Do Nurses Use Discourse Markers Differently when Using Their Second Language as Opposed to Their First while Interviewing Patients?

This study examined whether discourse-marker use changes in nurse-patient interactions as a function of nurses using their first (L1) or second (L2) language. Discourse markers were analyzed as turn-maintenance markers that indicate acknowledgement and discourse-shift markers that signal shifts of a topic or speaker in the conversation. These two categories differ in terms of degree of discourse management and interactional control. Sixteen nurses conducted a pain-assessment interview with a patient native speaker of English and with a patient native speaker of French, where the nurses used their own L1 in one case and their own weaker L2 in the other. The first hypothesis, that nurses would generally use discourse markers more frequently in the L1 than in the L2, was not supported. The second hypothesis, that nurses would use discourse-shift markers less frequently in their L2 compared to the L1, relative to their (baseline) use of turn-maintenance markers, was supported. The findings, especially the support for the second hypothesis, could have implications for the development of L2 training for health practitioners.</p

Limit on Bs0B^0_s oscillation using a jet charge method

A lower limit is set on the B_{s}^{0} meson oscillation parameter \Delta m_{s} using data collected from 1991 to 1994 by the ALEPH detector. Events with a high transverse momentum lepton and a reconstructed secondary vertex are used. The high transverse momentum leptons are produced mainly by b hadron decays, and the sign of the lepton indicates the particle/antiparticle final state in decays of neutral B mesons. The initial state is determined by a jet charge technique using both sides of the event. A maximum likelihood method is used to set a lower limit of \, \Delta m_{s}. The 95\% confidence level lower limit on \Delta m_s ranges between 5.2 and 6.5(\hbar/c^{2})~ps^{-1} when the fraction of b quarks from Z^0 decays that form B_{s}^{0} mesons is varied from 8\% to 16\%. Assuming that the B_{s}^{0} fraction is 12\%, the lower limit would be \Delta m_{s} 6.1(\hbar/c^{2})~ps^{-1} at 95\% confidence level. For x_s = \Delta m_s \, \tau_{B_s}, this limit also gives x_s 8.8 using the B_{s}^{0} lifetime of \tau_{B_s} = 1.55 \pm 0.11~ps and shifting the central value of \tau_{B_s} down by 1\sigma

Measurement of the Bs0^0_s lifetime and production rate with Ds−l+^-_s l^+ combinations in Z decays

The lifetime of the \bs meson is measured in approximately 3 million hadronic Z decays accumulated using the ALEPH detector at LEP from 1991 to 1994. Seven different \ds decay modes were reconstructed and combined with an opposite sign lepton as evidence of semileptonic \bs decays. Two hundred and eight \dsl candidates satisfy selection criteria designed to ensure precise proper time reconstruction and yield a measured \bs lifetime of \mbox{\result .} Using a larger, less constrained sample of events, the product branching ratio is measured to be \mbox{\pbrresult