Prescription drug brand Web sites: Guidance where none exists

This paper applies insights from linguistics and discourse analysis to prescription drug brand Web sites, with special reference to the 100 top-selling drugs. Such sites give the outward appearance of being a place to go for straightforward information about a specific brand. In reality, they present a confused mix of brand information, health information and hype, muddled organization, and poor indication of authority, creating an imbalance between benefit and risk content. In so doing, they breach the letter and spirit of the regulations governing direct-to-consumer advertising, which the FDA has by default applied to such Web sites but which were not designed for this special type of discourse. The many communicative difficulties proven to be caused by Web sites in general, in particular for the elderly and less literate, also pose ethical problems. A rethinking of the verbal and visual design of these drug sites is needed -- and new regulatory guidance, for which this paper offers recommendations. At stake is not just the quality of health information at brand drug sites but also their credibility

Young African American and Latino Children in High-Poverty Urban Schools: How They Perceive School Climate

This article reports findings of a study of third-graders\u27 perceptions of school climate, a key variable of the Comer School Development Program. A self-report survey was individually administered to 1,000 African American and 260 Latino children participating in an evaluation of the Comer process; data were factor-analyzed. African American children viewed teacher-child relations as the most important dimension of school climate. For them, besides acknowledging best efforts, caring teachers listened to children and were available to comfort and help with school and personal problems. Latino children stressed teacher fairness, caring, and praise for effort as well as the importance of moral order. Both groups emphasized following school rules and performing well, values consistent with the Comer process

The human controller : usability and accessibility in video game interfaces

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-43).Despite the advances in user interfaces and the new gaming genres, not all people can play all games - disabled people are frequently excluded from game play experiences. On the one hand this adds to the list of discriminations disabled people face in our society, while on the other hand actively including them potentially results in games that are better for everyone. The largest hurdle to involvement is the user interface, or how a player interacts with the game. Analyzing usability and adhering to accessibility design principles makes it both possible and practical to develop fun and engaging game user interfaces that a broader range of the population can play. To demonstrate these principles we created AudiOdyssey, a PC rhythm game that is accessible to both sighted and non-sighted audiences. By following accessibility guidelines we incorporated a novel combination of features resulting in a similar play experience for both groups. Testing AudiOdyssey yielded useful insights into which interface elements work and which don't work for all users. Finally a case is made for considering accessibility when designing future versions of gaming user interfaces, and speculative scenarios are presented for what such interfaces might look like.by Eitan M. Glinert.M.Eng

A generative study of peripheral categories in modern Hebrew.

We apply generative techniques to Modern Hebrew peripheral categories - a term more accurate, to our mind, than the traditional "adverbial". We focus on three aspects that we consider particularly- suited to three descriptive devices forming part of a uniform theory of syntax; base rules, transformations and rules of semantic interpretation. First we attempt to state the expansions of peripheral categories in the base, within an interpretive framework as in Jackendoff (1972), testing and modifying the Lexicalist Hypothesis of Chomsky (1970a) so as to assess the similarities of the major nodes. We then examine the deep structure of the traditional "adverbial clause". Using the interpretive transformationalist technique of, e.g., Hasegawa (1972), we derive certain such clauses from relative structure; and in seeking semantic motivation, we reanalyse derivations proposed for English "adverbial clauses" by Ross (1967a), Huddleston (1968) and Geis (1970), arguing for the existence of 'false ambiguities' of the kind criticised by Stockwell et al.(1973). Finally, we evaluate rival transformational and pure semantic accounts of some elliptical peripheral structures in Hebrew, tentatively formulating a rule of semantic interpretation for 'before' and 'after' expressions and relating this to interpretive rules for Comparative and Coordinative structures

The dynamics of syntax acquisition: facilitation between syntactic structures

This paper sets out to show how facilitation between different clause structures operates over time in syntax acquisition. The phenomenon of facilitation within given structures has been widely documented, yet inter-structure facilitation has rarely been reported so far. Our findings are based on the naturalistic production corpora of six toddlers learning Hebrew as their first language. We use regression analysis, a method that has not been used to study this phenomenon. We find that the proportion of errors among the earliest produced clauses in a structure is related to the degree of acceleration of that structure's learning curve; that with the accretion of structures the proportion of errors among the first clauses of new structures declines, as does the acceleration of their learning curves. We interpret our findings as showing that learning new syntactic structures is made easier, or facilitated, by previously acquired ones

Guarding the Tongue: A thematic analysis of gossip control strategies among orthodox Jewish women

This article describes the views and experiences of Strictly-Orthodox Jewish women with respect to the metapragmatic ethos of Shmiras HaLoshon (monitoring one's talk, literally 'guarding the tongue'). Eight extended interviews were conducted with Strictly-Orthodox women and teenagers in London, and salient themes were identified, namely: A. Loshon Hora ('evil talk') is the prime exemplar of bad talk. B. Loshon Hora is the hardest (one of the hardest) things to avoid, because it is so easy to do. C. The perceived consequences of Loshon Hora are very serious D. Great caution/various strategies are employed in order to not speak Loshon Hora E. Perceived gender differences exist in proneness to speak Loshon Hora. F. One is reponsible for monitoring others. G. Young children can be(come) aware of the issues. Subjects appeared to take this aspect of religious observance very seriously, and were taking active steps to promote observance. Social desirability bias may be an inappropriate concept for explaining our participants' behaviour. It is also suggested that the perceived importance of Shmiras HaLoshon may be important in helping to maintain community cohesion and preventing conflicts, by improving respect for privacy and reputation in a community where gossip is attractive but divisive

Multilingual Repertoire Management and Illocutionary Functions in Yiddish Signage in Manchester

Drawing on a corpus of annotated images that capture the linguistic landscape of a residential neighbourhood in Greater Manchester (UK) with a large Hasidic-Haredi (so-called ‘ultra-Orthodox’) Jewish population, we show how choices within a multilingual repertoire are both indicative and constitutive of different communicative acts and illocutions. Written Yiddish is embedded into an established tradition of literacy where creativity is accompanied by authoritative citations from Hebrew scripture. We discuss the use of Yiddish in affective, appellative, mobilising, regulatory and prohibitive actions. Semi-public use of written Yiddish is directed at participants who share a repertoire of closely intertwined social, religious and linguistic practices. Unlike many other lesser-used languages, the use of Yiddish in Haredi communities is not restricted to indexical identity flagging or commodification purposes. We show how in this multilingual setting, the indexical ordering of languages on written artefacts does not represent a hierarchy of absolute valorisation but rather a complementarity of functions that draws on simultaneous activation of several repertoire components

Great Aunt Edna's vase: metaphor use in working with heritage language families

This article explores the use of a particular metaphor—Great Aunt Edna’s Vase—as a means to facilitating multilingual families in contextualizing and engaging with complex emotional connections as linked to language, identity, and belonging. Building from the premise that language is linked to the construction of identity, but that individual family members will have different views and opinions on the heritage language within this context, this article highlights the use of metaphors in family work, before introducing the metaphor of Great Aunt Edna’s Vase and situating it in relevant literature around language, heritage, and identity. The concepts introduced add to the existing body of literature in addressing the growing need for work specifically aimed at multilingual families, in a globally ever-more-diverse society, highlighting the links between language and well-being, and making a contribution to the global knowledge necessary for practitioners and families to explore these links successfully