Pragmatic perspectives on the second language acquisition of person reference in Japanese : a longitudinal study

PhD ThesisThis thesis presents a longitudinal study of the acquisition of person reference in Japanese by second language (L2) learners whose first language is English. Reference to persons is of particular interest in pragmatics as an area where discourse-pragmatic (referential coherence) and social (status marking) aspects of language intersect. Previous studies have discussed L2 reference as well as politeness and status marking in second languages. However, person reference itself has rarely been the object of investigation. The original contribution of this thesis is to include both social and discourse-pragmatic theories in a longitudinal study of this area of learner language. The study uses data from six learners of L2 Japanese after two years’ classroom instruction in the UK, and after a further year’s study in Japan, as well as native Japanese data. A range of communicative tasks is used to elicit person reference while providing variation in social and discourse-pragmatic conditions. Learners’ basic route of discourse-pragmatic development thus revealed is one where initial overexplicitness in person reference reduces over time but does not disappear altogether. As they develop, learners supply null forms more readily but overuse them in certain lower accessibility contexts. Physical presence of the referent is consistently the most important accessibility-determining factor for learners; over time they become more responsive to competition for the role of antecedent. For social factors, the terms used to refer to high-status persons are generally native-like from the pre-study abroad stage onwards. In many other respects, however, learners after study abroad use a greater range of forms and strategies than they do at the earlier stage. However, the results of this are not necessarily target-like. These findings are in many respects consistent with those of previous studies, but are reached using a more detailed conception of social and discourse-pragmatic contexts than previous studies tend to. However, the often-reported overuse of informal variants is not found here, and the post-study abroad overuse of null forms found here is not reported elsewhere. I argue that these findings are consistent with a view of L2 pragmatic development as a process of gaining attentional control over pre-existing pragmatic representations (Bialystok 1994). Furthermore, accessibility theory (Ariel 1990), which is very rarely used in L2 research, is shown to provide a useful framework for analysing learners’ discourse-pragmatic development.School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University

The effects of deposition parameters on zinc films vapor deposited on polyethylene terephthalate

This thesis is a study of the effects of various parameters on zinc films vapor deposited on Polyethylene Terephthalate (Mylar) which has received a silver-pre-coat

Social movements in Italy, 1968-78

The thesis analyses the development of social movements in Italy in the period from 1968 to the end of the following decade, with particular reference to the Milanese experience and a focus on the 1968-9 years. It argues that the late ‘60's represent a transitional moment; whilst industrial class conflicts dominated oppositional politics in 1968-9, the student movement anticipated the radical redefinitions of politics brought about by the social movements of the 1970's. The changing relationship between social movements and the conceptualisation of social conflicts is the central theme. The thesis is divided into five parts. Part 1 outlines approaches to the analysis of social protest which are considered especially useful because of their concern with agency and the specific dynamics of social movements; Part 2 gives a historical introduction to the origins of the crisis of 1968-9; Part 3 is a case study of the student movement, and Part 4 of the workers' movement, both concentrating on the 1968-9 developments in Milan. Part 5 outlines their consequences for the formation of oppositional politics in the 1970's. It returns to the theme of 'old' and 'new' political forms, taking the cases of red terrorism, feminism and youth protest. It is argued that the emergence of new social movements has provoked a fundamental questioning of categories of social analysis with important consequences for both political theory and practice

Algebraic Properties of Semigroups

This paper is an algebraic study of selected properties of semigroups. Since a semigroup is a result of weakening the group axioms, all groups are semigroups. One facet of the paper is to demonstrate various semigroup properties that induce the group axioms

A Case–Crossover Study of Wintertime Ambient Air Pollution and Infant Bronchiolitis

We examined the association of infant bronchiolitis with acute exposure to ambient air pollutants. DESIGN: We employed a time-stratified case–crossover method and based the exposure windows on a priori, biologically based hypotheses. PARTICIPANTS: We evaluated effects in 19,901 infants in the South Coast Air Basin of California in 1995–2000 with a hospital discharge record for bronchiolitis in the first year of life (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, CM466.1). EVALUATIONS/MEASUREMENTS: Study subjects’ ZIP code was linked to ambient air pollution monitors to derive exposures. We estimated the risk of bronchiolitis hospitalization associated with increases in wintertime ambient air pollutants using conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: We observed no increased risk after acute exposure to particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM(2.5)), carbon monoxide, or nitrogen dioxide. PM(2.5) exposure models suggested a 26–41% increased risk in the most premature infants born at gestational ages between 25 and 29 weeks; however, these findings were based on very small numbers. CONCLUSIONS: We found little support for a link between acute increases in ambient air pollution and infant bronchiolitis except modestly increased risk for PM(2.5) exposure among infants born very prematurely. In these infants, the periods of viral acquisition and incubation concurred with the time of increased risk. RELEVANCE TO PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE: We present novel data for the infant period and the key respiratory disease of infancy, bronchiolitis. Incompletely explained trends in rising bronchiolitis hospitalization rates and increasing number of infants born prematurely underscore the importance of evaluating the impact of ambient air pollution in this age group in other populations and studies

Mutual inductance instability of the tip vortices behind a wind turbine

Two modal decomposition techniques are employed to analyse the stability of wind turbine wakes. A numerical study on a single wind turbine wake is carried out focusing on the instability onset of the trailing tip vortices shed from the turbine blades. The numerical model is based on large-eddy simulations (LES) of the Navier-Stokes equations using the actuator line (ACL) method to simulate the wake behind the Tj ae reborg wind turbine. The wake is perturbed by low-amplitude excitation sources located in the neighbourhood of the tip spirals. The amplification of the waves travelling along the spiral triggers instabilities, leading to breakdown of the wake. Based on the grid configurations and the type of excitations, two basic flow cases, symmetric and asymmetric, are identified. In the symmetric setup, we impose a 120 degrees symmetry condition in the dynamics of the flow and in the asymmetric setup we calculate the full 360 degrees wake. Different cases are subsequently analysed using dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) and proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). The results reveal that the main instability mechanism is dispersive and that the modal growth in the symmetric setup arises only for some specific frequencies and spatial structures, e.g. two dominant groups of modes with positive growth (spatial structures) are identified, while breaking the symmetry reveals that almost all the modes have positive growth rate. In both setups, the most unstable modes have a non-dimensional spatial growth rate close to pi/2 and they are characterized by an out-of-phase displacement of successive helix turns leading to local vortex pairing. The present results indicate that the asymmetric case is crucial to study, as the stability characteristics of the flow change significantly compared to the symmetric configurations. Based on the constant non-dimensional growth rate of disturbances, we derive a new analytical relationship between the length of the wake up to the turbulent breakdown and the operating conditions of a wind turbine

Hepatitis B virus seroepidemiology data for Africa:Modelling intervention strategies based on a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: International Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for elimination of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection set ambitious targets for 2030. In African populations, infant immunisation has been fundamental to reducing incident infections in children, but overall population prevalence of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection remains high. In high-prevalence populations, adult catch-up vaccination has sometimes been deployed, but an alternative Test and Treat (T&T) approach could be used as an intervention to interrupt transmission. Universal T&T has not been previously evaluated as a population intervention for HBV infection, despite high-profile data supporting its success with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). METHODS AND FINDINGS: We set out to investigate the relationship between prevalence of HBV infection and exposure in Africa, undertaking a systematic literature review in November 2019. We identified published seroepidemiology data representing the period 1995-2019 from PubMed and Web of Science, including studies of adults that reported prevalence of both hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg; prevalence of HBV infection) and antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc; prevalence of HBV exposure). We identified 96 studies representing 39 African countries, with a median cohort size of 370 participants and a median participant age of 34 years. Using weighted linear regression analysis, we found a strong relationship between the prevalence of infection (HBsAg) and exposure (anti-HBc) (R2 = 0.45, p < 0.001). Region-specific differences were present, with estimated CHB prevalence in Northern Africa typically 30% to 40% lower (p = 0.007) than in Southern Africa for statistically similar exposure rates, demonstrating the need for intervention strategies to be tailored to individual settings. We applied a previously published mathematical model to investigate the effect of interventions in a high-prevalence setting. The most marked and sustained impact was projected with a T&T strategy, with a predicted reduction of 33% prevalence by 20 years (95% CI 30%-37%) and 62% at 50 years (95% CI 57%-68%), followed by routine neonatal vaccination and prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT; at 100% coverage). In contrast, the impact of catch-up vaccination in adults had a negligible and transient effect on population prevalence. The study is constrained by gaps in the published data, such that we could not model the impact of antiviral therapy based on stratification by specific clinical criteria and our model framework does not include explicit age-specific or risk-group assumptions regarding force of transmission. CONCLUSIONS: The unique data set collected in this study highlights how regional epidemiology data for HBV can provide insights into patterns of transmission, and it provides an evidence base for future quantitative research into the most effective local interventions. In combination with robust neonatal immunisation programmes, ongoing PMTCT efforts, and the vaccination of high-risk groups, diagnosing and treating HBV infection is likely to be of most impact in driving advances towards elimination targets at a population level

Peer support for people living with hepatitis B virus—A foundation for treatment expansion

Chronic hepatitis B infection (CHB) affects 300 million people worldwide and is being targeted by the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), working towards elimination of hepatitis B virus (HBV) as a public health threat. In this piece, we explore the evidence and potential impact of peer support to enhance and promote interventions for people living with CHB. Peer support workers (PSWs) are those with lived experience of an infection, condition or situation who work to provide support for others, aiming to improve education, prevention, treatment and other clinical interventions and to reduce the physical, psychological and social impacts of disease. Peer support has been shown to be a valuable tool for improving health outcomes for people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), but to date has not been widely available for communities affected by HBV. HBV disproportionately affects vulnerable and marginalised populations, who could benefit from PSWs to help them navigate complicated systems and provide advocacy, tackle stigma, improve education and representation, and optimise access to treatment and continuity of care. The scale up of peer support must provide structured and supportive career pathways for PSWs, account for social and cultural needs of different communities, adapt to differing healthcare systems and provide flexibility in approaches to care. Investment in peer support for people living with CHB could increase diagnosis, improve retention in care, and support design and roll out of interventions that can contribute to global elimination goals