The Effect of Thematic Roles on Pronoun Use and Frequency of Reference Continuation

Goal and source thematic roles have been shown to influence pronoun resolution, an effect that has been linked to the reader’s tendency to focus on the consequences of the event (Stevenson, Crawley, & Kleinman, 1994). Using a story continuation ex-periment, I show that speakers also tend to use pronouns more often for goal entities than source entities. Furthermore, the experiment and a corpus analysis reveal that speakers tend to refer more frequently to goal entities than source entities overall. I use the parallel findings about pronoun use and frequency of reference continuation to argue that referent accessibility is influenced by the comprehender’s estimate of the likelihood that a referent will be continued in the discourse. Pronoun comprehension has been argued to be influenced by the accessibility of potential referents in the discourse representation, which is driven by a number of factors (see Arnold, 1998, for a review). One such factor that has received atten-tion is the thematic roles of discourse referents (e.g., Garnham, Traxler, Oakhill

Enhancing the Effects of Theatre of the Oppressed through Systems Thinking: Reflections on an Applied Workshop

In this essay, we explore the idea that the use of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) techniques in the quest for social justice, transformation, and liberation can be enhanced through application of a skill set called systems thinking. We facilitated a workshop at the 2015 Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed conference in which we presented a brief introductory course in systems thinking, led guided practice using the method, and invited sharing and reflection about the fusion of systems thinking and TO. We explain the workshop in detail, discuss its impact on participants, and offer future directions for considering the important contributions of systems thinking to TO practice

Pivoting a Health Sciences Leisure Reading Collection in a New Direction

Background: The dual pandemics of COVID-19 and racial inequity brought renewed attention to establishing a leisure reading collection in our Health Sciences Library. Such a collection had long been on our wish list, but had never been achievable due to budget constraints. With a renewed University emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion, and an unexpected $5,000 donation, the decision was made to feature books written by patients and medical practitioners of marginalized groups and those offering diverse perspectives on the practice of medicine. This emphasis dovetailed with the Libraries’ Strategic Roadmap goals and the campus’s Wellbeing Priorities. It is hoped that this collection will allow current students to see themselves in their future careers in new and unique ways, and that it will introduce health sciences students to the conversation around implicit bias in medicine early in their careers. Methods: Books chosen for the collection included graphic medicine titles, medical memoirs and reflections, and those emphasizing diversity, equity and inclusion in medicine. The initial titles were selected using the following recommended reading lists: Essential Graphic Medicine: An Annotated Bibliography, the National Network of the Library of Medicine’s Reading Club, and the Medical Library Association Reads selections. Formats included 92 print titles, 42 eBooks, and 10 eAudiobooks. Librarians collaborated with a graphic designer to create marketing materials, including an easel poster, tabletop signage, and an announcement for the online information system used by the University. The collection was also made a “featured collection” in the University’s Overdrive platform. Results: This poster will present and discuss to-date circulation statistics for the collection. Conclusions: Next steps for the collection will be based on actual usage data and title recommendations from library users. Books written by patients and medical practitioners of marginalized groups and those offering diverse perspectives on the practice of medicine will continue to be prioritized

Ureolytic CaCO3 precipitation for immobilization of arsenic in an aquifer system

The objective of this study was to precipitate CaCO3in a groundwater media to reduce dissolved arsenic concentrations. In this study a mixture of ureolytic calcite and aragonite were precipitated using groundwater as the media. Although precipitation of carbonate was successful using Ardkenneth groundwater, arsenic concentrations were not reduced. Ureolytic calcite and aragonite precipitated using broth as the media and resulted in a decrease in arsenic concentrations of up to 88% from the initial 0.7 μg L-1 concentration. Ureolytic carbonate precipitation required the inoculation of ureolytic cultures isolated from groundwater into both the groundwater and broth media. Precipitates in the inoculation experiments were identified using infrared spectroscopy techniques.The decrease in arsenic concentrations in the inoculated urea treated broth samples compared to the groundwater samples was attributed to the greater amounts of precipitate formed in the broth media. The broth had a free Ca(II) concentration of 1300 mg L-1 whereas the Ardkenneth groundwater had a free Ca(II) concentration of 36 to 42 mg L-1. The higher free Ca(II) concentrations in the broth media would account for the higher yield of carbonate precipitate, making Ca(II) concentration a limiting factor in ureolytic CaCO3 remediation techniques. Formation of a visible precipitate required the addition of nitrate to the broth and groundwater samples. The inoculated cultures, being denitrifiers, required a nitrate source. Ca(II) ion concentrations decreased in the different media without the addition of nitrate, but no visible precipitate formed. Laboratory experiments using Ardkenneth groundwater and treatments of 0.03 M urea did not decrease the Ca(II) ion concentrations or reduce arsenic in solution. These results suggest that inoculation with selected ureolytic cultures was needed to optimize the precipitation of CaCO3 in a natural groundwater system. The results of this study suggest that arsenic was reduced by the precipitation of ureolytic CaCO3. Arsenic reduced by ureolytic CaCO3 precipitation required adequate levels of Ca(II) ions, higher than those found in the Ardkenneth aquifer. Successful precipitation of CaCO3 by ureolytic organisms also required an adequate cell density. Thus, inoculation with ureolytic cultures optimized the broth and groundwater media for CaCO3 precipitation

The effects of utterance timing and stimulation of left prefrontal cortex on the production of referential expressions

We examined the relationship between the timing of utterance initiation and the choice of referring expressions, e.g., pronouns (it), zeros (…and went down), or descriptive NPs (the pink pentagon). We examined language production in healthy adults, and used anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to test the involvement of the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) on the timing of utterance production and the selection of reference forms in a discourse context. Twenty-two subjects (11 anodal, 11 sham) described fast-paced actions, e.g. The gray oval flashes, then it moves right 2 blocks. We only examined trials in contexts that supported pronoun/zero use. For sham participants, pronouns/zeros increased on trials with longer latencies to initiate the target utterance, and trials where the previous trial was short. We argue that both of these conditions enabled greater message pre-planning and greater discourse connectedness: The strongest predictor of pronoun/zero usage was the presence of a connector word like and or then, which was also tended to occur on trials with longer latencies. For the anodal participants, the latency effect disappeared. PFC stimulation appeared to enable participants to produce utterances with greater discourse connectedness, even while planning incrementally

Does pre-planning explain why predictability affects reference production?

How does thematic role predictability affect reference production? This study tests a planning facilitation hypothesis – that the predictability effect on reference form can be explained in terms of the time course of utterance planning. In a discourse production task, participants viewed two sequential event pictures, listened to a description of the first picture (depicting a transfer event between two characters), and then provided a description of the second picture (continuing with one thematic role character, either goal or source). We replicated previous findings that goal continuations lead to more reduced forms of reference and shorter latency to begin speaking than source continuations. Additionally, we tracked speakers’ eye movements in two periods of utterance planning, early vs. late. We found that 1) early pre-planning supports the use of reduced forms but is not affected by thematic role; 2) thematic role only affects late planning; and 3) in contrast with our hypothesis, planning does not account for predictability effects on reduced forms. We then speculate that discourse connectedness drives the thematic role predictability effect on reference form choice

Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Executive Functioning in Musicians and Non-Musicians

Executive functions (EF) are cognitive capacities that allow for planned, controlled behavior and strongly correlate with academic abilities. Several extracurricular activities have been shown to improve EF, however, the relationship between musical training and EF remains unclear due to methodological limitations in previous studies. To explore this further, two experiments were performed; one with 30 adults with and without musical training and one with 27 musically trained and untrained children (matched for general cognitive abilities and socioeconomic variables) with a standardized EF battery. Furthermore, the neural correlates of EF skills in musically trained and untrained children were investigated using fMRI. Adult musicians compared to non-musicians showed enhanced performance on measures of cognitive flexibility, working memory, and verbal fluency. Musically trained children showed enhanced performance on measures of verbal fluency and processing speed, and significantly greater activation in pre-SMA/SMA and right VLPFC during rule representation and task-switching compared to musically untrained children. Overall, musicians show enhanced performance on several constructs of EF, and musically trained children further show heightened brain activation in traditional EF regions during task-switching. These results support the working hypothesis that musical training may promote the development and maintenance of certain EF skills, which could mediate the previously reported links between musical training and enhanced cognitive skills and academic achievement

Auswirkung von Sport auf die Harninkontinenz bei jungen Athletinnen : Teilprojekt des Forschungsprojekts „pelvisuisse-Toilette“

Die Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Blasenschwäche schätzt, dass weltweit über 200 Millionen Menschen an ungewolltem Urinverlust leiden. Da sich viele Patienten ihrer Krankheit wegen schämen, wird von einer massiv höheren Dunkelziffer ausgegangen. Aus der Angst die Toilette nicht rechtzeitig erreichen zu können, erfolgen sozial isolierte Lebensformen. Die Bachelorarbeit nähert sich dem Thema Harninkontinenz sowohl aus einer theoretischen wie auch praktischen Perspektive. In theoretischen Teil untersuchten Petra Egli und Jennifer Arnold eine je spezifische Gruppe von Betroffenen. Vorliegend wird dargestellt, wie sich Sport auf die Harninkontinenz junger Athletinnen auswirken kann. Die Aufarbeitung wissenschaftlicher Studien dazu legt nahe, dass Sport mit hoher intraabdominaler Druckerzeugung die Harnkontinenz negativ beeinflussen kann. Spezifisches Beckenbodentraining stellt jedoch eine mögliche Form der Kompensation von Harninkontinenz bei Athletinnen dar, obwohl signifikante Erhebungen für eine Qualifizierung bislang noch ausstehen. Über die effizientesten Trainingsmethoden für eine Stärkung des Beckenbodenmuskels wird durch ein Interview mit einer Fachperson Aufschluss gegeben. Der Verein pelvisuisse möchte in Zusammenarbeit mit der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Blasenschwäche Betroffene ins soziale Leben reintegrieren. Dazu erarbeiteten Egli und Arnold ein Netzwerk von öffentlichen Toiletten in Zürich für Personen mit Harninkontinenz, das in eine Stadtkarte übertragen wurde. Das Ziel von diesem Forschungsprojekt war doppelt angelegt: Die Anbieter für die Thematik der Harninkontinenz zu sensibilisieren als auch konkret Abhilfe für die Betroffenen zu schaffen