in late 2008 and the first half of 2009, and the dislocations and problems migrant labourers are facing. The China story is complex but interesting, not only for its rather complicated lexicon and statistics that often confuse outside observers, but also for its distinctive system of exploiting the rural population and internal migrant labour. This system makes the impact of the global crisis on migrant labourers, which are at the bottom of the global supply chain, all the more apparent. The last part of this essay analyses recent governmental fiscal-stimulus policies and measures as well as their impact on rural migrant labour, making some broader observations and linking the crisis to China's model of development. Résumé Ce texte examine l'impact de la crise financière mondiale sur la main-d',uvre migrante rurale chinoise en s'intéressant notamment au chômage. Il illustre l'interaction des processus planétaires et nationaux dans le cadre de la récession mondiale. Une synthèse présente d'abord le régime socio-économique unique du pays, ainsi que les mécanismes qui ont créé un système de ,main-d',uvre migrante rurale' tout en ,hyper-dépréciant' ces travailleurs afin de faire de la Chine ,l'usine du monde'. L'étude centrale porte sur le chômage des migrants entre la fin 2008 et le premier semestre 2009, ainsi que sur les bouleversements et problèmes que rencontrent les ouvriers migrants. L'histoire chinoise est complexe mais intéressante, non seulement à cause d'un vocabulaire et de statistiques compliqués qui déroutent souvent les observateurs extérieurs, mais aussi par son système spécifique d'exploitation de la population rurale et de la main-d',uvre migrante. Ce système renforce d'autant plus l'impact de la crise mondiale sur les ouvriers migrants, lesquels se trouvent tout en bas de la chaîne d'approvisionnement mondial. En revenant sur les récentes politiques et mesures d'incitation fiscale du gouvernement et sur leurs conséquences pour la main-d',uvre migrante rurale, la dernière partie élargit le champ des observations et relie la crise au modèle de développement chinois. [source]

Constituent-morpheme priming: Implications from the morphology of two-kanji compound words

JAPANESE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2002
Terry Joyce
Abstract: The diversity in the morphological structure of two-kanji compound words is a matter of special concern for models of the Japanese mental lexicon. This study discusses two proposals for models of the Japanese mental lexicon ,Hirose's (1992, 1994, 1996) hypotheses and a Japanese lemma-unit version of the multilevel interactive-activation framework , in terms of their ability to cope with this diversity. As the proposals make different predictions concerning constituent-morpheme priming, patterns of facilitation were examined in two experiments with five word-formation principles as experimental conditions. Experiment 1, using the long stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 3000 ms employed by Hirose (1992), only found significant differences between the first- and second-element conditions in one of the word-formation conditions. Experiment 2, using a short SOA of 250 ms, confirmed the pattern of priming obtained in Experiment 1. These results are more consistent with the prediction from the Japanese lemma-unit model. [source]

Development, standardization, and testing of a lexicon for reporting contrast-enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging studies

JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING, Issue 6 2001
Debra M. Ikeda MD
Abstract The purpose of this study was to develop, standardize, and test reproducibility of a lexicon for reporting contrast-enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations. To standardize breast MRI lesion description and reporting, seven radiologists with extensive breast MRI experience developed consensus on technical detail, clinical history, and terminology reporting to describe kinetic and architectural features of lesions detected on contrast-enhanced breast MR images. This lexicon adapted American College of Radiology Breast Imaging and Data Reporting System terminology for breast MRI reporting, including recommendations for reporting clinical history, technical parameters for breast MRI, descriptions for general breast composition, morphologic and kinetic characteristics of mass lesions or regions of abnormal enhancement, and overall impression and management recommendations. To test morphology reproducibility, seven radiologists assessed morphology characteristics of 85 contrast-enhanced breast MRI studies. Data from each independent reader were used to compute weighted and unweighted kappa (,) statistics for interobserver agreement among readers. The MR lexicon differentiates two lesion types, mass and non-mass-like enhancement based on morphology and geographical distribution, with descriptors of shape, margin, and internal enhancement. Lexicon testing showed substantial agreement for breast density (, = 0.63) and moderate agreement for lesion type (, = 0.57), mass margins (, = 0.55), and mass shape (, = 0.42). Agreement was fair for internal enhancement characteristics. Unweighted kappa statistics showed highest agreement for the terms dense in the breast composition category, mass in lesion type, spiculated and smooth in mass margins, irregular in mass shape, and both dark septations and rim enhancement for internal enhancement characteristics within a mass. The newly developed breast MR lexicon demonstrated moderate interobserver agreement. While breast density and lesion type appear reproducible, other terms require further refinement and testing to lead to a uniform standard language and reporting system for breast MRI. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2001;13:889,895. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

The symbolic state: a British experience

JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2003
Nicholas O'Shaughnessy
Abstract This paper aspires to introduce a new word into the political lexicon. It argues that Britain's ,New' Labour Government embodies a phenomenon for which the word ,spin' is descriptively inadequate. New Labour actually represents something much more radical and important than this,an entire regime whose core competence has lain in the generation of imagery. Its directors recognise that, in a sense, words speak louder than actions, and that the production of the correct imagery is politically more significant than the creation and execution of policy, the old concept of governing. While the paper discusses the ethical and the social consequences of this evolution, it also suggests that such symbolic government is the almost inevitable response of governing elites to an inquisitorial and relentless modern media. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications [source]

Bottom-up processing and reading comprehension in experienced adult readers

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 3 2009
Virginia M. Holmes
Previous research has indicated a weak to moderate role for word recognition skill in contributing to reading comprehension efficiency in highly experienced adult readers. The goal of this study was to re-evaluate the strength of this association, including assessment of the contribution of skill in discriminating unfamiliar shapes and identifying letters. Unexpectedly, the results revealed a very strong association between efficiency in reading connected text and word recognition skill, as measured by efficiency of access to the orthographic lexicon. Ability to identify letters rapidly and accurately also contributed to orthographic access skill. These associations were only minimally reduced by controlling for skill in discriminating unfamiliar shapes. The results were interpreted in terms of the verbal-efficiency theory, according to which rapid and accurate lower-level processing liberates resources for equally crucial higher-level comprehension processing, ultimately resulting in more efficient text comprehension. [source]

EVALUATION OF REPLICATED PROJECTIVE MAPPING OF GRANOLA BARS

JOURNAL OF SENSORY STUDIES, Issue 5 2010
JESSICA KENNEDY
ABSTRACT The application of projective mapping to quickly gather information on overall product differences provides a unique way to probe consumer perceptions and gather product information. A group of 15 consumers performed a projective mapping exercise three times on a set of eight "berry flavored" granola bars, including descriptors of the products. The projective mapping task was performed in replicates to evaluate the consistency of results obtained via this technique. Analysis of the replications by multifactor analysis indicated for the majority of consumers, that the three individual maps did not show a high degree of similarity (80% of RV coefficients < 0.5). However, consensus maps from the three replications indicated a similar group perception of the products over the replications, as depicted by hierarchical multifactor analysis. Terms collected from the maps were summarized and regressed into the product space for interpretation, both in terms of consumer criteria used to differentiate among products and identification of key product attributes. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The findings from this study add to the growing knowledge on projective mapping. The results presented here aimed to substantiate the value and reliability of projective mapping when used with consumers. Although projective mapping is not a replacement for quantitative descriptive analysis, it is an efficient tool for consumer research; as well as product or category exploration which can be utilized early in the product development process. The addition of descriptors directly onto the maps by panelists makes it possible to use projective mapping as a stand-alone method by increasing the amount and interpretability of data provided by panelists. When used with consumers, projective mapping links the consumer perception of the product space with a consumer-driven lexicon. [source]

QUANTITATIVE DESCRIPTIVE SENSORY ANALYSIS OF FIVE DIFFERENT CULTIVARS OF SWEET POTATO TO DETERMINE SENSORY AND TEXTURAL PROFILES

JOURNAL OF SENSORY STUDIES, Issue 1 2010
C.S. LEIGHTON
ABSTRACT A trained sensory panel was used to establish terminology for describing the sensory attributes of different cultivars orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) and white-fleshed sweet potato (WFSP). Quantitative descriptive analysis was applied to evaluate the samples in terms of the aroma, texture, flavor and aftertaste attributes. Thirteen attributes were identified. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to identify any factors differentiating between the sweet potato cultivars. The findings indicated that the main differences were, in PC1, the flavor and density and adhesive textural characteristics, and, in PC2, the grainy and firm textural characteristics of the different cultivars. OFSP displayed a more dense and pasty texture, which was most intense in the Resisto cultivar. W119 had a more grainy texture when compared with the other cultivars tested. WFSP was more moist and fibrous. Therefore, OFSP differed in color, was sweeter and displayed flavor characteristics of yellow vegetables (such as butternut and pumpkin) when compared with WFSP. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Although standard sensory evaluation techniques were used in this project, the materials used were sweet potatoes, which are of interest. Sweet potato is a root vegetable, and in this project, a lexicon for the textural properties, as well as a flavor profile of sweet potato, was developed. Such information can be used for sensory evaluation of other root vegetables. The shear force of the sweet potatoes was measured, and the methodology to determine shear forces and its contribution to the overall evaluation of the texture of sweet potatoes is included in the article. Furthermore, white-fleshed sweet potatoes are commonly known, and the flavor of WFSP is compared with that of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. [source]