“First, let’s make a brainstorming” : French EFL learners’ use and awareness of Anglicisms

textMany French EFL (English as a foreign language) learners may be aware of the origin of anglicisms (loanwords from English) and may thus attempt to use these words in English. However, changes in meaning, phonology, and syntax, etc., during the integration of a loanword into the borrowing language create the potential for error in such efforts. This report reviews relevant research and theory on language transfer, vocabulary knowledge, metacognition, and lexical borrowing as factors that bear light on this type of transfer. It then presents two studies, one with French EFL learners and one with EFL teachers in France. Results suggest that anglicisms do cause errors in the English of French learners, that learners are generally aware of anglicisms and of the possible difference in meaning between the French and the English words, and, finally, that this awareness does not necessarily lead to correct usage of such words.Foreign Language Educatio

Parsing for prosody: What a text-to-speech system needs from syntax

The authors describe an experimental text-to-speech system that uses a syntactic parser and prosody rules to determine prosodic phrasing for synthesized speech. It is shown that many aspects of sentence analysis that are required for other parsing applications, e.g., machine translation and question answering, become unnecessary in parsing for text-to-speech. It is possible to generate natural-sounding prosodic phrasing by relying on information about syntactic category type, partial constituency, and length; information about clausal and verb phrase constituency, predicate-argument relations, and prepositional phrase attachment can be bypassed

ARIDA: An Arabic Interlanguage Database and Its Applications: A Pilot Study

This paper describes a pilot study in which we collected a small learner corpus of Arabic, developed a tagset for error-annotation of Arabic learner data, tagged the data for error 1, and performed simple Computer-aided Error Analysis (CEA)

Annotating an Arabic Learner Corpus for Error

This paper describes an ongoing project in which we are collecting a learner corpus of Arabic, developing a tagset for error annotation and performing Computer-aided Error Analysis (CEA) on the data. We adapted the French Interlanguage Database FRIDA tagset (Granger, 2003a) to the data. We chose FRIDA in order to follow a known standard and to see whether the changes needed to move from a French to an Arabic tagset would give us a measure of the distance between the two languages with respect to learner difficulty. The current collection of texts, which is constantly growing, contains intermediate and advanced-level student writings. We describe the need for such corpora, the learner data we have collected and the tagset we have developed. We also describe the error frequency distribution of both proficiency levels and the ongoing work

The Dichotomy of Vascular Smooth Muscle Differentiation/De- Differentiation in Health and Disease

Vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) are thought to display cellular plasticity by alternating between a quiescent ‘contractile’ differentiated phenotype and a proliferative ‘synthetic’ de-differentiated phenotype in response to induction of distinct developmental pathways or to local micro-environmental cues. This classic de-differentiation and re-programming process is associated with a significant loss in the expression of key SMC differentiation marker genes for a large number of proliferative vascular diseases in vivo and in sub-cultured cells in vitro. Regarded as essential for vascular regeneration and repair in vivo, phenotypic modulation represents a critical target for therapeutic intervention. However, recent evidence now suggests that this process of vascular regeneration may also involve differentiation of resident vascular stem cells and the accumulation of stem cell-derived myogenic, osteochondrogenic and macrophage-like phenotypes within vascular lesions in vivo and across sub-cultured SMC cell populations in vitro. This review summarises our current knowledge of vascular regeneration, de-differentiation and re-programming of vascular SMCs, and focuses on the accumulating evidence of a putative role for stem cell-derived progeny and the evolving dichotomy of the origin of SMC-like cells during intimal-medial thickening and the progression of arteriosclerotic disease

"I have the strength to get through this using my past experiences with HIV": findings from a mixed-method survey of health outcomes, service accessibility, and psychosocial wellbeing among people living with HIV during the Covid-19 pandemic

We examined the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the wellbeing and access to care among people living with HIV (PLWH) in the UK. A cross-sectional anonymous online survey was circulated to PLWH attending care at three HIV services in Sussex. The questionnaire covered key themes: socio-demographic characteristics; changes in physical and mental health; accessibility of essential health services and information; and socio-economic concerns. Free-text qualitative responses were examined through framework analysis. Quantitative data from 653 respondents were available, with a subset of 385 free-text qualitative responses. In terms of mental health, 501 (77.6%) respondents reported feeling more anxious; 464 (71.8%) reported feeling more depressed than usual; and 128 (19.8%) reported having suicidal thoughts since the start of the pandemic. Respondents worried about running out of HIV medicine (n = 264, 40.7%); accessing HIV services (n = 246, 38.0%) as well as other health services (n = 408, 63.0%). Widespread resilience was also noted: 537 (83.3%) of respondents felt that living with HIV had equipped them with the strength to adapt to the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings highlight important gaps between the multifaceted needs of PLWH. Multisectoral collaborations and investments are needed to adequately support PLWH and to build resilience to future shocks within HIV services

Perceptions, experiences, and beliefs regarding urinary tract infections in patients with neurogenic bladder: A qualitative study.

Although urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common in patients with neurogenic bladder (NB), limited data exist on UTI perceptions, experiences, and beliefs in these patients. We recruited adults with NB due to spinal cord injury/disorder (SCI/D) or multiple sclerosis (MS) at three Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers to participate in 11 virtual focus groups. Audio transcripts were coded using a mixed approach with primary deductive codes linked to the Health Belief Model, and secondary inductive codes informed by grounded theory. Twenty-three Veterans (SCI/D, 78%; MS, 18.5%) participated between May 2021 and May 2022. Participants' perspectives, experiences, and beliefs about UTI were reflected in three major themes: 1) influence of caregivers; 2) influence of the healthcare environment and provider characteristics; and 3) barriers and facilitators to care. Caregivers promoted care-seeking behavior, enabled in-home care, and enhanced participants' self-efficacy to understand educational material. Participants had poor perceptions of providers who were not knowledgeable about NB or ineffectively communicated. Good relationships with providers who knew the participant well improved self-efficacy to follow provider recommendations. These results suggest that patient-centered interventions to improve UTI management in this population should expand caregiver involvement, enhance patient-provider communication, and target provider types and care settings that lack familiarity with NB

The calcium binding protein S100β marks hedgehog-responsive resident vascular stem cells within vascular lesions

A hallmark of subclinical atherosclerosis is the accumulation of vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC)-like cells leading to intimal thickening. While medial SMCs contribute, the participation of hedgehog-responsive resident vascular stem cells (vSCs) to lesion formation remains unclear. Using transgenic eGFP mice and genetic lineage tracing of S100β vSCs in vivo, we identified S100β/ Sca1 cells derived from a S100β non-SMC parent population within lesions that co-localise with smooth muscle α-actin (SMA) cells following iatrogenic flow restriction, an effect attenuated following hedgehog inhibition with the smoothened inhibitor, cyclopamine. In vitro, S100β/Sca1 cells isolated from atheroprone regions of the mouse aorta expressed hedgehog signalling components, acquired the di-methylation of histone 3 lysine 4 (H3K4me2) stable SMC epigenetic mark at the Myh11 locus and underwent myogenic differentiation in response to recombinant sonic hedgehog (SHh). Both S100β and PTCH1 cells were present in human vessels while S100β cells were enriched in arteriosclerotic lesions. Recombinant SHh promoted myogenic differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived S100β neuroectoderm progenitors in vitro. We conclude that hedgehog-responsive S100β vSCs contribute to lesion formation and support targeting hedgehog signalling to treat subclinical arteriosclerosis

Functioning of Coastal River-Dominated Ecosystems and Implications for Oil Spill Response: From Observations to Mechanisms and Models

Coastal river-dominated oceans are physically complex, biologically productive, and intimately connected to human socioeconomic activity. The Deepwater Horizon blowout and subsequent advection of oil into coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) highlighted the complex linkages among oceanographic processes within this river-dominated system and knowledge gaps about it that resulted in imprecise information on both oil transport and ecosystem consequences. The interdisciplinary research program implemented through the CONsortium for oil exposure pathways in COastal River-Dominated Ecosystems (CONCORDE) is designed to identify and quantitatively assess key physical, biological, and geochemical processes acting in the nGOM, in order to provide the foundation for implementation of a synthesis model (coupled circulation and biogeochemistry) of the nGOM shelf system that can ultimately aid in prediction of oil spill transport and impacts. CONCORDE field and modeling efforts in 2015–2016 focused on defining the influence of freshwater input from river plumes in the nGOM. In situ observations, combined with field-deployed and simulated drifters, show considerable variability in the spatial extent of freshwater influence that is related to wind direction and strength. Increased primary production and particle abundance (a proxy for secondary production) was observed during the spring when nGOM shelf waters were becoming stratified. Zooplankton and marine snow displayed intense vertical and horizontal patchiness during all seasons, often aggregating near the halocline. Simulations of a neutrally buoyant tracer released offshore of the Mississippi Bight showed surface advection of low tracer concentrations onto the inner shelf under high river discharge, high stratification, and variable wind conditions compared to almost no advection onto the inner shelf under low discharge, negligible stratification, and generally northeasterly winds. The interconnectedness of environmental variables and biological activity indicate that multiple factors can affect the transport of oil and the resulting ecological impacts. The process-oriented understanding provided by CONCORDE is necessary to predict ecosystem-level impacts of oil spills, and these results are applicable to other river-dominated coastal systems worldwide that often support oil extraction activities

Proceedings of Patient Reported Outcome Measure’s (PROMs) Conference Oxford 2017: Advances in Patient Reported Outcomes Research

A33-Effects of Out-of-Pocket (OOP) Payments and Financial Distress on Quality of Life (QoL) of People with Parkinson’s (PwP) and their Carer