Mental State Talk by Danish Preschool Children

Sixteen 4 to 6-year-old Danish children were video-recorded, while interacting spontaneously with their family in their homes. The mental state talk of the children was identified and analysed with respect to three mental domains: desire, feeling and cognition, and was compared to data from a similar study carried out with Canadian families (Jenkins et al., 2003). Our results suggest some cross-cultural differences in children’s mental state talk. First, Danish children produce a larger variation of mental state talk words than Canadian children do, and second, the distribution of mental state talk across the three domains differed for the two language groups. Semantic variation between Danish and English was identified in the study, which may partly explain the findings. Furthermore we present a usage-based approach to the investigation of children’s development of psychological categories in language as well as cross-linguistically

Mismatch-Shaped Pseudo-Passive Two-Capacitor DAC

A simple mismatch-shaping scheme is proposed for a two-capacitor DAC. Unlike in other mismatchshaping systems, the shaped error is generated by direct filtering of a well-defined bounded signal, which can be generated as white noise. The operation is closely related to a specific digital interpolation filter, but arbitrary properties of the overall interpolation characteristic can be assured. Simulations indicate that the scheme can be used for the realization of DACs with 16-bit linearity and SNR performance, with only 0.1 % capacitance accuracy. The DAC is pseudo-passive, i.e. an active element is required only to buffer the output signal. Hence, it is potentially a very low-power circuit, suitable for portable applications

Ultra-ortodoksi og pluralisme

One of the central characteristics of the thinking and political practice of Israeli Ultra-Orthodox or Haredim is their rejection of internal Jewish pluralism, an attitude connected to their confrontational strategy towards the cultural aspects of modernity and consequently of modern interpretations of Judaism as found in Reform and Conservative Judaism. The following article is a description and analysis of the treatment of subjects related to Reform and Conservative Judaism in the Haredi press in particular in the ‘Lithuanian’ daily newspaper Yated Neeman as well as in the publications of its founder, the late Rabbi Eliezer Menahem Shakh. The subject is often treated extensively in editorials and articles in the Haredi press, when special events in Reform or Conservative communities in or outside Israel are catching the attention of the editorial board or subjects related to these communities arrive at the political agenda of the State of Israel. Series of articles have e.g. been caused by High Court decisions ordering the authorities not to prevent Reform and Conservative representation in the local religious councils or to finance theirs institutions etc. The articles bear the imprint of a strikingly demonizing attitude towards the Non-Orthodox movements. This attitude is derived from the premodern Haredi view that the content of their belies constitutes an absolute truth which has only one legitimate interpretation and that only this particular interpretation rightfully can bear the name Judaism