Grambank reveals the importance of genealogical constraints on linguistic diversity and highlights the impact of language loss

While global patterns of human genetic diversity are increasingly well characterized, the diversity of human languages remains less systematically described. Here we outline the Grambank database. With over 400,000 data points and 2,400 languages, Grambank is the largest comparative grammatical database available. The comprehensiveness of Grambank allows us to quantify the relative effects of genealogical inheritance and geographic proximity on the structural diversity of the world's languages, evaluate constraints on linguistic diversity, and identify the world's most unusual languages. An analysis of the consequences of language loss reveals that the reduction in diversity will be strikingly uneven across the major linguistic regions of the world. Without sustained efforts to document and revitalize endangered languages, our linguistic window into human history, cognition and culture will be seriously fragmented.Genealogy versus geography Constraints on grammar Unusual languages Language loss Conclusio

The Influence of Parasite Infections on Host Immunity to Co-Infection with Other Pathogens

Parasites have evolved a wide range of mechanisms that they use to evade or manipulate the host's immune response and establish infection. The majority of the in vivo studies that have investigated these host-parasite interactions have been undertaken in experimental animals, especially rodents, which were housed and maintained to a high microbiological status. However, in the field situation it is increasingly apparent that pathogen co-infections within the same host are a common occurrence. For example, chronic infection with pathogens including malarial parasites, soil-transmitted helminths, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and viruses such as HIV may affect a third of the human population of some developing countries. Increasing evidence shows that co-infection with these pathogens may alter susceptibility to other important pathogens, and/or influence vaccine efficacy through their effects on host immune responsiveness. Co-infection with certain pathogens may also hinder accurate disease diagnosis. This review summarizes our current understanding of how the host's immune response to infection with different types of parasites can influence susceptibility to infection with other pathogenic microorganisms. A greater understanding of how infectious disease susceptibility and pathogenesis can be influenced by parasite co-infections will enhance disease diagnosis and the design of novel vaccines or therapeutics to more effectively control the spread of infectious diseases

Cluster Education in Progress: Cluster Composition

Cluster Composition is in the third year of a three year pilot offering a new model for teaching first year writing. This session will focus on the success, progress, and challenge associated with moving PSU\u27s largest single course toward the cluster education methods evolving on campus. Faculty and staff will be invited to discuss the teaching of writing and new cluster connections for writing that we might explore. Attendees should bring their expectations, ideas, and observations to share during this highly interactive session

Storms of tears : Emotion metaphors and the construction of gender in East Lynne

Despite the fact that the consequences of emotional actions are a central theme in British nineteenth-century sensation fiction, studies of the genre have generally focused on thrilling and socially disruptive elements of the genre. Attention to descriptions of transgressive behaviour and in particular women’s violations of patriarchal norms has enabled interpretations that endow the genre with a feminist agenda. Reading the novels with a focus on how emotions are represented, however, demonstrates an underlying patriarchal pattern that limits the potential for feminist interpretations. This article focuses on the clusters of metaphors used to express emotion in Ellen Wood’s sensation novel East Lynne(1861–1862). Close readings of text examples in combination with analyses of metaphorical expressions highlight the novel’s ideological ambiguities and ambivalences concerning gender and emotion