Measuring linguistic complexity in long-term L2 speakers of English and L1 attriters of German

Linguistic complexity is neither easily defined nor measured. The challenge in finding reliable ways to measure linguistic complexity is even more pronounced when the variation of contexts in which complexity is measured is taken into account. This paper therefore aims at finding measures for assessing syntactic and lexical complexity that are sensitive and non-overlapping even in a less frequently studied context: spontaneous speech of L1 attriters and highly proficient L2 English speakers. To evaluate operationalizations of syntactic and lexical complexity, several previously proposed measures are applied to a corpus of spontaneous speech and a principal component analysis is conducted. The results show which of the measures group together as underlying variables of syntactic and lexical complexity and how this can inform future operationalizations of complexity

Immunosuppression of Syrian golden hamsters accelerates relapse but not the emergence of resistance in Leishmania infantum following recurrent miltefosine pressure

Although miltefosine (MIL) has only been approved for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in 2002, its application in monotherapy already led to the development of two confirmed MIL-resistant isolates by 2009. Although liposomal amphotericin B is recommended as first-line treatment in Europe, MIL is still occasionally used in HIV co-infected patients. Since their immune system is incapable of controlling the infection, high parasite burdens and post-treatment relapses are common. Linked to the particular pharmacokinetic profile of MIL, successive treatment of recurrent relapses could in principle facilitate the emergence of drug resistance.This study evaluated the effect of immunosuppression (cyclophosphamide 150 mg/kg once weekly) on the development of MIL-resistance in Syrian golden hamsters infected with Leishmania infantum. The hamsters were treated with MIL (20 mg/kg orally for 5 days) whenever clinical signs of infection or relapse were observed. The immunosuppression resulted in a significant depletion of CD4+ lymphocytes and MHCII-expressing cells in peripheral blood, and a concomitant increase in tissue parasite burdens and shorter time to relapse, but the strain's susceptibility upon repeated MIL exposure remained unaltered. This study demonstrates that immunosuppression accelerates the occurrence of relapse without expediting MIL resistance development. Keywords: immunosuppression, Hamster VL model, Resistance, Miltefosin

On cross‐linguistic variation and measures of linguistic complexity in learner texts: Italian, French and English

The paper investigates possible effects of cross‐linguistic variation on measures of syntactic complexity in 60 texts from Swedish L1 learners of English, French and Italian as foreign languages at CEFR level A and CEFR level B. A previous study on the same learners and texts, showed significant differences between proficiency levels for two length measures of complexity in English and French, but not in Italian. In this paper we hypothesize that due to the Null Subject property of Italian, the developmental prediction for some complexity measures might be different in Italian compared to French and English. In fact, previous research has suggested that beginner learners of Italian overuse overt subjects which might lead to higher scores, relatively speaking, of length measures in Italian at the lowest levels of proficiency. However, contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find more Null subjects at CEFR level B than at CEFR level A, but we did find clear restrictions on their distribution. We conclude that we are a long way from understanding how cross‐linguistic differences interact with other variables such as tasks and language combinations and what the effects might be on measures of syntactic complexity

Percentage of nonoverlapping corrected data

The present study proposes a modification in one of the most frequently applied effect size procedures in single-case data analysis the percent of nonoverlapping data. In contrast to other techniques, the calculus and interpretation of this procedure is straightforward and it can be easily complemented by visual inspection of the graphed data. Although the percent of nonoverlapping data has been found to perform reasonably well in N = 1 data, the magnitude of effect estimates it yields can be distorted by trend and autocorrelation. Therefore, the data correction procedure focuses on removing the baseline trend from data prior to estimating the change produced in the behavior due to intervention. A simulation study is carried out in order to compare the original and the modified procedures in several experimental conditions. The results suggest that the new proposal is unaffected by trend and autocorrelation and can be used in case of unstable baselines and sequentially related measurements