Rural income, welfare and migration : a study of three Ciskeian villages

Bibliography: pages 73-77.The on-going significance of the rural areas in policy formation in South Africa has its roots in the country's spatially skewed population distribution and the persistence of 'oscillating' or 'circular' migration. Thus, rural income (its level, sources and distribution) and rural welfare remain important policy considerations. This thesis, based on a microeconomic study of three Ciskeian villages, examines these issues, and attempts to use the understanding so gained, to consider the likelihood of continued circular migration. Chapter 1 places the study in context, providing necessary background to the research area. Chapter 2 looks at the spatial structure and education levels of households in the three villages studied. Chapter 3 deals with the problem of defining and measuring 'rural household income', whilst Chapter 4 examines the adequacy and distribution of this income, paying attention to how changes in various components of income affect rural income distribution and welfare. This thesis is concluded in Chapter 5 with an analysis of the factors contributing to the persistence of circular migration

A discourse analysis of trainee teacher identity in online discussion forums

Teacher education involves an identity transformation for trainees from being a student to being a teacher. This discourse analysis examined the online discussion board communications of a cohort of trainee teachers to better understand the situated identities of the trainees and how they were presented online. Their discussion board posts were the primary method of communication during placement periods and, as such, provided insight into how the trainees situated their identities in terms of being a student or being a teacher. During the analysis, the community boundaries, language and culture were explored along with the tutor's power and role in the identity transformation process. This involved looking at the lexis used by the students, the use of pronouns to refer to themselves and others such as teachers and pupils, the types of messages allowed in the community and the effect of the tutor's messages on their communication. The research found that the trainees felt comfortable with teaching but did not feel like teachers during the course. Tutors and school teachers need to develop an awareness of the dual nature of trainees' identities and help promote the transition from student to teacher. In the beginning of the course, trainees should be familiarised with teacher vocabulary and practical concepts in addition to pedagogical theory. Towards the end of the course, trainee identity as teachers could be promoted through the use of authentic assessments that mirror real teacher tasks and requirements

Investigating the timecourse of accessing conversational implicatures during incremental sentence interpretation

Many contextual inferences in utterance interpretation are explained as following from the nature of conversation and the assumption that participants are rational. Recent psycholinguistic research has focussed on certain of these ‘Gricean’ inferences and have revealed that comprehenders can access them in online interpretation. However there have been mixed results as to the time-course of access. Some results show that Gricean inferences can be accessed very rapidly, as rapidly as any other contextually specified information (Sedivy, 2003; Grodner, Klein, Carbery, & Tanenhaus, 2010); while other studies looking at the same kind of inference suggest that access to Gricean inferences are delayed relative to other aspects of semantic interpretation (Huang & Snedeker, 2009; in press). While previous timecourse research has focussed on Gricean inferences that support the online assignment of reference to definite expressions, the study reported here examines the timecourse of access to scalar implicatures, which enrich the meaning of an utterance beyond the semantic interpretation. Even if access to Gricean inference in support of reference assignment may be rapid, it is still unknown whether genuinely enriching scalar implicatures are delayed. Our results indicate that scalar implicatures are accessed as rapidly as other contextual inferences. The implications of our results are discussed in reference to the architecture of language comprehension

Relevance theory, pragmatic inference and cognitive architecture

Relevance Theory (RT: Sperber & Wilson, 1986) argues that human language comprehension processes tend to maximize “relevance”, and postulates that there is a relevance-based procedure that a hearer follows when trying to understand an utterance. Despite being highly influential, RT has been criticized for its failure to explain how speaker-related information, either the speaker’s abilities or her/his preferences, is incorporated into the hearer’s inferential, pragmatic process. An alternative proposal is that speaker-related information gains prominence due to representation of the speaker within higher-level goal-directed schemata. Yet the goal-based account is still unable to explain clearly how cross-domain information, for example linguistic meaning and speaker-related knowledge, is integrated within a modular system. On the basis of RT’s cognitive requirements, together with contemporary cognitive theory, we argue that this integration is realized by utilizing working memory and that there exist conversational constraints with which the constructed utterance interpretation should be consistent. We illustrate our arguments with a computational implementation of the proposed processes within a general cognitive architecture

When the Truth Is Not Too Hard to Handle: An Event-Related Potential Study on the Pragmatics of Negation

Our brains rapidly map incoming language onto what we hold to be true. Yet there are claims that such integration and verification processes are delayed in sentences containing negation words like not. However, studies have often confounded whether a statement is true and whether it is a natural thing to say during normal communication. In an event-related potential (ERP) experiment, we aimed to disentangle effects of truth value and pragmatic licensing on the comprehension of affirmative and negated real-world statements. As in affirmative sentences, false words elicited a larger N400 ERP than did true words in pragmatically licensed negated sentences (e.g., “In moderation, drinking red wine isn't bad/good…”), whereas true and false words elicited similar responses in unlicensed negated sentences (e.g., “A baby bunny's fur isn't very hard/soft…”). These results suggest that negation poses no principled obstacle for readers to immediately relate incoming words to what they hold to be true

Application of MJO Simulation Diagnostics to Climate Models

The ability of eight climate models to simulate the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) is examined using diagnostics developed by the U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) MJO Working Group. Although the MJO signal has been extracted throughout the annual cycle, this study focuses on the boreal winter (November-April) behavior. Initially, maps of the mean state and variance and equatorial space-time spectra of 850-hPa zonal wind and precipitation are compared with observations. Models best represent the intraseasonal space-time spectral peak in the zonal wind compared to that of precipitation. Using the phase-space representation of the multivariate principal components (PCs), the life cycle properties of the simulated MJOs are extracted, including the ability to represent how the MJO evolves from a given subphase and the associated decay time scales. On average, the MJO decay (e-folding) time scale for all models is shorter (~20- 29 days) than observations (~31 days). All models are able to produce a leading pair of multivariate principal components that represents eastward propagation of intraseasonal wind and precipitation anomalies, although the fraction of the variance is smaller than observed for all models. In some cases, the dominant time scale of these PCs is outside of the 30-80-day band. Several key variables associated with the model's MJO are investigated, including the surface latent heat flux, boundary layer (925 hPa) moisture convergence, and the vertical structure of moisture. Low-level moisture convergence ahead (east) of convection is associated with eastward propagation in most of the models. A few models are also able to simulate the gradual moistening of the lower troposphere that precedes observed MJO convection, as well as the observed geographical difference in the vertical structure of moisture associated with the MJO. The dependence of rainfall on lower tropospheric relative humidity and the fraction of rainfall that is stratiform are also discussed, including implications these diagnostics have for MJO simulation. Based on having the most realistic intraseasonal multivariate empirical orthogonal functions, principal component power spectra, equatorial eastward propagating outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), latent heat flux, low-level moisture convergence signals, and vertical structure of moisture over the Eastern Hemisphere, the superparameterized Community Atmosphere Model (SPCAM) and the ECHAM4/Ocean Isopycnal Model (OPYC) show the best skill at representing the MJO.open1149

The hypoxia-regulated ectonucleotidase CD73 is a host determinant of HIV latency

Deciphering the mechanisms underlying viral persistence is critical to achieving a cure for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Here, we implement a systems approach to discover molecular signatures of HIV latently infected CD4+ T cells, identifying the immunosuppressive, adenosine-producing ectonucleotidase CD73 as a key surface marker of latent cells. Hypoxic conditioning, reflecting the lymphoid tissue microenvironment, increases the frequency of CD73+ CD4+ T cells and promotes HIV latency. Transcriptomic profiles of CD73+ CD4+ T cells favor viral quiescence, immune evasion, and cell survival. CD73+ CD4+ T cells are capable of harboring a functional HIV reservoir and reinitiating productive infection ex vivo. CD73 or adenosine receptor blockade facilitates latent HIV reactivation in vitro, mechanistically linking adenosine signaling to viral quiescence. Finally, tissue imaging of lymph nodes from HIV-infected individuals on antiretroviral therapy reveals spatial association between CD73 expression and HIV persistence in vivo. Our findings warrant development of HIV-cure strategies targeting the hypoxia-CD73-adenosine axis

Functional gastrointestinal disorders are increased in joint hypermobility-related disorders with concomitant postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.

Background Individuals with hypermobility spectrum disorders/hypermobile Ehlers‐Danlos syndrome (HSD/hEDS) frequently fulfill criteria for Rome IV functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is also commonly reported in HSD/hEDS and may impact on co‐morbidity with and severity of FGIDs, although this remains to be studied. We determined the impact of concomitant POTS and HSD/hEDS on their association with Rome IV FGIDs. Methods With the help of the charity organization Ehlers‐Danlos Support UK, an online cross‐sectional health survey was completed by individuals with HSD/hEDS. The survey enquired for (a) self‐reported doctor diagnosis of POTS, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia, (b) the presence and symptom frequency of Rome IV FGIDs, and (c) anxiety and depression scores. Key Results Of 616 subjects with HSD/hEDS, 37.5% reported a doctor diagnosis of POTS. POTS‐positive individuals were significantly younger than POTS‐negative subjects (37 vs 40 years, P = 0.002), more likely to report chronic fatigue syndrome (44% vs 31%, P < 0.0001), and showed a trend toward increased prevalence of fibromyalgia (44% vs 37%, P = 0.06) and higher depression score (P = 0.07). POTS‐positive subjects were also more likely to fulfill criteria for Rome IV FGIDs across various organ domains and experienced both upper and lower gastrointestinal symptoms significantly more frequently. The increased associations for FGIDs and GI symptom frequency remained unchanged in HSD/hEDS subjects with POTS following adjustments for age, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and depression scores. Conclusions and Inferences The high FGID burden in HSD/hEDS is further amplified in the presence of POTS. Future studies should elucidate the mechanism by which POTS arises in HSD/hEDS and is associated with increased GI symptoms