Think-Aloud Protocol Analysis in Translation Studies

Think-Aloud Protocol Analysis in Translation Studies: This paper reports on think-aloud protocol (TAP) research in Finland and Germany. It discusses some methodological issues: choice of subjects, TAPs in a language-learning and in a professional context, monologue and dialogue protocols, the use of models provided by psycholinguistics. Two types of processes - successful and less successful ones - are distinguished and specified as to the subjects' comprehension and reverbalisation processes, their focus of attention, decision-making, monitoring, flexibility, creative thinking and attitude toward the task. Some tentative results of the research going on in Germany and Finland are presented. The results are expected to serve as hypotheses for the teaching of translation.L'analyse par « Think-Aloud Protocol » en traductologie — Cet article rend compte d'une recherche en traduction menée en Finlande et en Allemagne selon le protocole de l'analyse « à haute voix » (TAP). Il aborde certains points de méthode : le choix des sujets, les TAP en apprentissage des langues et en contexte professionnel, les protocoles par monologue et par dialogue, l'utilisation de modèles issus de la psycholinguistique. On distingue deux types de processus - certains réussissant mieux que d'autres - du point de vue de la compréhension et de la reverbalisation des sujets, du point de vue de la focalisation de l'attention, de la prise de décision, du contrôle, de la souplesse, de la pensée créatrice et de l'attitude face au travail. Sont présentés certains résultats provisoires de la recherche menée en Allemagne et en Finlande. Ces résultats sont susceptibles de servir d'hypothèses en didactique de la traduction

How Criminal Code Drafting Form Can Restrain Prosecutorial and Legislative Excesses: Consolidated Offense Drafting

Solving criminal justice problems typically requires the enactment of new rules or the modification of existing ones. But there are some serious problems that can best be solved simply by altering the way in which the existing rules are drafted rather than by altering their content. This is the case with two of the most serious problems in criminal justice today: the problem of overlapping criminal offenses that create excessive prosecutorial charging discretion and the problem of legislative inconsistency and irrationality in grading offenses. After examining these two problems and demonstrating their serious effects in perverting criminal justice, the essay proposes a particular method of drafting criminal offenses – consolidated offense drafting – and then shows how this drafting approach is the best and perhaps the only effective means of solving the problems. Potential political resistance to the proposal is discussed

The American Criminal Code: General Defenses

There are fifty-two bodies of criminal law in the United States. Each stakes out often diverse positions on a range of issues. This article defines the “American rule” for each of the issues relating to general defenses, a first contribution towards creating an “American Criminal Code.” The article is the result of a several-year research project examining every issue relating to justification, excuse, and non-exculpatory defenses. It determines the majority American position among the fifty-two jurisdictions, and formulates statutory language for each defense that reflects that majority rule. The article also compares and contrasts the majority position to significant minority positions, to the Model Penal Code, and to the National Commission’s proposed code. Using these results, in focusing on the most controversial justification defense, Defense of Persons, the article then compares patterns among the states on legal issues with a wide range of other variables—such as state population, racial characteristics, violent crime rates, and gun ownership—highlighting many interesting correlations. Applying this kind of doctrinal correlation analysis to all of the project’s existing data would be a major undertaking. The goal here is to show how such analysis can be done, and how interesting the revealed patterns can be

Report of the Delaware Criminal Law Recodification Project

In 1973, during the “first wave” of American criminal law recodification efforts following the publication of the Model Penal Code, Delaware adopted a new criminal code. While it represented a dramatic improvement over the law it replaced, its initial clarity and utility were greatly diminished by subsequent piecemeal legislation. Delaware’s current criminal code is lengthy, inconsistent, and replete with duplicative and outdated offenses that impose disproportional punishments. This process of criminal code deterioration is not unique to Delaware and plagues other U.S. jurisdictions. In 2015, however, stakeholders in Delaware’s criminal justice system initiated a code revision process, commissioning the authors to draft a Proposed Code and commentary to address these issues, and resulting in this Report. By utilizing modern code drafting techniques and other innovations, the Proposed Code comprehensively, yet concisely, states the rules governing criminal liability in Delaware in a way that is easy to read and understand, and responds to twenty-first-century challenges and norms. While focusing on Delaware, the Proposed Code also illustrates how modernized criminal codes could be drafted for other jurisdictions, and can serve as a stimulus and a model for a “second wave” of American criminal law recodifications.The Proposed Code’s primary goals are to ensure proportional punishment and eliminate inconsistencies in current law. To further these objectives it relies on various methods. For instance, it utilizes general grade adjustments – such as felony recidivism, hate crimes, and offenses committed against vulnerable persons – to increase the maximum punishment for any offense in the Special Part. Yet, it carefully limits the number of adjustments that can be applied to a single offense. The Proposed Code also keeps basic offense definitions simple, by regularly employing offense-specific grading provisions to demarcate additional offense elements (in addition to using them to specify maximum punishment). This dual function of grading provisions is also instrumental for consolidating multiple offenses, or degrees of offenses. For instance, the Proposed Code’s assault section consolidates nearly a dozen current law offenses (including three degrees of assault), many of which overlap and conflict. In addition to these methods, the Proposed Code uses numerous substantive and structural code drafting innovations. For example, the Code refines the distinctions between defenses, affirmative defenses, general defenses, and exceptions to liability. Some “affirmative defenses” in current law are actually general defenses, and have been treated as such in the Proposed Code; others have been appropriately converted into exceptions. The remainder has been re-labeled simply as “defenses,” serving the same function as in current law, but without its ambiguities. The Proposed Code also provides a comprehensive index of defined terms in a single section. Each term’s substantive definition, however, appears at the end of the Chapter that either introduces or most heavily relies upon it. Taken together, these features aid in locating and using the Proposed Code’s definitions. Besides, the Code employs descriptive headings, and organizes offense and defense elements using subsections as much as practicable, thereby enhancing readability. Additionally, the Proposed Code attends to contemporary problems not envisioned by current law. For example, the Code addresses present-day activities such as “sexting,” and prevents the unintended possibility of their prosecution as child pornography (a serious felony), limiting liability to a low level misdemeanor. The Code also dispenses with current law’s references to conflicting distributive principles of deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation among its “general purposes.” In combination with the Proposed Code’s focus on proportional grading, this approach is consistent with modern criminal law theory and the first amendment to the Model Penal Code in 2007 that defined desert as its primary distributive principle. Notably, the Code also introduces a novel approach to minimum mandatory punishments, requiring that the predicate offense be committed with at least “knowing” culpability (in addition to other factors, such as relatively high grades and defined categories of offenses). In effect, this requirement “splits” individual offenses requiring lower levels of culpability such as recklessness, and applying minimum punishment only if the offenses were committed knowingly or intentionally. This Report consists of two Volumes. Volume 1 begins with an executive summary, followed by a detailed explanation of the project’s history, the principles guiding the drafting of the Proposed Code, and illustrations of these principles’ function in the context of Delaware criminal law. The heart of Volume 1 is the text of the Proposed Code itself. The final part of Volume 1 contains a Summary Grading Table that groups all offenses covered by the Proposed Code according to their grade, and assists in the evaluation of the Proposed Code’s proportionality judgments. It also contains two “conversion tables” that allow the reader to see how current law relates to the proposed provisions. Volume 2 contains extensive commentary explaining each section of the Proposed Code and addressing the proposed disposition of current law. The authors hope that this Report will prove useful for scholars engaged in recodification projects and jurisdictions considering criminal code revisions. (Subsequent political discussions in Delaware have since altered the proposed Delaware code from what is contained herein.

The American Criminal Code: General Defenses

There are fifty-two bodies of criminal law in the United States. Each stakes out often diverse positions on a range of issues. This article defines the “American rule” for each of the issues relating to general defenses, a first contribution towards creating an “American Criminal Code.” The article is the result of a several-year research project examining every issue relating to justification, excuse, and non-exculpatory defenses. It determines the majority American position among the fifty-two jurisdictions, and formulates statutory language for each defense that reflects that majority rule. The article also compares and contrasts the majority position to significant minority positions, to the Model Penal Code, and to the National Commission’s proposed code. Using these results, in focusing on the most controversial justification defense, Defense of Persons, the article then compares patterns among the states on legal issues with a wide range of other variables—such as state population, racial characteristics, violent crime rates, and gun ownership—highlighting many interesting correlations. Applying this kind of doctrinal correlation analysis to all of the project’s existing data would be a major undertaking. The goal here is to show how such analysis can be done, and how interesting the revealed patterns can be

Medium-size-vessel vasculitis

Medium-size-artery vasculitides do occur in childhood and manifest, in the main, as polyarteritis nodosa (PAN), cutaneous PAN and Kawasaki disease. Of these, PAN is the most serious, with high morbidity and not inconsequential mortality rates. New classification criteria for PAN have been validated that will have value in epidemiological studies and clinical trials. Renal involvement is common and recent therapeutic advances may result in improved treatment options. Cutaneous PAN is a milder disease characterised by periodic exacerbations and often associated with streptococcal infection. There is controversy as to whether this is a separate entity or part of the systemic PAN spectrum. Kawasaki disease is an acute self-limiting systemic vasculitis, the second commonest vasculitis in childhood and the commonest cause of childhood-acquired heart disease. Renal manifestations occur and include tubulointerstitial nephritis and renal failure. An infectious trigger and a genetic predisposition seem likely. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IV-Ig) and aspirin are effective therapeutically, but in resistant cases, either steroid or infliximab have a role. Greater understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms involved in these three types of vasculitis and better long-term follow-up data will lead to improved therapy and prediction of prognosis

The NOX toolbox: validating the role of NADPH oxidases in physiology and disease

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are cellular signals but also disease triggers; their relative excess (oxidative stress) or shortage (reductive stress) compared to reducing equivalents are potentially deleterious. This may explain why antioxidants fail to combat diseases that correlate with oxidative stress. Instead, targeting of disease-relevant enzymatic ROS sources that leaves physiological ROS signaling unaffected may be more beneficial. NADPH oxidases are the only known enzyme family with the sole function to produce ROS. Of the catalytic NADPH oxidase subunits (NOX), NOX4 is the most widely distributed isoform. We provide here a critical review of the currently available experimental tools to assess the role of NOX and especially NOX4, i.e. knock-out mice, siRNAs, antibodies, and pharmacological inhibitors. We then focus on the characterization of the small molecule NADPH oxidase inhibitor, VAS2870, in vitro and in vivo, its specificity, selectivity, and possible mechanism of action. Finally, we discuss the validation of NOX4 as a potential therapeutic target for indications including stroke, heart failure, and fibrosis

Galapagos-OIB signature in southern Central America: mantle refertilization by arc-hot spot interaction

[1] Although most Central American magmas have a typical arc geochemical signature, magmas in southern Central America (central Costa Rica and Panama) have isotopic and trace element compositions with an ocean island basalt (OIB) affinity, similar to the Galapagos-OIB lavas (e.g., Ba/La 10, 206Pb/204Pb > 18.8). Our new data for Costa Rica suggest that this signature, unusual for a convergent margin, has a relatively recent origin (Late Miocene ∼6 Ma). We also show that there was a transition from typical arc magmas (analogous to the modern Nicaraguan volcanic front) to OIB-like magmas similar to the Galapagos hot spot. The geographic distribution of the Galapagos signature in recent lavas from southern Central America is present landward from the subduction of the Galapagos hot spot tracks (the Seamount Province and the Cocos/Coiba Ridge) at the Middle American Trench. The higher Pb isotopic ratios, relatively lower Sr and Nd isotopic ratios, and enriched incompatible-element signature of central Costa Rican magmas can be explained by arc–hot spot interaction. The isotopic ratios of central Costa Rican lavas require the subducting Seamount Province (Northern Galapagos Domain) component, whereas the isotopic ratios of the adakites and alkaline basalts from southern Costa Rica and Panama are in the geochemical range of the subducting Cocos/Coiba Ridge (Central Galapagos Domain). Geological and geochemical evidence collectively indicate that the relatively recent Galapagos-OIB signature in southern Central America represents a geochemical signal from subducting Galapagos hot spot tracks, which started to collide with the margin ∼8 Ma ago. The Galapagos hot spot contribution decreases systematically along the volcanic front from central Costa Rica to NW Nicaragua

Intrinsically Tuning the Electromechanical Properties of Elastomeric Dielectrics:A Chemistry Perspective

Dielectric elastomers have the capability to be used as transducers for actuation and energy harvesting applications due to their excellent combination of large strain capability (100–400%), rapid response (10−3 s), high energy density (10–150 kJ m−3), low noise, and lightweight nature. However, the dielectric properties of non‐polar elastomers such as dielectric permittivity ε r , breakdown strength E b , and dielectric loss ε ″, need to be enhanced for real world applications. The introduction of polar groups or structures into dielectric elastomers through covalently bonding is an attractive approach to ‘intrinsically’ induce a permanent polarity to the elastomers, and can eliminate the poor post‐processing issues and breakdown strength of extrinsically modified materials, which have often been prepared by incorporation of fillers. This review discusses the chemical methods for modification of dielectric elastomers, such as hydrosilylation, thiol‐ene click chemistry, azide click chemistry, and atom transfer radical polymerization. The effects of the type and concentration of polar groups on the dielectric and mechanical properties of the elastomers and their performance in actuation and harvesting systems are discussed. State‐of‐the‐art developments and perspectives of modified dielectric elastomers for deformable energy generators and transducers are provided