Since Sun-Joo Shin's groundbreaking study (2002), Peirce's existential graphs have attracted much attention as a way of writing logic that seems profoundly different from our usual logical calculi. In particular, Shin argued that existential graphs enjoy a distinctive property that marks them out as "diagrammatic": they are "multiply readable," in the sense that there are several di erent, equally legitimate ways to translate one and the same graph into a standard logical language. Stenning (2000) and Bellucci and Pietarinen (2016) have (...) retorted that similar phenomena of multiple readability can arise for sentential notations as well. Focusing on the simplest kinds of existential graphs, called alpha graphs (AGs), this paper argues that multiple readability does point to important features of AGs, but that both Shin and her critics have misdiagnosed its source. As a preliminary, and because the existing literature often glosses over such issues, we show that despite their non-linearity, AGs are uniquely parsable and allow for inductive de nitions. Extending earlier discussions, we then show that that in principle, all propositional calculi are multiply readable, just like AGs: contrary to what has been suggested in the literature, multiple readability is linked neither to non-linearity nor to AGs' dearth of connectives. However, we argue that in practice, AGs are more amenable to multiple readability than our usual notations, because the patterns that one needs to recognize to multiply translate an AG form what we call complex symbols, whose structural properties make it easy to perceive and process them as units. Nevertheless, we show that such complex symbols, though largely absent from our usual notations, are not inherently diagrammatic and can be found in seemingly sentential languages. Hence, while ultimately vindicating Shin's idea of multiple readability, our analysis traces it to a di erent source and thus severs its link with diagrammaticity. (shrink)

Informed consent forms have been useful in clinical practice and they constitute a part of the shared decision making in the informed consent process. They provide information to patients about clinical procedures and techniques. They also act as a remainder of the information discussed after the medical interview. Sometimes these documents are not readable to everybody. Belgian law specifies that all information that patients receive has to be proportionate verbally, but written information is also handled. The present research analyzes the (...) readability of the Flemish informed consent forms located in the webs of all General Hospitals using a simple random sample of 75 informed consent forms. By using the Douma tool, which bases its analysis in the length of words and sentences, the readability mean of the sample was 46, level “Difficult”. The 59% of them had a difficult level. The 11% were normal. It is a fact, then, that the 59% of the informed consent forms evaluated in this study are not suitable for everybody in Flanders, especially those people with low literacy. There were some researches made in other countries that agreed with these results. Written clinical information was poorly written so the informed consent forms were not working helping patients to recall information nor helping patients to become a part in the shared decision making about their health. The use of readability formulas represented a simple way to discriminate those informed consent forms that had normal readability scores from those that should be adapted. (shrink)

La doctrine picturale du classicisme instituait le parallèle de l’image et du verbe, elle adoptait pour maxime la formule extraite d’Horace « Ut pictura poesis » (« Il en est d’une poésie comme d’une peinture »). Gotthold Ephraïm Lessing réfute cette conception dans son Laocoon en opposant les propriétés du lisible à celles du visible, et en affirmant l’impossibilité d’établir une équivalence entre elles. Il met en crise la lisibilité de l’œuvre plastique en opérant une distinction fondamentale entre l’image et (...) le mot, avec pour conséquence de séparer nettement la finalité essentielle de la peinture et celle de la poésie. Lessing défend l’idée que les moyens de la peinture correspondent aux limites de la poésie, et que les moyens de la poésie correspondent aux limites de la peinture. Ce chiasme se résout dans le théâtre qui, unissant les pouvoirs du verbe et de l’image, surmonte les limites expressives de la poésie et de la peinture en conjuguant leurs pouvoirs respectifs. (shrink)

State governments provide preprinted advance directive forms to the general public. However, many adults in the United States (US) lack the skills necessary to read and comprehend health care-related materials. In this study, we sought to determine the readability of state government-sponsored advance directive forms.

Hans Blumenberg has, in the quarter-century since his death, become recognized as one of the most important philosophers of the postwar period. The Readability of the World represents Blumenberg's first full-length demonstration of the metaphorological method he had pioneered twenty years earlier in Paradigms for a Metaphorology. Whereas Blumenberg had confined himself in Paradigms to sketching this future research field, in Readability he applies his method to a single case study: the idea that the world presents itself to (...) human beings as a book. The metaphor of the book of nature has been central to Western interpretations of reality. Beginning with ancient Greek cosmology and ending with the genetic code, Blumenberg traces the changes undergone by this metaphor in order to access the different expectations of reality that it articulates, reflects, and projects. (shrink)

The study analyses the readability and clarity of economic specialised texts on supplementary individual pensions. The research includes agreements on individual pension products available on the Polish market at the beginning of 2017. The level of comprehensibility of language has been assessed using the “Jasnopis” application, based, among others, on the FOG index, while the structure of the content of the agreements has been assessed by an expert linguist (the expert linguist is one of the authors of this and (...) a number of other publications on clear and understandable texts). In addition, one of the texts was subject to a survey, the so-called cloze text, which provided more accurate information about readability for a specific reader group. The results obtained allow the conclusion that the language of agreements on individual pension products is very difficult and their understanding requires higher education or expertise in the field of finance. (shrink)

BackgroundBefore participation in medical research an informed consent must be obtained. This study investigates whether the readability of patient information and consent documents corresponds to the average educational level of participants in rheumatological studies in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway.Methods24 PICDs from studies were collected and readability was assessed independently using the Gunning’s Fog Index and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook grading.ResultsThe mean score for the FOG and SMOG grades were 14.2 and 14.2 respectively. The mean FOG and SMOG (...) grades were 12.7 and 13.3 in the Dutch studies, 15.0 and 14.9 in the Danish studies, and 14.6 and 14.3 in the Norwegian studies, respectively. Out of the 2865 participants, more than 57 % had a lower educational level than the highest readability score calculated in the individual study.ConclusionsAs the readability level of the PICDs did not match the participants’ educational level, consent may not have been valid, as the participants may have had a limited understanding of what they agreed to participate in. There should be more focus on the readability of PICDs. National guidelines for how to write clear and unambiguous PICDs in simple and easily understandable language could increase the focus on the readability of PICD. (shrink)

This text was delivered as the laudatory speech on the occasion of Didi-Huberman’s receipt of the Adorno prize in 2015. The influence of Adorno’s work on Didi-Huberman’s methodology is clarified, especially Adorno’s reflections on montage, the essayistic style and the anachronism of time. Didi-Huberman thematizes and analyses anachronism as a specific time structure of images. His works stress the similarity of images with the literary montage technique to develop a comprehensive theory of the readability of images – a practice (...) in which we approach images, based on the combination of voir and savoir, of looking and knowing. Two books, dealing with images and the Holocaust, are specifically exemplary of this approach: Images in Spite of All and Bark. Images in Spite of All calls a halt to one of the crudest erroneous readings of Adorno’s work, since the theorem of the Unspeakable or Unrepresentable always referred to Theodor W. Adorno ; and it is remarkably resistant to nuanced philological–philosophical studies of Adorno’s writings. By attentively considering the conditions in which the four photographs taken in Auschwitz-Birkenau were produced, Didi-Huberman dares to imagine the unimaginable. In this and in his more personal work of Bark, he successfully avoids an impossible reconstruction but instead asks what happened in that other place, in the cultural and our personal and memory. This is the work of ‘readability’ in the Benjaminian sense. (shrink)

For nearly five years, from Dec. 27, 1831, until Oct. 2, 1836, I served as naturalist aboard the H.M.S. Beagle, exploring. During that voyage I was much amazed by how the various types of organisms were distributed around South America, and how the animals and plants presently living on that continent are related to those found only as fossils in the geological record elsewhere. These facts, as will be seen in later chapters, seemed to me to throw some light on (...) the origin of species-that "mystery of mysteries," as it has been called by one of our greatest scientists, John Herschel. After I returned home, it occurred to me in 1837 that I might be able to help address this great question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts that might have any bearing on it. Finally, after five years of work, I allowed myself to speculate on the subject and wrote up some brief notes. I enlarged these in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions that seemed to be most probable from the evidence I had collected. Over the subsequent 15 years I have steadily pursued the same object: trying to understand how new species come about. I hope you will excuse me for entering these personal details of my work, as I give them only to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision. (shrink)

For nearly five years, from Dec. 27, 1831, until Oct. 2, 1836, I served as naturalist aboard the H.M.S. Beagle, exploring. During that voyage I was much amazed by how the various types of organisms were distributed around South America, and how the animals and plants presently living on that continent are related to those found only as fossils in the geological record elsewhere. These facts, as will be seen in later chapters, seemed to me to throw some light on (...) the origin of species-that "mystery of mysteries," as it has been called by one of our greatest scientists, John Herschel. After I returned home, it occurred to me in 1837 that I might be able to help address this great question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts that might have any bearing on it. Finally, after five years of work, I allowed myself to speculate on the subject and wrote up some brief notes. I enlarged these in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions that seemed to be most probable from the evidence I had collected. Over the subsequent 15 years I have steadily pursued the same object: trying to understand how new species come about. I hope you will excuse me for entering these personal details of my work, as I give them only to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be (...) preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

A large body of literature supports the notion that the language used in informed consent forms is not comprehensible to most research participants. Creating comprehensible informed consent forms for international research presents a further challenge because they are generally written first in English and then translated into the local language. The Kenya Medical Research National Ethical Review Committee determines readability of English consent forms before translation; however, it is neither their policy nor practice to determine whether the forms, once (...) translated into Kiswahili, are of comparable readability to the English forms. Thus, the aim of this study is to measure and compare the text difficulty in 10 pairs of English informed consent forms and their translated Kiswahili forms. The results show that a readable English-language consent form does not necessarily result in a readable form once translated into Kiswahili. (shrink)

A well established technique toward developing the proof theory of a Hilbert-style modal logic is to introduce a Gentzen-style equivalent (a Gentzenisation), then develop the proof theory of the latter, and finally transfer the metatheoretical results to the original logic (e.g., [1, 6, 8, 18, 10, 12]). In the first-order modal case, on one hand we know that the Gentzenisation of the straightforward first-order extension of GL, the logic QGL, admits no cut elimination (if the rule is included as primitive; (...) or, if not included, then the rule is not admissible [1]). On the other hand the (cut-free) Gentzenisations of the first-order modal logics M3 and ML3 of [10, 12] do have cut as an admissible rule. The syntactic cut admissibility proof given in [18] for the Gentzenisation of the propositional provability logic GL is extremely complex, and it was the basis of the proofs of cut admissibility of the Gentzenisations of M3 and ML3, where the presence of quantifiers and quantifier rules added to the complexity and length of the proof. A recent proof of cut admissibility in a cut-free Gentzenisation of GL is given in [5] and is quite short and easy to read. We adapt it here to revisit the proofs for the cases of M3 and ML3, resulting to similarly short and easy to read proofs, only slightly complicated by the presence of quantification and its relevant rules. (shrink)

This paper discusses how to refine a given initial legal ontology using an existing MRD (Machine-Readable Dictionary). There are two hard issues in the refinement process. One is to find out those MRD concepts most related to given legal concepts. The other is to correct bugs in a given legal ontology, using the concepts extracted from an MRD. In order to resolve the issues, we present a method to find out the best MRD correspondences to given legal concepts, using two (...) match algorithms. Moreover, another method called a static analysis is given to refine a given legal ontology, based on the comparison between the initial legal ontology and the best MRD correspondences to given legal concepts. We have implemented a software environment to help a user refine a given legal ontology based on these methods. The empirical results have shown that the environment works well in the field of Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. (shrink)

A large body of research has indicated international students in the United States and abroad experience difficulties understanding what academic integrity is and how to avoid academic misconduct, 159–172 2011; Brown & Howell, 2001; Gullifer and Tyson Studies in Higher Education, 39, 1202-1218 2014). While most studies focus on academic misconduct and academic corruption in research ethics, 339-358 2014), this study analyzes the length, English-language readability, and translation of academic integrity policies of 453 four-year U.S. institutions of higher education. (...) Findings indicate average academic integrity policies are over 2000 words long, are written above the 16th-grade reading level, and are very rarely translated into a language other than English. In addition, no institutions published their academic integrity policies in full on their institutional international student website, possibly rendering the policy difficult to locate on the institution’s website for international students. Implications for research, policy, and practice are addressed. (shrink)

The aims of this study were to measure the readability of Australian based informed consent documents and determine whether informed consent readability guidelines have been established by Australian human research ethics committees (HRECs). A total of 20 informed consent documents, 10 HIV/AIDS and 10 type 2 diabetes, were measured for readability using the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) and Gunning Fog Index (Fog). Published guidelines and policy statements of the two local HREC who approved the 20 clinical (...) trials under study where examined to identify whether they had any formal policies/guidelines on the readability of informed consent documents. The two HRECs were contacted via e-mail to also determine whether they utilised any informal readability standards or “rules of thumb” that may not have been mentioned in the published documents. The HIV/AIDS and type 2 diabetes informed consent documents were, on average, written at a grade 13 reading level. Formal readability standards had not been established by the two local HRECs, however, they did verify the use of informal rules for assessing readability of informed consent documents. Based on Australian literacy data, the majority of informed consent documents were written well beyond the reading ability of many Australians. Unreadable informed consent documents may result in patients rejecting trial participation altogether or conversely may result in their participating in a trial with inadequate consent. Therefore, a step toward reducing the complexity of informed consent documents may be to implement objective readability assessments into the human research ethics application and review process. (shrink)

Researchers typically attempt to fulfill disclosure and informed consent requirements by having participants read and sign consent forms. The present study evaluated the reading levels of informed consent forms used in psychology research and other fields (medical research; social science and education research; and health, physical education, and recreation research). Two standardized measures of readability were employed to analyze a randomly selected sample (N = 108) of informed consent forms used in Institutional Review Board-approved research projects at a midwestern (...) university during the 1987-1988 academic year. Results indicate that informed consent forms are typically written at a higher reading level than is appropriate for the intended population and that there are no consistently significant differences in readability among areas of research or between college student and noncollege student participants. Due to the unacceptably high reading level of the consent forms, one must question whether participants can comprehend the information contained in the consent forms. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility reporting is becoming mainstream, yet there is limited research on whether and how CSR reports communicate value relevant information. We examine the effects of CSR report readability and tone on future CSR performance and the market reaction around the release of CSR reports. Using a hand-collected dataset of Fortune 500 companies that published stand-alone CSR reports from 2002 to 2014, we find that 1-year-ahead CSR performance is positively associated with the changes in both CSR report (...) class='Hi'>readability and tone, suggesting that more readable text and more optimistic tone in a firm’s CSR report are indicative of better future CSR performance. Furthermore, consistent with the view that CSR reports communicate important value relevant information to the market, we document significant market reactions to report readability and tone around the release of CSR reports. Additional analyses suggest that CSR report readability enhances the association between the abnormal returns and the change in CSR report tone, and that the market reaction to CSR report readability is more pronounced for firms with lower analyst following and higher financial opacity. Taken together, our results substantiate the important roles of CSR report readability and tone in communicating future CSR performance and imparting value relevant information to the market. (shrink)

The readability of 10-K reports, in terms of linguistic complexity, determines the usefulness of information disclosure for stakeholders, particularly individual investors. Since investors largely depend on the financial communication in 10-K reports, firms have an ethical and legal responsibility to present disclosures in a language investors can understand. However, motivated by self-interest, managers obfuscate such disclosures to mask their own actions and hide unfavourable information. Building on the managerial obfuscation hypothesis grounded in stakeholder-agency and ethical-sensitivity theories, I hypothesize and (...) empirically test the relationship between board gender diversity and the readability of narrative disclosure in 10-K reports. Based on a relatively large sample of Russell 3000 firms for the years 2002–2018, I find a significant positive impact of BGD on 10-K reports’ readability, which in turn improves firm performance. Channel analysis reveals that the findings are driven by female independent directors, and their representation on audit and compensation committees; however, board activity does not appear to drive this relationship. Finally, I find that although gender discrimination in the appointment of directors spurs complex readability, the BGD-readability relationship is consistent in gender-biased and non-discriminant firms. I also check the robustness of our main empirical results in several ways. My study has important regulatory and managerial implications in that corporate governance is an important determinant of the readability of disclosure documents. (shrink)

Background: One of the ethical imperatives for a valid consent process in clinical medication trials is that the process be guided by and recorded in an informed consent document (ICD). Concerns have been expressed, however, about readability and participant understanding of ICDs, which are often 10–20 pages long. Objective measures of readability and understanding have been used to support these concerns in several articles, but surprisingly the voice of trial participants on ICDs has not been heard in previous (...) studies. Hence, this study compares participants' subjective views on readability and their understanding of ICDs with those ICDs' objective readability scores. It also evaluates whether family, friends, and additional aids would foster better understanding of the ICD. Methods: Sixty current trial participants rated the readability and their understanding of deidentified standard ICDs. These had been sourced from two multicenter international Phase III trials on medication for diabetes mellitus and cancer. Results: Less than 10% of participants considered the ICDs difficult to read or difficult to understand in spite of objective readability scores at levels of about 12th grade education, but about a quarter considered the ICDs to be too technical. Participants gave mixed responses about friends or family members helping or the need for videos, pictures, additional reading material, and frequently answered questions (FAQ) sheets as an aid to their understanding. Conclusions: These findings suggest individual clinical trial participants should be engaged on their views of an ICD, for doing so is part of informed consent as a process rather than consent being merely focused on written information. Such participant-specific engagement should guide whether family and friends, videos, pictures, additional reading material, and FAQ sheets would be of assistance in improving understanding. (shrink)

Abstract.There were numerous records of solar eclipse in China from the eighth century BC to the fifteenth century AD. Because these records are concise and formalized, I have arranged 938 items into a computer-readable table called ‘‘The table of historic Chinese regular records of solar eclipse’’. In this paper, I explain the structure of the table with a preliminary analysis and statistics of the historical records. To receive the table itself, please request it at [email protected].