Metaphor in texts about climate change

This article discusses the use of metaphors and metonyms in texts about climate change in different registers, with a particular focus on the information given to young people, and what they understand about the topic. It begins by considering the role of metaphorical thinking and language in science, and reviews some of the work on scientific metaphor in expert and popular genres. The article analyses the different functions of metaphors in two texts about anthropogenic climate change from different genres, arguing that in the popular text analysed, metaphors tend to have the function of entertaining and dramatizing, and introducing and concluding (interpersonal and textual), as opposed to their informational (ideational) function in the research article that was analysed. I then discuss a corpus and discourse analysis of young people’s talk about climate change. The young people’s use of figurative language is compared with that of researchers and educationalists. The analysis finds that, as is consistent with work on scientific popularisations, written texts for non-specialists tend to ‘open up’, in Knudsen’s (2003) terms experts’ metaphors, extending them creatively. I found that on occasion this seems to lead to, or reflect, misunderstandings of the underlying science. I also find that young people reference Arctic and Antarctic animals as symbols of the problem of climate change

Metaphors of climate science in three genres: research articles, educational texts, and secondary school student talk

Experts are generally in agreement that anthropogenic climate change is happening and will increase in severity, but this view is not clearly reflected in more non-specialist texts. Research has shown that school students have a limited and sometimes faulty understanding of climate change. Metaphors are used by scientists in developing thought and communicating with non-scientists; they are also used by educators. This research investigates students’ understandings of climate change by comparing metaphor use in three corpora, of research articles, student educational materials, and of transcribed interviews with school students aged 11–16 from the north of England. We find that some metaphors are shared by the three corpora; where this happens, the researchers’ use tends to be highly conventionalized and technical, while educational materials extend and explore metaphors, and the students’ use is still more creative, sometimes resulting in inaccurate descriptions of the science. Students also develop some of their own distinctive metaphors based on their immediate concrete experience, and possibly on visual educational materials; these metaphors convey highly simplified and often inaccurate understandings of climate science

Using corpus methods to identify subject specific uses of polysemous words in English secondary school science materials

This is a working paper that has been accepted for publication in Corpora, https://www.euppublishing.com/loi/cor

The Victorian anti-vaccination discourse corpus (VicVaDis): construction and exploration

This article introduces and explores the 3.5-million-word Victorian Anti-Vaccination Discourse Corpus (VicVaDis). The corpus is intended to provide a (freely accessible) historical resource for the investigation of the earliest public concerns and arguments against vaccination in England, which revolved around compulsory vaccination against smallpox in the second half of the 19th century. It consists of 133 anti-vaccination pamphlets and publications gathered from 1854 to 1906, a span of 53 years that loosely coincides with the Victorian era (1837–1901). This timeframe was chosen to capture the period between the 1853 Vaccination Act, which made smallpox vaccination for babies compulsory, and the 1907 Act that effectively ended the mandatory nature of vaccination. After an overview of the historical background, this article describes the rationale, design and construction of the corpus, and then demonstrates how it can be exploited to investigate the main arguments against compulsory vaccination by means of widely accessible corpus linguistic tools. Where appropriate, parallels are drawn between Victorian and 21st-century vaccine-hesitant attitudes and arguments. Overall, this article demonstrates the potential of corpus analysis to add to our understanding of historical concerns about vaccination

Variation in pre-PCR processing of FFPE samples leads to discrepancies in BRAF and EGFR mutation detection: a diagnostic RING trial.

Aims Mutation detection accuracy has been described extensively; however, it is surprising that pre-PCR processing of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples has not been systematically assessed in clinical context. We designed a RING trial to (i) investigate pre-PCR variability, (ii) correlate pre-PCR variation with EGFR/BRAF mutation testing accuracy and (iii) investigate causes for observed variation. Methods 13 molecular pathology laboratories were recruited. 104 blinded FFPE curls including engineered FFPE curls, cell-negative FFPE curls and control FFPE tissue samples were distributed to participants for pre-PCR processing and mutation detection. Follow-up analysis was performed to assess sample purity, DNA integrity and DNA quantitation. Results Rate of mutation detection failure was 11.9%. Of these failures, 80% were attributed to pre-PCR error. Significant differences in DNA yields across all samples were seen using analysis of variance (p<0.0001), and yield variation from engineered samples was not significant (p=0.3782). Two laboratories failed DNA extraction from samples that may be attributed to operator error. DNA extraction protocols themselves were not found to contribute significant variation. 10/13 labs reported yields averaging 235.8ng (95% CI 90.7 to 380.9) from cell-negative samples, which was attributed to issues with spectrophotometry. DNA measurements using Qubit Fluorometry demonstrated a median fivefold overestimation of DNA quantity by Nanodrop Spectrophotometry. DNA integrity and PCR inhibition were factors not found to contribute significant variation. Conclusions In this study, we provide evidence demonstrating that variation in pre-PCR steps is prevalent and may detrimentally affect the patient's ability to receive critical therapy. We provide recommendations for preanalytical workflow optimisation that may reduce errors in down-stream sequencing and for next-generation sequencing library generation

Coumarins and pyranocoumarins, potential novel pharmacophores for inhibition ofmeasles virus replication

A series of coumarin and pyranocoumarin analogues were evaluated in vitro for antiviral efficacy against measles virus (MV), strain Chicago. Of the 22 compounds tested for inhibition, six were found to have selectivity indices greater than 10. These were compounds 5-hydroxy-7-propionyloxy- 4-propylcoumarin (2a), 5,7-bis(tosyloxy)-4- propylcoumarin (7); 5-hydroxy-4-propyl-7-tosyloxy- coumarin (8); 6,6-dimethyl-9-propionyloxy-4- propyl-2H,6H-benzo[1,2-b:3,4-b′]dipyran-2-one (9); 6,6-dimethyl-9-pivaloyloxy-4-propyl-2H,6Hbenzo[ 1,2-b:3,4-b′]dipyran-2-one (10); and 7,8-cis- 10,11,12-trans-4-propyl-6,6,10,11-tetramethyl- 7,8,9-trihydroxy-2H,6H,12H-benzo[1,2-b:3,4-b′:5,6- b′′]tripyran-2-one (18). Three of the active drugs were propyl coumarin analogues (2a, 7 and 8), two were dipyranone or chromeno-coumarins (9 and 10), and one was a benzotripyranone with a coumarin nucleus (18). Some appeared to be rather specific and potent inhibitors of MV with EC50 values ranging from 0.2 to 50 μg/ml and the majority of the EC50 values being less than 5 μg/ml. The compounds inhibited an additional nine strains of MV, and in virucidal tests the drugs did not physically disrupt the virion to inhibit virus replication. The inhibitory activity for one of the compounds tested (7) was somewhat dependent on virus concentration and it was still active when added to cells up to 24 h after virus exposure. When used in combination with ribavirin, compound 7 appeared not to profoundly affect the antiviral efficacy of ribavirin or its cell-associated toxicity. However, a slightly antagonistic MVinhibitory effect was observed at the highest concentration of ribavirin used in combination with most concentrations of compound 7 tested. This and related compounds may be valuable leads in the development of a potent and selective class of MV inhibitors that could be used in future in the clinic

'I feel like I am being stabbed by a thousand tiny men’: The challenges of communicating endometriosis pain

Endometriosis, as a widespread gynecological condition, affects an estimated 1 in 10 women and yet has a worldwide average diagnosis length of 7.5 years. Causing incapacitating pain, among other associated manifestations, the condition severely impacts on women’s lives. This article uses online survey data to investigate how pre-diagnosis endometriosis pain is conceptualized and articulated in order to explore communication challenges reported in early consultations that can potentially be seen to play a role in diagnosis delay. The findings of this study indicate that women feel that they do not have the appropriate tools to describe their pain and, in many instances, feel dismissed therefore prolonging diagnosis. The article finds that the majority of the pain descriptors identified use elaborate metaphorical scenarios to convey the intensity of the pain and concludes with some reflections on the issue of metaphorical language in endometriosis pain communication practices while calling for interdisciplinary work in order to devise appropriate tools for endometriosis pain communication