Re-imagining French lexicography: The dictionnaire vivant de la langue française

The Dictionnaire vivant de la langue française (DVLF), developed by The ARTFL Project at the University of Chicago, represents an experimental, interactive, and community-based approach to French lexicography. The DVLF enables broad public access to a wide variety of linguistic tools and resources, with the goal of changing user interaction with dictionaries and providing better descriptions of emergent word use. In this article we describe the history of the DVLF and provide a survey of similar community-oriented electronic dictionaries. We then proceed to a presentation of the dictionary’s many features, including the variety of its definitions and mechanisms for user interaction. The article concludes with a discussion of ARTFL’s plans for the future developement of the DVLF

Managerial Discretion in the Use Of Self-Ratings in an Appraisal System: The Antecedents And Consequences

Self-evaluations of performance have elicited the interests of researchers over the last four decades. Supporters attest to the importance of employee involvement in the appraisal process while detractors raise issues concerning leniency, validity and purpose. This study examines the circumstances under which superiors have discretion to ask subordinates to self-evaluate their performance in an ongoing appraisal system. Three primary issues are investigated: the conditions under which superiors requested subordinates to self-evaluate, the relationship between opportunity to self-evaluate and the type of post-appraisal interview that was conducted, and the impact of self-ratings on performance appraisal outcomes. Three hundred twenty-six subordinates responded to questions about the performance appraisal process. Results showed leader-subordinate relationships were strong predictors of opportunity to self-rate. Self-ratings were strongly related to type of interview conducted and had an impact on perceived fairness of ratings. While criticism of self-ratings exists, our findings indicate that voluntary self-ratings, focusing on performance development, have a positive impact on the appraisal process

Chasing the Image

My exhibition and paper addresses the physicality of the image, specifically that of the printed image and its material substrate, whether that image is photographically produced, or one created from printmaking processes. Several years ago I inherited a family archive of photographic negative, prints and slides that date from 1940 onward. These photographs form the genesis of my work. I often begin by sanding away areas of original contact prints to reconfigure the narrative structure of the image. I also use these images to produce large serigraphs on Mylar. Frequently I embellish these works with silver leaf - referencing the silver oxide that forms the foundation for light-sensitive exposures. Along with the sanded photographs and serigraphic prints, I have created an artist book consisting of two decks of trading cards. These cards contain imagery taken from the photo-collection as well as sentence fragments that I develop while sanding the prints

Increasing African-American and Latino Parental Involvement in School

Parental involvement is one of the leading indicators of students’ academic achievement. The lack of parental support often found within the African-American and Latino communities has often contributed to suspensions, expulsions, and truancy. This interactive seminar will provide participants with useful strategies that can be used to increase the level of parental involvement and also help parents understand the importance of their role in their children’s academic success

Increasing African American and Latino Parental Involvement in School

Parental involvement is one of the leading indicators of a student’s academic achievement. The lack of parental support often found within the African American and Latino communities has often contributed to suspensions, expulsions, and truancy. This interactive seminar will provide participants with useful strategies that can be used to increase the level of parental involvement and also help parents understand the importance of their role in their children’s academic success

The ethics of humanitarian aid in conflict situations

The plight of people suffering from the violence and deprivation of conflict attracts a great deal of aid. Such aid is often inspired by the thought that we have some responsibility to protect or assist innocent victims of war. However, this humanitarian response is vulnerable to abuse. Combatants can manipulate the supply of aid to achieve their ends, or channel aid to provide their forces with additional food or arms, and so extend the conflict. This poses a challenge to our obligation to assist victims of conflict: if the aid hurts more than it helps, a reasonable response is to refrain from giving aid. This may not help people in need, but it avoids hurting them further. A better response would be to find another means of helping people trapped by conflict which does not risk making their positions worse. This dissertation explores a variety of means that might enable us to help victims of conflict, such as redirecting aid, intervening militarily, or enacting sanctions. One promising strategy involves removing or altering certain international rules which have a role in encouraging conflict. Altering these rules requires concerted advocacy and political will, but given sufficient attention, such an approach could shorten or reduce the severity of some conflicts, or curtail their ill effects on civilians

The hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and perirhinal cortex are critical to incidental order memory.

Considerable research in rodents and humans indicates the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are essential for remembering temporal relationships among stimuli, and accumulating evidence suggests the perirhinal cortex may also be involved. However, experimental parameters differ substantially across studies, which limits our ability to fully understand the fundamental contributions of these structures. In fact, previous studies vary in the type of temporal memory they emphasize (e.g., order, sequence, or separation in time), the stimuli and responses they use (e.g., trial-unique or repeated sequences, and incidental or rewarded behavior), and the degree to which they control for potential confounding factors (e.g., primary and recency effects, or order memory deficits secondary to item memory impairments). To help integrate these findings, we developed a new paradigm testing incidental memory for trial-unique series of events, and concurrently assessed order and item memory in animals with damage to the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, or perirhinal cortex. We found that this new approach led to robust order and item memory, and that hippocampal, prefrontal and perirhinal damage selectively impaired order memory. These findings suggest the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and perirhinal cortex are part of a broad network of structures essential for incidentally learning the order of events in episodic memory

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe conditions and mechanisms that produce decrements in exercise performance have been an important area of research for decades. However, the sensation of fatigue that may persist for hours or days after exercise has received less attention. This long-lasting fatigue sensation is common in clinical populations. In chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), moderate physical activity can produce increased fatigue sensations that last for several days. A recent study of CFS patients demonstrated significant increases in fatigue and pain sensations that were closely related to gene expression changes in metabolite-detecting, adrenergic, and immune markers following 25 minutes of moderate, whole body exercise. This exercise stimulus did not produce long-lasting fatigue or changes in gene expression in healthy age and gender-matched controls. The graded exercise test (GXT) is commonly applied in CFS research. Although intense, the GXT rarely produces long-lasting fatigue in healthy individuals and its effect on CFS patients' postexertional fatigue is unclear. Thus, the goals of these studies were to examine gene expression and fatigue sensations in healthy, trained individuals during and after three different exercise stressors: a GXT, a 40k time trial in ambient conditions (AT), and the same time trial in adverse, hot conditions (HT). It was hypothesized that there would be larger changes in gene expression following both AT and HT, compared to GXT. The first study explored the differences in gene expression following GXT and AT. Following AT, there were larger decreases in metabolite-detecting mRNA, larger increases in adrenergic, immunologic, and serotonin mRNA as compared to GXT. Further, these gene expression changes were different from postexercise responses of CFS patients. The goal of the second study was to add an additional stressor to the 40k time trial - heat. Because TRPV receptors are sensitive to heat, it was thought that the heat stress would cause larger increases in TRPV mRNA. However, because exercise power was reduced during HT, there were no differences in gene expression between the two trials except that IL6 mRNA decreased significantly more following AT compared to HT. Collectively, these results show that gene expression in healthy individuals is affected by the intensity and length of the exercise. The decreases in metabolite-detecting mRNA are thought to be an attempt to restore homeostasis in the fatigue and pain detecting receptors. The fact that there was no difference between AT and HT suggests that heat is an additional metabolite that activates the metabolite-detecting receptors, helping to regulate the intensity of exercise and the amount of fatigue during exercise. Adrenergic receptors increased, possibly causing a decrease in blood flow following exercise and increasing the resting levels of metabolites and subsequently increasing the resting fatigue signal. The change in the ratio of serotonin/dopamine may also contribute to the increased fatigue sensation following exercise

The Forseeability of Transference: Extending Employer Liability under Washington Law for Therapist Sexual Exploitation of Patients

Transference, or the idealization of therapists, is a phenomenon that is foreseeable in every relationship between a therapist and a patient, and makes patients uniquely vulnerable to sexual exploitation by therapists. Transference has been recognized as a basis for finding therapists directly liable for harm resulting from sexual relations with patients. However, limitations on damages directly available from therapists lead patients to seek redress from therapists\u27 employers under theories of employer liability. Washington courts generally deny victimized patients relief from the employers of sexually exploitative therapists. This Comment argues that Washington courts should impose employer liability when therapists sexually exploit their patients, due to the foreseeability of transference. Employer liability is consistent with three existing theories of Washington agency law: (1)the exploitation of transference arises out of pursuit of the employer\u27s business, subjecting employers to respondeat superior liability; (2) patients qualify for a special relationship with their therapist\u27s employer, which imposes a direct duty on the employer to protect those patients; and (3) the risk of a therapist\u27s exploitation of transference is sufficiently foreseeable to subject employers to liability on the basis of negligent supervision