The Influence of Language Ideologies on Education in Trinidad and Tobago

Our research aims to answer the question, what are the language ideologies of Trinidadian and Tobagonians, and how does this reflect the use and teaching of Standard English? Defined briefly, language ideologies are beliefs about languages and language users based on social, political, economic, and cultural experiences held by a population. This question can be answered, at least in part by determining the relationship between dialects, linguistic influences, Creoles, and the use of English outside the classroom. We’ll examine the differences between the effect of generation, region, education, and other social status variables that may alter the ideologies of English as a standard language. Our research will provide insight on which language presides as the standard for native speakers, especially in educational contexts, as well as explore the various confines that English and Creole based dialects reside and overlap throughout both islands and a single country. It is important to look at how ideologies and the spread of English affect countries implementing English in education around the world. This feeds information into the question, how do language ideologies affect the power dynamics between dialects and forms of English? Through this research we are able to look at suppression or revival of native languages or dialects, English education on a global scale, and the importance of language variation. The essential questions of our research are: What are the language ideologies held by residents of the islands? How does the use of English in schools affect discourse and dialect/ creole variations inside and outside the academic setting

Using GPS and GIS Technology to Track Rabbit Damage in a Southern California Nursery

Cottontail rabbits cause serious damage to ornamental plant production in Southern California. We used a 300-acre Southern California tree nursery as a cottontail CDFA vertebrate pest study site. We evaluated the relationship between nursery practices and the incidence of rabbit damage. GPS technology in combination with GIS software was employed to map and ascribe descriptive characteristics to the growing practices within each nursery bed. To understand the pattern of rabbit damage to irrigation, handheld GPS units were utilized by nursery staff conducting irrigation repair to assess damage caused by vertebrate pests. The waypoints taken by the irrigators superimposed on the map of the nursery had numerous benefits to the study, including demonstrating which growing conditions were most vulnerable to rabbit damage and elucidating if measures to reduce rabbit damage were successful. The same methodology may be helpful to researchers in many IPM fields

Using GPS and GIS Technology to Track Rabbit Damage in a Southern California Nursery

Cottontail rabbits cause serious damage to ornamental plant production in Southern California. We used a 300-acre Southern California tree nursery as a cottontail CDFA vertebrate pest study site. We evaluated the relationship between nursery practices and the incidence of rabbit damage. GPS technology in combination with GIS software was employed to map and ascribe descriptive characteristics to the growing practices within each nursery bed. To understand the pattern of rabbit damage to irrigation, handheld GPS units were utilized by nursery staff conducting irrigation repair to assess damage caused by vertebrate pests. The waypoints taken by the irrigators superimposed on the map of the nursery had numerous benefits to the study, including demonstrating which growing conditions were most vulnerable to rabbit damage and elucidating if measures to reduce rabbit damage were successful. The same methodology may be helpful to researchers in many IPM fields

Characterizing and Averting Cottontail Rabbit Damage in a Southern California Nursery

Cottontail rabbits are a serious problem in Southern California. Of particular concern is the damage they do to ornamental plant and tree nurseries. Rabbit browsing reduces plant quality, kills containerized plants, and damages irrigation systems. Although anticoagulant baiting for cottontail rabbits is legal in California, growers should also consider multiple integrated tactics for rabbit damage control. This project employed GPS mapping technology to locate the occurrence of rabbit damage and correlate it with irrigation type, container, planting density, canopy width, and canopy height. GPS was also used to monitor the impact of experimental strategies to reduce rabbit damage. Strategies to reduce rabbit damage included the use of protective covers on irrigation tubing, exclusionary fencing, and trapping. Radiotelemetry was used to confirm the location of suspected rabbit harborages within the nursery. GPS results indicate that 1.27 to 1.9-cm (½ to ¾-in)-diameter irrigation line covers were effective in reducing rabbit damage to the irrigation system. Exclusionary fencing using erosion-control silt fencing acted as an excellent temporary barrier to protect individual growing areas and groups of planting beds, but it was found to be impractical for many nursery situations. Rabbit catch rates increased when traps were used in conjunction with drift fences. General tactics recommended to container nurseries based on these study results include: protecting and modifying irrigation systems, use of exclusionary fencing, trapping in conjunction with drift fencing, and modifying known rabbit harborages where possible

Characterizing and Averting Cottontail Rabbit Damage in a Southern California Nursery

Cottontail rabbits are a serious problem in Southern California. Of particular concern is the damage they do to ornamental plant and tree nurseries. Rabbit browsing reduces plant quality, kills containerized plants, and damages irrigation systems. Although anticoagulant baiting for cottontail rabbits is legal in California, growers should also consider multiple integrated tactics for rabbit damage control. This project employed GPS mapping technology to locate the occurrence of rabbit damage and correlate it with irrigation type, container, planting density, canopy width, and canopy height. GPS was also used to monitor the impact of experimental strategies to reduce rabbit damage. Strategies to reduce rabbit damage included the use of protective covers on irrigation tubing, exclusionary fencing, and trapping. Radiotelemetry was used to confirm the location of suspected rabbit harborages within the nursery. GPS results indicate that 1.27 to 1.9-cm (½ to ¾-in)-diameter irrigation line covers were effective in reducing rabbit damage to the irrigation system. Exclusionary fencing using erosion-control silt fencing acted as an excellent temporary barrier to protect individual growing areas and groups of planting beds, but it was found to be impractical for many nursery situations. Rabbit catch rates increased when traps were used in conjunction with drift fences. General tactics recommended to container nurseries based on these study results include: protecting and modifying irrigation systems, use of exclusionary fencing, trapping in conjunction with drift fencing, and modifying known rabbit harborages where possible

Kifuliiru Language Structures

This poster provides a preliminary description of the linguistic features of Kifuliiru, a minority language of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and of several refugee families in the Boise area. Kifuliiru is characterized as an Atlantic-Congo, Narrow Bantu language (D63) within the Niger-Congo language family, currently spoken by around 400,000 people. Over the course of a semester, our group has met with native speakers of Kifuliiru to document key phonological, semantic, morphological, and syntactic features of the language. Our analyses of these features, along with audio and video recordings, serves theoretical linguistics with new language data for analysis and anthropological linguistics with a window into Kifuliiru culture. Our project also serves the Kifuliiru community in the diaspora by providing documentation and archived recordings of the language for future generations to access. One goal for the community is to develop teaching materials to support others interested in learning the language

Prosodic Encoding of Sexuality in the Speech Patterns of Gay and Straight Men

Several studies have been designed to analyze the differences between gay and straight speech in males. Among them, Gaudio (1994) reported little difference in fluctuation in pitch and pitch range between the two populations from read text. This led him to conclude that sexuality could either be encoded by other features in their speech (i.e. /s/-fronting or “gay lisp”), or that differences in pitch could only appear in more naturally occurring speech. This poster reports on a sociophonetic study that builds on Gaudio (1994), addressing the latter concern by analyzing speech from different experimental tasks: each participant read aloud from a script, told a story from a picture book with no words, and recalled something funny that had happened to them recently. In a pilot study, two participants (one gay, one straight) were recorded performing each of the tasks in a sound-attenuated booth using a digital recorder. Praat phonetic analysis software was used to measure the pitch (fundamental frequency; F0), fluctuations in F0, and F0 range in each phrase produced by the participants. A preliminary analysis of the results supports Gaudio’s conclusions, providing further evidence that pitch fluctuation and pitch range are not indicative of male sexual identity

Safety and Immunogenicity of Pfs25-EPA/Alhydrogel^®, a Transmission Blocking Vaccine against <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i>: An Open Label Study in Malaria Naïve Adults

<div><p>Transmission-blocking vaccines (TBVs) that target sexual stage parasite development could be an integral part of measures for malaria elimination. Pfs25 is a leading TBV candidate, and previous studies conducted in animals demonstrated an improvement of its functional immunogenicity after conjugation to EPA, a recombinant, detoxified ExoProtein A from <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. In this report, we describe results of an open-label, dose-escalating Phase 1 trial to assess the safety and immunogenicity of Pfs25-EPA conjugates formulated with Alhydrogel^®. Thirty malaria-naïve healthy adults received up to four doses of the conjugate vaccine, with 8, 16, or 47 μg of conjugated Pfs25 mass, at 0, 2, 4, and 10 months. Vaccinations were generally well tolerated. The majority of solicited adverse events were mild in severity with pain at the injection site the most common complaint. Anemia was the most common laboratory abnormality, but was considered possibly related to the study in only a minority of cases. No vaccine-related serious adverse events occurred. The peak geometric mean anti-Pfs25 antibody level in the highest dose group was 88 (95% CI 53, 147) μg/mL two weeks after the 4^th vaccination, and declined to near baseline one year later. Antibody avidity increased over successive vaccinations. Transmission blocking activity demonstrated in a standard membrane feeding assay (SMFA) also increased from the second to the third dose, and correlated with antibody titer and, after the final dose, with antibody avidity. These results support the further evaluation of Pfs25-EPA/Alhydrogel^® in a malaria-endemic population.</p></div