Communicating Across Cultures: The Role of Language Interpreters

“Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person\u27s learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning.” Therefore, “Culture is communication; communication is culture” (Tamu, 2001). “The collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from others”’. (Hofstede, 1997). Using Edward Hall and Hofstede’s theories, the study explores why culture is prominent in language interpreting. What are some prominent cultural norms that appear while language interpreting? How do they influence the effectiveness of the translation? The study conducted interviews of language interpreters and summarized the results to provide answers to the questions above

Measuring growth and poverty in Tanzania

Tanzania is not on track to meet its Millennium Development Goals target despite a growth record that – as reported – is impressive. Real GDP growth reached historically high levels between 2000-2006, yet this is set against only the slightest reduction in the poverty rate – from 35.7% in 2001 down to 33.4% in 2007

Aplidin (plitidepsin) is a novel anti-myeloma agent with potent anti-resorptive activity mediated by direct effects on osteoclasts

Despite recent progress in its treatment, Multiple Myeloma (MM) remains incurable and its associated bone disease persists even after complete remission. Thus, identification of new therapeutic agents that simultaneously suppress MM growth and protect bone is an unmet need. Herein, we examined the effects of Aplidin, a novel anti-cancer marine-derived compound, on MM and bone cells. In vitro, Aplidin potently inhibited MM cell growth and induced apoptosis, effects that were enhanced by dexamethasone (Dex) and bortezomib (Btz). Aplidin modestly reduced osteocyte/osteoblast viability and decreased osteoblast mineralization, effects that were enhanced by Dex and partially prevented by Btz. Further, Aplidin markedly decreased osteoclast precursor numbers and differentiation, and reduced mature osteoclast number and resorption activity. Moreover, Aplidin reduced Dex-induced osteoclast differentiation and further decreased osteoclast number when combined with Btz. Lastly, Aplidin alone, or suboptimal doses of Aplidin combined with Dex or Btz, decreased tumor growth and bone resorption in ex vivo bone organ cultures that reproduce the 3D-organization and the cellular diversity of the MM/bone marrow niche. These results demonstrate that Aplidin has potent anti-myeloma and anti-resorptive properties, and enhances proteasome inhibitors blockade of MM growth and bone destruction

Hybrid contractual landscapes of governance: Generation of fragmented regimes of public accountability through urban regeneration

In this article we explore the idea of public accountability in the contemporary entrepreneurial governance of cities, which are influenced by market dependency and private sector involvement. We specifically focus on the fragmentation of public accountability through hybrid contractual landscapes of governance, in which the public and private sector actors interactively produce a diversity of instruments to ensure performance in service. This is in sharp contrast to the traditional vague norms and values appealed to by urban planning institutions, to safeguard the public interest. We argue that within these complex contractual governance environments public accountability is produced by public and private sector actors, through highly diverse sets of contractual relations and diverse control instruments that define responsibilities of diverse actors who are involved in a project within a market-dependent planning and policy making environment, which contains context-specific characteristics set by the specific rules of public-private collaboration. These complexities mean public accountability has become fragmented and largely reduced to performance control. Moreover, our understanding of contractual urban governance remains vague and unclear due to very limited empirical studies focusing on the actual technologies of contractual urban development. By deciphering the complex hybrid landscapes of contractual governance, with comparative empirical evidence from The Netherlands, UK and Brazil, we demonstrate how public accountability is assuming a more ‘contractual’ and unpredictable meaning in policy and plan implementation process

Space|Time|Place : enabling participation in design research for higher education staff

This paper explores the value of design research to better inform design pedagogy in Higher Education. It describes a programme of initiatives aimed at giving staff involved in delivering undergraduate and postgraduate design courses the space, time and place to fully engage with practice-based design research and describes the results of that research. These initiatives aimed to address a perennial problem in design education in the UK. Although being actively involved in research is recognized at the highest levels as beneficial to better staff morale and resulting in better informed teaching, the daily pressures of working in Higher Education combine to restrict the very people who wish to engage with research from doing so. To retain the initial momentum Space/Time/Place provided, the staff established a Community of Practice (COP) ((Lave and Wenger)). The goal of a COP is to bring the peripheral members of the community into full participation within the community guided by more experienced peers who form the core group of the COP. The Space/Time/Place COP met to develop the initial discussions into bids to secure funding for further practice based research. The Community of Practice meetings were supplemented by the use of social media platforms. The strength of support the Space/Time/Place event and Community of Practice have engendered in the staff is undeniable. The outcomes of Space/Time/Place will be exhibited in a group exhibition and used by the authors to model and broker the impact of this approach to other lecturers across the department, faculty and University

Évaluation qualitative de la contribution des rôles CanMEDS dans la création de diplômes de domaine de compétence ciblée

Background: While many Area of Focused Competency (AFC) Diplomas are available to those who have completed Pediatric residency training, it is not known which competencies are enhanced within each AFC discipline. Our objective was to determine which CanMEDS roles were targeted by existing AFCs available to those who have completed Pediatric residency training and identify gaps within CanMEDs roles that may be fulfilled by the development of new AFCs. Methods: A qualitative study was undertaken using document analysis methodology to compare CanMEDS competencies across AFCs available to those with Royal College examination eligibility or certification in Pediatrics.  RCPSC Competency Training Requirements documents were used to compare and contrast the competencies in each AFC with competencies established in Pediatric residency training. Key and Enabling Competencies were compared for each CanMEDS role to identify differences. Results: Ten AFCs were identified with eligibility requirements including Royal College examination eligibility or certification in Pediatrics. All 10 AFCs included at least one new Medical Expert competency, for a total of 42 unique competencies in this role across all AFCs. The Scholar role had only 10 new competencies across seven AFCs, while only one AFC added a single unique competency in the Collaborator role. Conclusions: The majority of new competencies contributed by AFCs lie within the CanMEDS role of Medical Expert. The Scholar and Collaborator roles have the least differences when comparing competencies of existing AFCs to those competencies established in Pediatric residency training. Developing additional AFCs that offer advanced skills in these roles may help close this gap within the discipline of Pediatrics.Contexte : Bien que de nombreux diplômes de domaines de compétence ciblée (DCC) soient accessibles aux personnes ayant terminé leur résidence en pédiatrie, nous ne savons pas quelles sont les compétences qui sont approfondies dans chaque discipline de DCC. Notre objectif était de déterminer les rôles CanMEDS visés par les DCC actuellement accessibles aux personnes ayant terminé leur résidence en pédiatrie et de repérer les lacunes dans les rôles CanMEDS qui pourraient être comblées par l’élaboration de nouveaux DCC. Méthodes : Nous avons réalisé une étude qualitative au moyen d’analyse de documents pour comparer les compétences CanMEDS dans les DCC ouverts aux personnes admissibles à l’examen du Collège royal ou ayant une certification en pédiatrie. Les documents sur les exigences de formation du CRMCC ont été utilisés pour comparer les compétences de chaque DCC et les compétences visées dans le cadre de la formation postdoctorale en pédiatrie. Les compétences clés et les compétences habilitantes ont été comparées pour chaque rôle CanMEDS afin de repérer les différences. Résultats : Nous avons trouvé 10 DCC dont les conditions d’admissibilité comprennent l’admissibilité à l’examen du Collège royal ou la certification en pédiatrie. Chacun de ces 10 DCC comprenait au moins une nouvelle compétence d’expert médical et un total de 42 nouvelles compétences propres à ce rôle ont été répertoriées pour l’ensemble des DCC. Pour le rôle d’érudit, nous n’avons trouvé que 10 nouvelles compétences dans sept programmes de DCC, et pour celui de collaborateur, il n’y a qu’une nouvelle compétence dans un programme de DCC. Conclusions : La majorité des nouvelles compétences développées dans les DCC relèvent du rôle CanMEDS d’expert médical. Les rôles d’érudit et de collaborateur présentent le moins de différences lorsqu’on compare les compétences ciblées dans les DCC existants et celles visées dans le cadre de la formation postdoctorale en pédiatrie. La création de DCC supplémentaires permettant l’acquisition de compétences plus poussées dans ces rôles pourrait contribuer à combler cette carence au sein de la discipline de la pédiatrie

Statistics of Correlations and Fluctuations in a Stochastic Model of Wealth Exchange

In our recently proposed stochastic version of discretized kinetic theory, the exchange of wealth in a society is modelled through a large system of Langevin equations. The deterministic part of the equations is based on non-linear transition probabilities between income classes. The noise terms can be additive, multiplicative or mixed, both with white or Ornstein–Uhlenbeck spectrum. The most important measured correlations are those between Gini inequality index G and social mobility M, between total income and G, and between M and total income. We describe numerical results concerning these correlations and a quantity which gives average stochastic deviations from the equilibrium solutions in dependence on the noise amplitude

Radiometric Wireless Sensor Network Monitoring of Partial Discharge Sources in Electrical Substations

A wireless sensor network (WSN) with the potential to monitor and locate partial discharge (PD) in high-voltage electricity substations using only received signal strength (RSS) is proposed. The advantages of an RSS-based operating principle over more traditional methods (e.g., time-of-arrival and time-difference-of-arrival) are described. Laboratory measurements of PD that emulate the operation of a PD WSN are presented. The hardware architecture of a prototype PD WSN is described and the particular challenges of an RSS-based location approach in an environment with an unknown, and spatially varying, path-loss index are discussed. It is concluded that an RSS-based PD WSN is a plausible solution for the monitoring of insulation integrity in electricity substations

Effect of bilayer coupling on tunneling conductance of double-layer high T_c cuprates

Physical effects of bilayer coupling on the tunneling spectroscopy of high T$_{c}$ cuprates are investigated. The bilayer coupling separates the bonding and antibonding bands and leads to a splitting of the coherence peaks in the tunneling differential conductance. However, the coherence peak of the bonding band is strongly suppressed and broadened by the particle-hole asymmetry in the density of states and finite quasiparticle life-time, and is difficult to resolve by experiments. This gives a qualitative account why the bilayer splitting of the coherence peaks was not clearly observed in tunneling measurements of double-layer high-T$_c$ oxides.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published in PR

Perceived Discrimination and injury at Work: a Cross-Sectional Study among Latino Day Laborers

BACKGROUND: Given the stigma of their undocumented status and their high prevalence of workplace injury, understanding the impact of discrimination on Latino day laborers (LDLs) is a critical public health issue. METHODS: We surveyed LDLs (N = 149) and assessed their sociodemographics, experiences of and perceived reasons for discrimination, and work-related injury. A logistic regression examined the association between discrimination and injury, adjusting for sociodemographics. Next, Chi-square tests identified perceived reasons for discrimination associated with injury which were then included in a second logistic regression to test their association with injury, adjusting for discrimination and sociodemographics. RESULTS: Participants reported a work-related injury (42%) and experiences of discrimination (81%). Discrimination was associated with injury in the first model (aOR = 2.25, p = 0.049), and discrimination attributed to immigration status was associated with injury in the second model (aOR = 5.04, p = 0.019). DISCUSSION: Injury prevention programs should account for perceived mistreatment to reduce LDL risk for injury at work