When translating a text written hundreds or even thousands of years ago for a modern reader, the translator must constantly search for the ideal middle way. On the one hand, the reader wants to feel that they are not dealing with a modern text, but, on the other hand, they want to read and understand the text without major difficulties. The translator of historical texts must inevitably be prepared to go to greater or lesser lengths in order to offer the reader not only entertainment but also the opportunity to educate themselves. This article looks at some of the difficulties encountered by a translator of this kind of text. Problems of translation and possible solutions are analysed using as examples Estonian translations of some letters written by the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
Inevitably, it must be admitted that if Ivan the Terrible had written in Estonian the text would look very different from Old Russian and even from modern Russian versions.
It should be stressed, however, that translation problems are often easier to solve if the translator is able to define the purpose of their work. For example, in the case of the type of text examined in this article, the translator must decide whether he or she wants the text to have a purely entertaining purpose, or whether he or she also wants it to educate the reader. If the aim is merely to entertain the reader, then, for example, the foreign names creatively ‘invented’ by the Russian Tsar could be left in the same unusual form in translation. In that case, the translator should keep in mind that any educational aim may be lost, since the reader may not be able to find out without effort who the particular person is behind one or other of the names.
In addition to the translation itself, it is useful to write at least a preface to the translated text where many things can be explained to the reader. However, if more than one historical text is being translated, a longer accompanying text may be needed in addition to a preface to place the translated text in its historical context and to give the reader the opportunity to become acquainted with the most important persons and events relevant to that particular text.
Lastly, when translating a text that dates back centuries or millennia, the translator should usually add various shorter and longer explanations and notes which add value to the texts and demonstrate their reader-friendliness in sparing the reader the necessity of constantly diving into encyclopedias or Internet resources to obtain additional information.
Translating historical sources is no easy task – it is rather quite a complex and time-consuming one – but it provides an invaluable opportunity to take a look at the lives and worldviews of people from whom we are separated by centuries or even millennia.
Marija Šakota, Isaac Johnson, Guosheng Feng
et al.
An edit summary is a succinct comment written by a Wikipedia editor explaining the nature of, and reasons for, an edit to a Wikipedia page. Edit summaries are crucial for maintaining the encyclopedia: they are the first thing seen by content moderators and they help them decide whether to accept or reject an edit. Additionally, edit summaries constitute a valuable data source for researchers. Unfortunately, as we show, for many edits, summaries are either missing or incomplete. To overcome this problem and help editors write useful edit summaries, we propose a model for recommending edit summaries generated by a language model trained to produce good edit summaries given the representation of an edit diff. To overcome the challenges of mixed-quality training data and efficiency requirements imposed by the scale of Wikipedia, we fine-tune a small generative language model on a curated mix of human and synthetic data. Our model performs on par with human editors. Commercial large language models are able to solve this task better than human editors, but are not well suited for Wikipedia, while open-source ones fail on this task. More broadly, we showcase how language modeling technology can be used to support humans in maintaining one of the largest and most visible projects on the Web.
Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) increasingly leverage 'humanness' as a foundational design metaphor, adopting roles like 'assistants,' 'teachers,' and 'secretaries' to foster natural interactions. Yet, this approach can sometimes misalign user trust and reinforce societal stereotypes, leading to socio-technical challenges that might impede long-term engagement. This paper explores an alternative approach to navigate these challenges-incorporating non-human metaphors in VUI design. We report on a study with 240 participants examining the effects of human versus non-human metaphors on user perceptions within health and finance domains. Results indicate a preference for the human metaphor (doctor) over the non-human (health encyclopedia) in health contexts for its perceived enjoyability and likeability. In finance, however, user perceptions do not significantly differ between human (financial advisor) and non-human (calculator) metaphors. Importantly, our research reveals that the explicit awareness of a metaphor's use influences adoption intentions, with a marked preference for non-human metaphors when their metaphorical nature is not disclosed. These findings highlight context-specific conversation design strategies required in integrating non-human metaphors into VUI design, suggesting tradeoffs and design considerations that could enhance user engagement and adoption.
Yupei Du, Jacek Golebiowski, Philipp Schmidt
et al.
Techniques for knowledge graph (KGs) enrichment have been increasingly crucial for commercial applications that rely on evolving product catalogues. However, because of the huge search space of potential enrichment, predictions from KG completion (KGC) methods suffer from low precision, making them unreliable for real-world catalogues. Moreover, candidate facts for enrichment have varied relevance to users. While making correct predictions for incomplete triplets in KGs has been the main focus of KGC method, the relevance of when to apply such predictions has been neglected. Motivated by the product search use case, we address the angle of generating relevant completion for a catalogue using user search behaviour and the users property association with a product. In this paper, we present our intuition for identifying enrichable data points and use general-purpose KGs to show-case the performance benefits. In particular, we extract entity-predicate pairs from user queries, which are more likely to be correct and relevant, and use these pairs to guide the prediction of KGC methods. We assess our method on two popular encyclopedia KGs, DBPedia and YAGO 4. Our results from both automatic and human evaluations show that query guidance can significantly improve the correctness and relevance of prediction.
Background Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGID) with heterogeneous clinical presentations. There are no clear testing parameters for its diagnosis, and the complex pathophysiology of IBS and the limited time that doctors have to spend with patients makes it difficult to adequately educate patients in the outpatient setting. An increased awareness of IBS means that patients are more likely to self-diagnose and self-manage IBS based on their own symptoms. These factors may make patients more likely to turn to Internet resources. Wikipedia is the most popular online encyclopedia among English-speaking users, with numerous validations. However, in Mandarin-speaking regions, the Baidu Encyclopedia is most commonly used. There have been no studies on the reliability, readability, and objectivity of IBS information on the two sites. This is an urgent issue as these platforms are accessed by approximately 1.45 billion people. Objective We compared the IBS content on Wikipedia (in English) and Baidu Baike (in Chinese), two online encyclopedias, in terms of reliability, readability, and objectivity. Methods The Baidu Encyclopedia (in Chinese) and Wikipedia (in English) were evaluated based on the Rome IV IBS definitions and diagnoses. All possible synonyms and derivatives for IBS and IBS-related FGIDs were screened and identified. Two gastroenterology experts evaluated the scores of articles for both sites using the DISCERN instrument, the Journal of the American Medical Association scoring system (JAMA), and the Global Quality Score (GQS). Results Wikipedia scored higher overall with DISCERN (p < .0001), JAMA (p < .0001) and GQS (p < .05) than the Baidu Encyclopedia. Specifically, Wikipedia scored higher in DISCERN Section 1 (p < .0001), DISCERN Section 2 (p < .01), DISCERN Section 3 (p < .001), and the General DISCERN score (p < .0001) than the Baidu Encyclopedia. Both sites had low DISCERN Section 2 scores (p = .18). Wikipedia also had a larger percentage of high quality scores in total DISCERN, DISCERN Section 1, and DISCERN Section 3 (p < .0001, P < .0001, P < .0004, respectively, based on the above 3 (60%) rule). Conclusions Wikipedia provides more reliable, higher quality, and more objective IBS-related health information than the Baidu Encyclopedia. However, there should be improvements in the information quality for both sites. Medical professionals and institutions should collaborate with these online platforms to offer better health information for IBS.
Children form their impression of the world from a very young age, so it is crucial to provide them with accurate and engaging information. In Croatia, numerous encyclopedic publications for children and youth were published in the 20th century. This research focuses on three specific encyclopedic publications: Svijet oko nas (The World around Us, Volume I, 1968; Volume II, 1970), Dječja enciklopedija Larousse (The Larousse Children’s Encyclopedia, 1970), and Enciklopedija za djevojčice (Encyclopedia for Girls, 1974). The study aims to determine the type of information these encyclopedias offer to children and young people, and assess whether the content and illustrations are suitable for their age group. Additionally, it seeks to reconstruct the values conveyed to children through the encyclopedic articles and determine whether the purpose of their publication was educational, moral, or a combination of both. The research also aims to identify the unique aspects of each encyclopedia and compare them to ascertain if any of them has an advantage in the information they convey. Furthermore, the study will assess whether these early encyclopedias for children and young people adhere to the contemporary encyclopedic style and whether they still serve their intended purpose today in communicating with today’s children and young people.
The study utilised Mixed Methods Research, which involves combining different research methods and designs. This approach integrates the results of both quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative aspect involved collecting and quantifying data as well as analysing article and illustration content. The qualitative component included conducting semi-structured interviews with 20 children and young people as well as 10 adults.
The study found that encyclopedias for children and young people are generally more illustrated, which aligns with the interview findings. The texts and illustrations are adapted to the age of the target audience. While all three encyclopedias share similarities, they also have their unique characteristics. Conversations with participants revealed that biographical content is less important to them compared to general articles, a conclusion supported by the analysis of the encyclopedia contents. Each publication has combination of educational and moral purposes, but approaches them differently. While all three encyclopedias continue to hold value today, interviews indicated that the visual presentation in early encyclopedias is the most noticeable gap between them and today’s generations.
This study was undertaken to address the issues identified during preliminary research, which revealed that teachers were still using packaged books and worksheets as their teaching materials. Based on these findings, the researchers became interested in developing teaching materials in the form of encyclopedias. Encyclopedias have the advantage of being both a source of information and a teaching aid. The objective of this study was to develop a valid, practical, and effective encyclopedia on the topic of the reproductive system. The research methodology employed in this study was Research and Development (R&D), utilizing the 4-D development model, which encompasses the stages of define, design, develop, and disseminate. Validity, practicality, and effectiveness instruments were used as research tools, and data analysis was conducted using a Likert scale. The results revealed that the encyclopedia met the criteria for validity (as determined by 92% of teaching material experts and 83% of content experts), practicality (as reported by 95% of teachers and 84% of students), and effectiveness (as demonstrated by an increase in pretest scores from 56.22 to a posttest score of 89, resulting in an N-Gain of 0.75, with a percentage of 75%). Therefore, it can be concluded that the reproductive system encyclopedia is valid, practical, and effective, making it suitable for use in learning activities. The development of this reproductive system encyclopedia has significant implications for the learning process, particularly in terms of adopting a more comprehensive learning approach. The encyclopedia provides extensive and in-depth information, fostering a more holistic learning experience and transforming the role of the teacher into that of a facilitator who assists students in navigating and comprehending information.
Aitolkyn Baigutanova, Jaehyeon Myung, Diego Saez-Trumper
et al.
Wikipedia plays a crucial role in the integrity of the Web. This work analyzes the reliability of this global encyclopedia through the lens of its references. We operationalize the notion of reference quality by defining reference need (RN), i.e., the percentage of sentences missing a citation, and reference risk (RR), i.e., the proportion of non-authoritative references. We release Citation Detective, a tool for automatically calculating the RN score, and discover that the RN score has dropped by 20 percent point in the last decade, with more than half of verifiable statements now accompanying references. The RR score has remained below 1% over the years as a result of the efforts of the community to eliminate unreliable references. We propose pairing novice and experienced editors on the same Wikipedia article as a strategy to enhance reference quality. Our quasi-experiment indicates that such a co-editing experience can result in a lasting advantage in identifying unreliable sources in future edits. As Wikipedia is frequently used as the ground truth for numerous Web applications, our findings and suggestions on its reliability can have a far-reaching impact. We discuss the possibility of other Web services adopting Wiki-style user collaboration to eliminate unreliable content.
Recently, Wang et al. [Phys. Rev. B, 106, 195129 (2022)] challenged a widely held belief in the field of Weyl physics, demonstrating that single-pair-Weyl-points (SP-WPs) can exist in nonmagnetic spinless systems, contrary to previous assumptions that they could only exist in magnetic systems. Wang et al. observed that the SP-WPs with opposite and even chiral charges (i.e., |C| = 2 or 4) could also exist in nonmagnetic spinless systems. In this Letter, we present a novel finding in which SP-WPs have a partner, namely a charged nodal surface, in nonmagnetic spinless systems. In contrast to previous observations, we show that the SP-WPs can have uneven chiral charges (i.e., |C| = 1). We identify 6 (out of 230) space groups (SGs) that contain such SP-WPs by searching the encyclopedia of emergent particles in three-dimensional crystals. Our finds were confirmed through the phonon spectra of two specific materials Zr3O (with SG 182) and NaPH2NO3 (with SG 173). This discovery broadens the range of materials that can host SP-WPs and applies to other nonmagnetic spinless crystals.
Wikipedia is one of the most successful collaborative projects in history. It is the largest encyclopedia ever created, with millions of users worldwide relying on it as the first source of information as well as for fact-checking and in-depth research. As Wikipedia relies solely on the efforts of its volunteer-editors, its success might be particularly affected by toxic speech. In this paper, we analyze all 57 million comments made on user talk pages of 8.5 million editors across the six most active language editions of Wikipedia to study the potential impact of toxicity on editors' behaviour. We find that toxic comments consistently reduce the activity of editors, leading to an estimated loss of 0.5-2 active days per user in the short term. This amounts to multiple human-years of lost productivity when considering the number of active contributors to Wikipedia. The effects of toxic comments are even greater in the long term, as they significantly increase the risk of editors leaving the project altogether. Using an agent-based model, we demonstrate that toxicity attacks on Wikipedia have the potential to impede the progress of the entire project. Our results underscore the importance of mitigating toxic speech on collaborative platforms such as Wikipedia to ensure their continued success.
Multimodal knowledge bases (MMKBs) provide cross-modal aligned knowledge crucial for multimodal tasks. However, the images in existing MMKBs are generally collected for entities in encyclopedia knowledge graphs. Therefore, detailed groundings of visual semantics with linguistic concepts are lacking, which are essential for the visual concept cognition ability of multimodal models. Addressing this gap, we introduce M^2ConceptBase, the first concept-centric MMKB. M^2ConceptBase models concepts as nodes with associated images and detailed textual descriptions. We propose a context-aware multimodal symbol grounding approach to align concept-image and concept-description pairs using context information from image-text datasets. Comprising 951K images and 152K concepts, M^2ConceptBase links each concept to an average of 6.27 images and a single description, ensuring comprehensive visual and textual semantics. Human studies confirm more than 95% alignment accuracy, underscoring its quality. Additionally, our experiments demonstrate that M^2ConceptBase significantly enhances VQA model performance on the OK-VQA task. M^2ConceptBase also substantially improves the fine-grained concept understanding capabilities of multimodal large language models through retrieval augmentation in two concept-related tasks, highlighting its value.
In the middle of the twentieth century, the discourse of literary criticism was considered. The story of "Little Black Fish" (1347), for some reasons, including the type of text, its special structure, and the range of audiences, has been faced with different interpretations. In this research, with a descriptive-analytical method and based on the approach of reader-oriented theories, the way of interaction between the reader and the text has been studied in a diachronically and synchronically manner. The results show that the readers' reaction before 1957, according to the dominant paradigm, was a critique of taste, based on ideology, and had a social approach in which the hero's action was highlighted and the readings were informative. There was no dialogue between the text and the reader, and the meaning was imposed on the text. From 1957 to the end of the 1980s, the receptions were combined criticism, and based on the literary expectation horizon, they had a frequency in the field of narratology. These readings created uncertainty, and the reader constructed a new form of textual object in a semi-active dialogue with the text. From the late 1980s to the late 1990s, readings were theory-based, and the semiotic approach had the highest frequency among other approaches. The readings were often dialectical with the readings of the previous period, and from the uncertainty until the receipt of correction was figured in the previous readings, and as a result of the integration of social and literary expectation horizons, they offered a wider semantic horizon.Keywords: Reader Response Criticism, Reception Theory, Samad Behrangi, Little Black Fish. IntroductionTraditional criticism based on the intention of the author prevailed over other methods of literary criticism until the end of the 19th century and did not pay attention to the element of the reader, who was one of the main factors in narrative communication. One of the most important reasons for the transformation of the criticism cycle towards the reader is "reader-centered debates among literary criticism theorists" (Benton, 2009: 22). In the middle of the 20th century, I. E. Richards emphasized changing the self-based approach to criticism and the importance of the act of reading and the reaction of the reader. The collection of reader-centered criticism approaches continued to grow in two origins after World War II, influenced by the philosophy of phenomenology and the science of interpretation. First, the approach of "reader reaction" in America and the other, the approach of "reception or the Constance school" in Germany (Taslimi, 1388: 108). The common feature of the two listed approaches was the phenomenological encounter with subject/object duality.Research Question(s)Due to the success of critics and readers, the story of the little black fish has been read many times after its publication. According to the different readings of this story in six decades (1340 to the end of 1390), in the present research we aim to specify: 1- The interaction between the reader and the text in the story "Little Black Fish" in the creation of meaning - as how was the simultaneity and in time? -2- To what extent do the readers read the work under the influence of their minds - consciously and unconsciously - 3- How did the existing discourses in each era influence these readings? Literature ReviewRegarding reader-oriented theories, including the theory of reader reaction and the theory of reception, there are many materials in articles and books of criticism, literary theory, and encyclopedias, but the application of this theory has been done in different ways in the articles. For example, some have examined the work according to the reader in the text. Some researchers have also examined the work or text from the point of view of the reader's reception and reaction; or, in one case, the scene of the play is considered a text, and the process of receiving the audience has been investigated in it. By researching the indexing databases of articles, it was found that the number of articles that examined the existing readings of a work during one or more periods and presented the history of aesthetics from the reception of readers is small. This article examines and analyzes this aspect of the readings and the aesthetic history of the reception of the readers of this work. MethodologyBy researching the indexing databases of the articles, it was found that the number of articles that examined the existing readings of a work during one or more periods and presented the history of aesthetics from the reception of the readers is small. A total of 33 articles and one book about "Little Black Fish" were collected in the books, which included a collection of reviews written about Samad Behrangi's works. Then, the reviews were placed in three time frames based on the dominant aspects of reading, including reading for taste, synthesis, and based on theory, and were examined and analyzed using a descriptive-analytical method based on the approach of theories aimed at the reader. The time format of the courses is based on the dominant aspect of the critic's encounter with the work in the period from 1340 to the end of 1390, and at the same time, it also pays attention to ideological discourses. ConclusionIn the readings before 1957, the dominant aspect of the approaches wasthe reading of taste based on ideology. In this approach, the reader encounters the text based on presuppositions and extratextual positions and deals with it as a passive object. In the readings from 1957 to the end of the 80s, due to the predominance of the discourse of reforms and distancing from the ideological discourse, the readers revised and reconsidered the previous readings in experiencing the effect of reading; the readings from the late 80s to the end of the 90s suggest a wide semantic horizon for this work, which is a result of the special narrative structure and textual signs specific to this work.
Muhammad Fitratallah Dahlan, Oky Deviany, Muhammad Aswan
This research evaluates the peace arrangements in PKPU and their potential to cause injustice to debtors. It also examines the legal implications of bankruptcy decisions on rejected peace plans submitted by debtors to PKPU. The research uses a statutory, conceptual, and case approach, drawing from primary legal materials such the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, BW, HIR, RBG, the Bankruptcy and PKPU Laws, the Judicial Powers Law as well as PKPU decisions. Secondary sources such as scholarly articles and books authored by bankruptcy and PKPU experts, as well as tertiary sources such as dictionaries and encyclopedias, were also utilized. The research findings reveal that: (1) the rejection of the settlement by the creditor causes injustice, due to the creditor's unreasonable grounds for rejection. However, the Bankruptcy Law and PKPU grant rights to the creditor under Article 222 paragraph (2), Article 289, and Article 281, enabling them to bankrupt the debtor on the grounds that the debtor's peace plan does not cover the entire amount of the debt. (3) a bankruptcy decision resulting from the rejection of a debtor's peace plan is an unsuitable decision that causes significant losses for both the debtor and the creditor.
How to write an article on Wikipedia is a question that is relevant for many people who contribute to this reference web portal. The creators of Wikipedia have provided various sources from which you can find answers to the main questions. The authors of this study aimed to identify and analyze the main recommendations offered to users who write or edit Wikipedia articles. The results of the study suggest that the basic rules for writing and editing articles include the following: using information from published materials and avoiding personal ideas, opinions, considerations, reflections, dubious or unproven facts; using published materials from reliable independent sources that can be verified; presenting facts, interpretations, and theories without editorial sympathies or bias in order to achieve neutrality (a neutral point of view); and providing complete information covering all aspects that must be described proportionally according to their importance. The authors conclude that these rules are logical and reasonable and are best suited for amateurs who, without adequate knowledge and experience, aim to write acceptable reference content.
The author’s twenty-year experience in illustrating the multi-volume historical publishing project “Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine”, which is coordinated by the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the “Naukova Dumka” publishing house, is highlighted. The initial stage of the work at the threshold of the millennium and its features are described in detail. The author’s focus is on the process of identifying various types of illustrative (iconographic) materials in archives, museums and libraries and related difficulties; creation of a database of illustrations; cooperation of the illustrator with the publishing house. Methodological problems that arose during the illustration (in particular, related to the publication of visual sources and verification of visual sources) are analyzed. The author emphasizes that the work of an illustrator of a historical encyclopedia, although it looks easy, is actually difficult, responsible and requires a number of professional, technical, and communication skills.
This research aims to determine the strategy for learning sentence structure Arabic language (tarkib) in Madrasah. The method used in this research is a qualitative approach with the type of library research, or a series of studies related to library data collection methods, or research whose research objects are explored through various library information in the form of books, encyclopedias, scientific journals, newspapers, magazines, and documents. In the discussion, several things are presented: the definition and purpose of sentence structure learning, methods, techniques, and how the sentence structure learning media itself. Several methods can be used to learn tarkib: the Qowa'id wa Tarjamah Method (grammar and translation), the question and answer method, and the drill method. The techniques of teaching tarkib are repetition, question and answer, making questions, changing tarkib, perfecting sentences, composing sentences, and matching exercises. The media that can be used are structure cubes, skid boards, and concept maps.