Operationalising and measuring language dominance

The paper offers a new way to measure language ability in bilinguals, based on measures of lexical richness. The validity of proposed approach is tested in a variety of ways

Diamond (111) surface reconstruction and epitaxial graphene interface

The evolution of the diamond (111) surface as it undergoes reconstruction and subsequent graphene formation is investigated with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, low energy electron diffraction, and complementary density functional theory calculations. The process is examined starting at the C(111)-(2x1) surface reconstruction that occurs following detachment of the surface adatoms at 920 {\deg}C, and continues through to the liberation of the reconstructed surface atoms into a free-standing monolayer of epitaxial graphene at temperatures above 1000 {\deg}C. Our results show that the C(111)-(2x1) surface is metallic as it has electronic states that intersect the Fermi-level. This is in strong agreement with a symmetrically {\pi}-bonded chain model and should contribute to resolving the controversies that exist in the literature surrounding the electronic nature of this surface. The graphene formed at higher temperatures exists above a newly formed C(111)-(2\times1) surface and appears to have little substrate interaction as the Dirac-point is observed at the Fermi-level. Finally, we demonstrate that it is possible to hydrogen terminate the underlying diamond surface by means of plasma processing without removing the graphene layer, forming a graphene-semiconductor interface. This could have particular relevance for doping the graphene formed on the diamond (111)surface via tuneable substrate interactions as a result of changing the terminating species at the diamond-graphene interface by plasma processing.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Individualized decision aid for diverse women with lupus nephritis (IDEA-WON): A randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundTreatment decision-making regarding immunosuppressive therapy is challenging for individuals with lupus. We assessed the effectiveness of a decision aid for immunosuppressive therapy in lupus nephritis.Methods and findingsIn a United States multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled trial (RCT), adult women with lupus nephritis, mostly from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds with low socioeconomic status (SES), seen in in- or outpatient settings, were randomized to an individualized, culturally tailored, computerized decision aid versus American College of Rheumatology (ACR) lupus pamphlet (1:1 ratio), using computer-generated randomization. We hypothesized that the co-primary outcomes of decisional conflict and informed choice regarding immunosuppressive medications would improve more in the decision aid group. Of 301 randomized women, 298 were analyzed; 47% were African-American, 26% Hispanic, and 15% white. Mean age (standard deviation [SD]) was 37 (12) years, 57% had annual income of <$40,000, and 36% had a high school education or less. Compared with the provision of the ACR lupus pamphlet (n = 147), participants randomized to the decision aid (n = 151) had (1) a clinically meaningful and statistically significant reduction in decisional conflict, 21.8 (standard error [SE], 2.5) versus 12.7 (SE, 2.0; p = 0.005) and (2) no difference in informed choice in the main analysis, 41% versus 31% (p = 0.08), but clinically meaningful and statistically significant difference in sensitivity analysis (net values for immunosuppressives positive [in favor] versus negative [against]), 50% versus 35% (p = 0.006). Unresolved decisional conflict was lower in the decision aid versus pamphlet groups, 22% versus 44% (p < 0.001). Significantly more patients in the decision aid versus pamphlet group rated information to be excellent for understanding lupus nephritis (49% versus 33%), risk factors (43% versus 27%), medication options (50% versus 33%; p ≤ 0.003 for all); and the ease of use of materials was higher in the decision aid versus pamphlet groups (51% versus 38%; p = 0.006). Key study limitations were the exclusion of men, short follow-up, and the lack of clinical outcomes, including medication adherence.ConclusionsAn individualized decision aid was more effective than usual care in reducing decisional conflict for choice of immunosuppressive medications in women with lupus nephritis.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov, NCT02319525

A North Atlantic tephrostratigraphical framework for 130-60 ka b2k:new tephra discoveries, marine-based correlations, and future challenges

Building chronological frameworks for proxy sequences spanning 130–60 ka b2k is plagued by difficulties and uncertainties. Recent developments in the North Atlantic region, however, affirm the potential offered by tephrochronology and specifically the search for cryptotephra. Here we review the potential offered by tephrostratigraphy for sequences spanning 130–60 ka b2k. We combine newly identified cryptotephra deposits from the NGRIP ice-core and a marine core from the Iceland Basin with previously published data from the ice and marine realms to construct the first tephrostratigraphical framework for this time-interval. Forty-three tephra or cryptotephra deposits are incorporated into this framework; twenty three tephra deposits are found in the Greenland ice-cores, including nine new NGRIP tephras, and twenty separate deposits are preserved in various North Atlantic marine sequences. Major, minor and trace element results are presented for the new NGRIP horizons together with age estimates based on their position within the ice-core record. Basaltic tephras of Icelandic origin dominate the framework with only eight tephras of rhyolitic composition found. New results from marine core MD99-2253 also illustrate some of the complexities and challenges of assessing the depositional integrity of marine cryptotephra deposits. Tephra-based correlations in the marine environment provide independent tie-points for this time-interval and highlight the potential of widening the application of tephrochronology. Further investigations, however, are required, that combine robust geochemical fingerprinting and a rigorous assessment of tephra depositional processes, in order to trace coeval events between the two depositional realms

Erasmus Language students in a British University – a case study

Students’ assessment of their academic experience is actively sought by Higher Education institutions, as evidenced in the National Student Survey introduced in 2005. Erasmus students, despite their growing numbers, tend to be excluded from these satisfaction surveys, even though they, too, are primary customers of a University. This study aims to present results from bespoke questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with a sample of Erasmus students studying languages in a British University. These methods allow us insight into the experience of these students and their assessment as a primary customer, with a focus on language learning and teaching, university facilities and student support. It investigates to what extent these factors influence their levels of satisfaction and what costs of adaptation if any, they encounter. Although excellent levels of satisfaction were found, some costs affect their experience. They relate to difficulties in adapting to a learning methodology based on a low number of hours and independent learning and to a guidance and support system seen as too stifling. The results portray this cohort’s British University as a well-equipped and well-meaning but ultimately overbearing institution, which may indicate that minimising costs can eliminate some sources of dissatisfaction

Doubly charged silicon vacancy center, Si-N complexes, and photochromism in N and Si codoped diamond

Diamond samples containing silicon and nitrogen are shown to be heavily photochromic, with the dominant visible changes due to simultaneous change in total SiV0/− concentration. The photochromism treatment is not capable of creating or destroying SiV defects, and thus we infer the presence of the optically inactive SiV2− . We measure spectroscopic signatures we attribute to substitutional silicon in diamond, and identify a silicon-vacancy complex decorated with a nearest-neighbor nitrogen SiVN, supported by theoretical calculations

Complex systems and applied linguistics

This book introduces and develops the potential of complex systems as a metaphor or supra-theory for systems in applied linguistics. Change and heterogeneity are central to complex systems theory and to the resonances that we find between complex systems and applied linguistics systems. The book explores these resonances and what happens when complex systems theory is used to make sense of central areas of applied linguistic concerns: language, language learning, discourse and the language classroom. Principles of complex systems theory are explained, drawing on work that has been most developed in the biological sciences and that is being extended into the social sciences, developmental psychology and other applied disciplines. These principles importantly include descriptions of change over time (system dynamics) that work for all levels and scales: movement from temporary and relative stability through adaptive behaviours and self-organisation to the emergence of new patterns that are not amenable to reductive explanations. Seeing applied systems as complex, adaptive and dynamic opens up new conceptualisations of properties and activities, enables new questions about how people use, learn and teach languages, and demands new ways of investigating behaviour and development

The threshold hypothesis revisited: bilingual lexical knowledge and non-verbal IQ development

The threshold hypothesis (Cummins 1976 et passim) is one of the most influential theoretical frameworks on the relation between bilingualism and cognition. The aim of our study is to contribute towards an operationalisation of the threshold hypothesis. We analyse data from 100 Turkish-English successive bilingual children and from their parents, and investigate the relation between bilingualism and cognition. When compared with monolingual control groups, the bilinguals in our study have smaller vocabulary sizes in both languages. However, when both vocabularies are taken together and the total conceptual vocabulary is computed no bilingual disadvantage can be identified. Children with parental support for L1 outperform the monolingual control groups in our study in terms of non-verbal intelligence scores. The originality of the present study resides in the fact that, to our knowledge, for the first time parental support for L1 and dominance in L1 is linked to the cognitive development of the children

‘Lower than a Snake’s Belly’ : Discursive Constructions of Dignity and Heroism in Low-Status Garbage Work

In this paper, we consider how dignity is discursively constructed in the context of work dominated by physicality and dirt. Based on semi-structured interviews with garbage workers, our analysis considers how the deprivations they experience are cast through discourses intended to construct their individual and collective worth. We consider the manner in which dignity maybe denied to such workers through popular repudiations of individuality and status. We demonstrate how this positioning arises from contact with physical dirt, and associations with socially dirty work based on ascriptions of servility, abuse and ambivalence. We go on to consider how garbage workers respond to this positioning through discourses of ‘everyday heroism’. Heroism is evoked through three interrelated narratives that speaks to a particular type of masculinity. The first takes the form of a classic process of reframing and recalibration through which workers not only renegotiate their public position and status, but also point to the inherent value to be had in working with dirt as part of that which we identify as a process of ‘affirmation’. The second narrative arises from the imposition of favourable social and occupational comparisons that effectively elevate garbage collectors’ social position. The third discourse—and previously unobserved in respect of garbage work—centres on paternalistic practices of care. Combined, these discourses disrupt the generally held view that dirty work is antithetical to heroism and wounds dignity

‘Lower than a snake’s belly’ : discursive constructions of dignity and heroism in low-status garbage work.

In this paper, we consider how dignity is discursively constructed in the context of work dominated by physicality and dirt. Based on semi-structured interviews with garbage workers, our analysis considers how the deprivations they experience are cast through discourses intended to construct their individual and collective worth. We consider the manner in which dignity maybe denied to such workers through popular repudiations of individuality and status. We demonstrate how this positioning arises from contact with physical dirt, and associations with socially dirty work based on ascriptions of servility, abuse and ambivalence. We go on to consider how garbage workers respond to this positioning through discourses of ‘everyday heroism’. Heroism is evoked through three inter-related narratives that speaks to a particular type of masculinity. The first takes the form of a classic process of reframing and recalibration through which workers not only renegotiate their public position and status, but also point to the inherent value to be had in working with dirt as part of that which we identify as a process of ‘affirmation’. The second narrative arises from the imposition of favourable social and occupational comparisons that effectively elevate garbage collectors’ social position. The third discourse—and previously unobserved in respect of garbage work—centres on paternalistic practices of care. Combined, these discourses disrupt the generally held view that dirty work is antithetical to heroism and wounds dignity