Sound comparisons: a new online database and resource for research in phonetic diversity

Sound Comparisons hosts over 90,000 individual word recordings and 50,000 narrow phonetic transcriptions from 600 language varieties from eleven language families around the world. This resource is designed to serve researchers in phonetics, phonology and related fields. Transcriptions follow new initiatives for standardisation in usage of the IPA and Unicode. At soundcomparisons.com, users can explore the transcription datasets by phonetically-informed search and filtering, customise selections of languages and words, download any targeted data subset (sound files and transcriptions) and cite it through a custom URL. We present sample research applications based on our extensive overage of regional and sociolinguistic variation within major languages, and also of endangered languages, for which Sound Comparisons provides a rapid first documentation of their diversity in phonetics. The multilingual interface and user-friendly, ‘hover-tohear’ maps likewise constitute an outreach tool, where speakers can instantaneously hear and compare the phonetic diversity and relationships of their native languages

Sound comparisons: A new online database and resource for research in phonetic diversity

Sound Comparisons hosts over 90,000 individual word recordings and 50,000 narrow phonetic transcriptions from 600 language varieties from eleven language families around the world. This resource is designed to serve researchers in phonetics, phonology and related fields. Transcriptions follow new initiatives for standardisation in usage of the IPA and Unicode. At soundcomparisons.com, users can explore the transcription datasets by phonetically-informed search and filtering, customise selections of languages and words, download any targeted data subset (sound files and transcriptions) and cite it through a custom URL. We present sample research applications based on our extensive overage of regional and sociolinguistic variation within major languages, and also of endangered languages, for which Sound Comparisons provides a rapid first documentation of their diversity in phonetics. The multilingual interface and user-friendly, ‘hover-tohear’ maps likewise constitute an outreach tool, where speakers can instantaneously hear and compare the phonetic diversity and relationships of their native languages

Characterization, Distribution, and Expression of Novel Genes among Eight Clinical Isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae

Eight low-passage-number Streptococcus pneumoniae clinical isolates, each of a different serotype and a different multilocus sequence type, were obtained from pediatric participants in a pneumococcal vaccine trial. Comparative genomic analyses were performed with these strains and two S. pneumoniae reference strains. Individual genomic libraries were constructed for each of the eight clinical isolates, with an average insert size of ∼1 kb. A total of 73,728 clones were picked for arraying, providing more than four times genomic coverage per strain. A subset of 4,793 clones were sequenced, for which homology searches revealed that 750 (15.6%) of the sequences were unique with respect to the TIGR4 reference genome and 263 (5.5%) clones were unrelated to any available streptococcal sequence. Hypothetical translations of the open reading frames identified within these novel sequences showed homologies to a variety of proteins, including bacterial virulence factors not previously identified in S. pneumoniae. The distribution and expression patterns of 58 of these novel sequences among the eight clinical isolates were analyzed by PCR- and reverse transcriptase PCR-based analyses, respectively. These unique sequences were nonuniformly distributed among the eight isolates, and transcription of these genes in planktonic cultures was detected in 81% (172/212) of their genic occurrences. All 58 novel sequences were transcribed in one or more of the clinical strains, suggesting that they all correspond to functional genes. Sixty-five percent (38/58) of these sequences were found in 50% or less of the clinical strains, indicating a significant degree of genomic plasticity among natural isolates

Impacts of Instrumental Versus Relational Centered Logic on Cause-Related Marketing Decision Making

The purpose of cause-related marketing is to capitalise on a firm’s social engagement initiatives to achieve a positive return on a firm’s social investment. This article discusses two strategic perspectives of cause related marketing and their impact on a firm’s decision-making regarding campaign development. The instrumental dominant logic of cause-related marketing focuses on attracting customers’ attention in order to generate sales. The relational dominant logic of cause-related marketing focuses on building relationships with the target stakeholders through the enhancement of a firm’s legitimacy. The combination of these two types of logic gives rise to four types of cause-related marketing: altruistic, commercial, social and integrative. This paper uses the qualitative method to explore a firm’s marketing decision choices regarding campaign-related decision dimensions — campaign duration, geographical scope, cause selection, and implementation strategy — for each type of cause-related marketing. The finding provides theoretical, managerial and public policy implications

Extensive Genomic Plasticity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Revealed by Identification and Distribution Studies of Novel Genes among Clinical Isolates

The distributed genome hypothesis (DGH) states that each strain within a bacterial species receives a unique distribution of genes from a population-based supragenome that is many times larger than the genome of any given strain. The observations that natural infecting populations are often polyclonal and that most chronic bacterial pathogens have highly developed mechanisms for horizontal gene transfer suggested the DGH and provided the means and the mechanisms to explain how chronic infections persist in the face of a mammalian host's adaptive defense mechanisms. Having previously established the validity of the DGH for obligate pathogens, we wished to evaluate its applicability to an opportunistic bacterial pathogen. This was accomplished by construction and analysis of a highly redundant pooled genomic library containing approximately 216,000 functional clones that was constructed from 12 low-passage clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 6 otorrheic isolates and 6 from other body sites. Sequence analysis of 3,214 randomly picked clones (mean insert size, ∼1.4 kb) from this library demonstrated that 348 (10.8%) of the clones were unique with respect to all genomic sequences of the P. aeruginosa prototype strain, PAO1. Hypothetical translations of the open reading frames within these unique sequences demonstrated protein homologies to a number of bacterial virulence factors and other proteins not previously identified in P. aeruginosa. PCR and reverse transcription-PCR-based assays were performed to analyze the distribution and expression patterns of a 70-open reading frame subset of these sequences among 11 of the clinical strains. These sequences were unevenly distributed among the clinical isolates, with nearly half (34/70) of the novel sequences being present in only one or two of the individual strains. Expression profiling revealed that a vast majority of these sequences are expressed, strongly suggesting they encode functional proteins