Differences in English Compliment Responses Between Native English Speakers and Chinese English Learners

This research discusses the compliment responses of Chinese-speaking English learners in the United States by using the conversation analysis methods. I compared the examples collected for this study to Pomerantz’s (1978) data for compliment responses made by native speakers of American English. The participants were sixteen Chinese ESL learners. The primary result was that some compliment responses used by Chinese-speaking English learners were similar to those of native speakers of American English. Most of the time, Chinese-speaking English learners chose to accept the compliments with or without referent shifts. Even though they sometimes chose to disagree with the speaker, they would incorporate other-than-you references in their expressions. Nevertheless, Chinese-speaking English learners used “really?” or “oh really?” as one of their responses, which is quite different from American English

Early detection of breast cancer rectifies inequality of breast cancer outcomes

Objectives To explain apparent differences among mammography screening services in Sweden using individual data on participation in screening and with breast cancer-specific survival as an outcome.Methods We analysed breast cancer survival data from the Swedish Cancer Register on breast cancer cases from nine Swedish counties diagnosed in women eligible for screening. Data were available on 38,278 breast cancers diagnosed and 4312 breast cancer deaths. Survival to death from breast cancer was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier estimate, for all cases in each county, and separately for cases of women participating and not participating in their last invitation to screening. Formal statistical comparisons of survival were made using proportional hazards regression.Results All counties showed a reduction in the hazard of breast cancer death with participation in screening, but the reductions for individual counties varied substantially, ranging from 51% (95% confidence interval 46-55%) to 81% (95% confidence interval 74-85%). Survival rates in nonparticipating women ranged from 53% (95% confidence interval 40-65%) to 74% (95% confidence interval 72-77%), while the corresponding survival in women participating in screening varied from 80% (95% confidence interval 77-84%) to 86% (95% confidence interval 83-88%), a considerably narrower range.Conclusions Differences among counties in the effect of screening on breast cancer outcomes were mainly due to variation in survival in women not participating in screening. Screening conferred similarly high survival rates in all counties. This indicates that the performance of screening services was similar across counties and that detection and treatment of breast cancer in early-stage reduces inequalities in breast cancer outcome.</div