The influence of children's exposure to language from two to six years: the case of nonword repetition

Nonword repetition (NWR) is highly predictive of vocabulary size, has strong links to language and reading ability, and is a clinical marker of language impairment. However, it is unclear what processes provide major contributions to NWR performance. This paper presents a computational model of NWR based on Chunking Lexical and Sub-lexical Sequences in Children (CLASSIC) that focuses on the child’s exposure to language when learning lexical phonological knowledge. Based on language input aimed at 2–6 year old children, CLASSIC shows a substantial fit to children’s NWR performance for 6 different types of NWR test across 6 different NWR studies that use children of various ages from 2;1 to 6;1. Furthermore, CLASSIC’s repetitions of individual nonwords correlate significantly with children’s repetitions of the same nonwords, NWR performance shows strong correlations to vocabulary size, and interaction effects seen in the model are consistent with those found in children. Such a fit to the data is achieved without any need for developmental parameters, suggesting that between the ages of two and six years, NWR performance measures the child’s current level of linguistic knowledge that arises from their exposure to language over time and their ability to extract lexical phonological knowledge from that exposure

Exploring Experiences with Social Inclusion, Food Security and Housing Among People Living with HIV: A Qualitative Analysis

Background: This two-phase study explored the impact of the social determinants of health on people living with HIV (PLWH) in Waterloo Region, Ontario, in partnership with the AIDS Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo Area (ACCKWA). Phase 1 explored broader experiences related to social inclusion, food security, and housing. Phase 2 expanded into decision-making and navigating challenges related to these experiences. Methods: Participants were eligible to be a part of the study if they were an ACCKWA service user living with HIV over the age of 18. The samples per phase included 9 and 11 participants, respectively, who participated in semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and coded for themes using NVivo software. Results: Each phase supported previous research related to food, transportation, housing, and social challenges. Key themes identified in both phases included challenges related to food, housing, transportation, and social life. Separately, Phase 1 and Phase 2 found themes of resilience and strategic thinking, respectively. Our findings suggested a high prevalence of misinformation related to HIV and the absence of structural resources, forcing PLWH to be resilient, and make decisions about their life and health strategically. Conclusion: Our study suggests that as PLWH demonstrate resilience, society's responsibility to protect disadvantaged populations is diminished. Through the allocation of funding towards food and housing, and educational campaigns, structural support can be established to facilitate the improvement of resources

Ways of Knowing and Becoming: Learning Together in a Graduate Course on Interdisciplinarity

Developing as a scholar is a critical aspect of graduate school. In this article, we use an autoethnographic approach to explore our experiences in a newly redeveloped interdisciplinary graduate course. The course was designed to emphasize interdisciplinary scholarship and to encourage students’ awareness of their own developing epistemological, ontological, and axiological commitments. In this paper, we identify themes that arose from the final class paper, in which the students/researchers reflected on our development as emerging scholars. Through this course we developed an understanding of the value of interdisciplinarity, the cultural embeddedness of knowledge, and our own responsibilities as researchers in relation to social structures of power and marginalization. Our analyses of our experiences suggests that reflections on our own positionality and axiology are important for developing our identities as emerging scholars and that becoming a scholar may be more about the process than an end goal. We conclude with a discussion of how our learning in this course may be relevant for other instructors and emerging scholars.

Modes de connaissance et de devenir : apprendre ensemble dans un cours de cycle supérieur sur l’interdisciplinarité

Developing as a scholar is a critical aspect of graduate school. In this article, we use an autoethnographic approach to explore our experiences in a newly redeveloped interdisciplinary graduate course. The course was designed to emphasize interdisciplinary scholarship and to encourage students’ awareness of their own developing epistemological, ontological, and axiological commitments. In this paper, we identify themes that arose from the final class paper, in which the students/researchers reflected on our development as emerging scholars. Through this course we developed an understanding of the value of interdisciplinarity, the cultural embeddedness of knowledge, and our own responsibilities as researchers in relation to social structures of power and marginalization. Our analyses of our experiences suggests that reflections on our own positionality and axiology are important for developing our identities as emerging scholars and that becoming a scholar may be more about the process than an end goal. We conclude with a discussion of how our learning in this course may be relevant for other instructors and emerging scholars. Le développement en tant que chercheur/chercheuse est un aspect essentiel des études supérieures. Dans cet article, nous utilisons une approche auto-ethnographique pour explorer notre expérience dans un cours interdisciplinaire de cycle supérieur nouvellement révisé. Le cours a été conçu pour souligner la recherche interdisciplinaire et pour encourager la sensibilisation des étudiants et des étudiantes à leurs propres engagements épistémologiques, ontologiques et axiologiques. Dans cet article, nous identifions les thèmes qui ont émergé du travail de classe final, dans lequel les étudiants/chercheurs et les étudiantes/chercheuses se sont penchés sur leur développement en tant que nouveaux chercheurs et nouvelles chercheuses. Par le biais de ce cours, nous avons développé une compréhension de la valeur de l’interdisciplinarité, de l’enracinement culturel de la connaissance et de nos propres responsabilités en tant que chercheurs/chercheuses en relation avec les structures sociales du pouvoir et de la marginalisation. L’analyse de nos expériences suggère que les réflexions sur notre propre position et notre propre axiologie sont importantes pour développer nos identités en tant que nouveaux chercheurs et nouvelles chercheuses et que le fait de devenir un chercheur ou une chercheuse est peut-être davantage un processus qu’un objectif final. Nous concluons avec une discussion sur la manière dont notre apprentissage dans ce cours pourrait être pertinent pour d’autres instructeurs/instructrices et pour les nouveaux chercheurs et les nouvelles chercheuses

Suppression of hedgehog signalling promotes pro-tumourigenic integrin expression and function

Aberrant Hedgehog (Hh) signalling has been reported in a number of malignancies, particularly basal cell carcinoma (BCC) of the skin. Clinical trials of Hh inhibitors are underway in many cancers, and these have produced significant clinical benefit in BCC patients, although regrowth of new, or clinically aggressive, variants, as well as development of secondary malignancies, has been reported. ?v?6 integrin is expressed in many cancers, where it has been shown to correlate with an aggressive tumour phenotype and poor prognosis. We have previously reported ?v?6 up-regulation in aggressive, morphoeic BCC variants, where it modulates the stromal response and induces invasion. To examine a possible link between Hh and ?v?6 function, we generated BCC models, overexpressing Gli1 in immortalized keratinocytes (NTert1, HaCaT). Unexpectedly, we found that suppressing Gli1 significantly increased ?v?6 expression. This promoted tumour cell motility and also stromal myofibroblast differentiation through integrin-dependent TGF-?1 activation. Gli1 inhibited ?v?6 expression by suppressing TGF-?1-induced Smad2/3 activation, blocking a positive feedback loop maintaining high ?v?6 levels. A similar mechanism was observed in AsPC1 pancreatic cancer cells expressing endogenous Gli1, suggesting a common mechanism across tumour types. In vitro findings were supported using human clinical samples, where we showed an inverse correlation between ?v?6 and Gli1 expression in different BCC subtypes and pancreatic cancers. In summary, we show that expression of Gli1 and ?v?6 inversely correlates in tumours in vivo, and Hh targeting up-regulates TGF-?1/Smad2/3-dependent ?v?6 expression, promoting pro-tumourigenic cell functions in vitro. These results have potential clinical significance, given the reported recurrence of BCC variants and secondary malignancies in patients treated by Hh targeting