The impact of regional accent variation on monolingual and bilingual infants’ lexical processing

Phonetic variation is inherent in natural speech. It can be lexically relevant, differentiating words, as well as lexically irrelevant indexical variation, which gives information about the talker or context, such as the gender, mood, regional or foreign accent. Efficient communication requires perceivers to discern how lexical versus indexical sources of variation affect the phonetic form of spoken words. While ample evidence is available on how children acquiring a single language handle variability in speech, less is known about how children simultaneously acquiring two languages deal with phonetic variation. This thesis investigates how the bilingual language environment affects children’s ability to accommodate accented speech. We consider three hypotheses. One is that bilingual infants may have an advantage relative to monolinguals due to their greater experience with phonetic variability across their two phonological systems. This is because the lexical representations in bilingual children, who have more experience with accent variation than monolingual children, might be more open to phonetic variation than monolinguals. Representations that are more open to variation might lead to higher flexibility in the word recognition of children with multi-accent input (bilinguals), resulting in accommodation benefits when processing an unfamiliar accent. An alternative hypothesis, however, is that bilingual children may have less stable lexical representations than monolinguals because their vocabulary size in each language is smaller. This could lead to processing costs in accent adaptation, resulting in accommodation disadvantages for bilinguals. The third and final hypothesis is that there would be no difference between bilinguals and their monolingual peers. This is because the effects of greater accent experience but less stable lexical representations in bilinguals may essentially neutralise each other, resulting in equivalent accent accommodation by bilinguals and monolinguals. To evaluate these hypotheses, three experiments were conducted with 17- and 25-month-old bilingual and monolingual children. Their ability to accommodate unfamiliar accented speech was analysed based on their language experience, pre-exposure to the unfamiliar accent, the type of phonetic variation (easy versus difficult phonetic change), and the cognitive demands of the experimental procedure. Taken together, the findings of Experiments 1-3 suggest that bilingual language input neither benefits nor hampers accent adaptation in bilingual children relative to monolingual children. The results carry implications for our current understanding of bilingualism and phonological development

Construction of the Views oN Infant Sleep (VNIS) Questionnaire

Parents' beliefs about infant sleep behaviour vary over time and across cultures. No validated instrument exists to understand parents' pre- and postnatal views on infant sleep behaviours, which may influence their caregiving decisions. The Views oN Infant Sleep Questionnaire (VNIS) will be a tool to assess parents' beliefs in order to facilitate tailored perinatal care, increase the reliability of postnatal self-report measures, allow for cross-cultural comparisons, and provide a baseline for researchers to use in longitudinal studies. We recruited an online sample of 971 female participants who were resident in the United Kingdom, at least 28 weeks pregnant, and at least 18 years of age. The initial questionnaire consisted of 31 questions about infant independence, night-waking, infant feeding, touch, and safety, and items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The item pool was reduced to 12 using principal component analysis and a structure was found for the three components “Closeness”, “Independence”, and “Night-waking”. Overall, these results suggest that the VNIS can provide a brief scale to measure different aspects of individuals' beliefs about infant sleep. In further research the VNIS needs to be validated with a confirmatory factor analysis in another sample, and to be tested as a cross-cultural instrument

Caryoscope: An Open Source Java application for viewing microarray data in a genomic context

BACKGROUND: Microarray-based comparative genome hybridization experiments generate data that can be mapped onto the genome. These data are interpreted more easily when represented graphically in a genomic context. RESULTS: We have developed Caryoscope, which is an open source Java application for visualizing microarray data from array comparative genome hybridization experiments in a genomic context. Caryoscope can read General Feature Format files (GFF files), as well as comma- and tab-delimited files, that define the genomic positions of the microarray reporters for which data are obtained. The microarray data can be browsed using an interactive, zoomable interface, which helps users identify regions of chromosomal deletion or amplification. The graphical representation of the data can be exported in a number of graphic formats, including publication-quality formats such as PostScript. CONCLUSION: Caryoscope is a useful tool that can aid in the visualization, exploration and interpretation of microarray data in a genomic context

Cross-sectional examination of the association between shift length and hospital nurses job satisfaction and nurse reported quality measures

Background: Twenty-four hour nursing care involves shift work including 12-h shifts. England is unusual in deploying a mix of shift patterns. International evidence on the effects of such shifts is growing. A secondary analysis of data collected in England exploring outcomes with 12-h shifts examined the association between shift length, job satisfaction, scheduling flexibility, care quality, patient safety, and care left undone. Methods: Data were collected from a questionnaire survey of nurses in a sample of English hospitals, conducted as part of the RN4CAST study, an EU 7th Framework funded study. The sample comprised 31 NHS acute hospital Trusts from 401 wards, in 46 acute hospital sites. Descriptive analysis included frequencies, percentages and mean scores by shift length, working beyond contracted hours and day or night shift. Multi-level regression models established statistical associations between shift length and nurse self-reported measures. Results: Seventy-four percent (1898) of nurses worked a day shift and 26% (670) a night shift. Most Trusts had a mixture of shifts lengths. Self-reported quality of care was higher amongst nurses working ≤8 h (15.9%) compared to those working longer hours (20.0 to 21.1%). The odds of poor quality care were 1.64 times higher for nurses working ≥12 h (OR = 1.64, 95% CI 1.18–2.28, p = 0.003). Mean ‘care left undone’ scores varied by shift length: 3.85 (≤8 h), 3.72 (8.01–10.00 h), 3.80 (10.01–11.99 h) and were highest amongst those working ≥12 h (4.23) (p < 0.001). The rate of care left undone was 1.13 times higher for nurses working ≥12 h (RR = 1.13, 95% CI 1.06–1.20, p < 0.001). Job dissatisfaction was higher the longer the shift length: 42.9% (≥12 h (OR = 1.51, 95% CI 1.17–1.95, p = .001); 35.1% (≤8 h) 45.0% (8.01–10.00 h), 39.5% (10.01–11.99 h). Conclusions: Our findings add to the growing international body of evidence reporting that ≥12 shifts are associated with poor ratings of quality of care and higher rates of care left undone. Future research should focus on how 12-h shifts can be optimised to minimise potential risks

Degree of Landscape Fragmentation Influences Genetic Isolation among Populations of a Gliding Mammal

Forests and woodlands are under continuing pressure from urban and agricultural development. Tree-dependent mammals that rarely venture to the ground are likely to be highly sensitive to forest fragmentation. The Australian squirrel glider (Petaurus norfolcensis) provides an excellent case study to examine genetic (functional) connectivity among populations. It has an extensive range that occurs in a wide band along the east coast. However, its forest and woodland habitat has become greatly reduced in area and is severely fragmented within the southern inland part of the species' range, where it is recognised as threatened. Within central and northern coastal regions, habitat is much more intact and we thus hypothesise that genetic connectivity will be greater in this region than in the south. To test this we employed microsatellite analysis in a molecular population biology approach. Most sampling locations in the highly modified south showed signatures of genetic isolation. In contrast, a high level of genetic connectivity was inferred among most sampled populations in the more intact habitat of the coastal region, with samples collected 1400 km apart having similar genetic cluster membership. Nonetheless, some coastal populations associated with urbanisation and agriculture are genetically isolated, suggesting the historic pattern observed in the south is emerging on the coast. Our study demonstrates that massive landscape changes following European settlement have had substantial impacts on levels of connectivity among squirrel glider populations, as predicted on the basis of the species' ecology. This suggests that landscape planning and management in the south should be focused on restoring habitat connectivity where feasible, while along the coast, existing habitat connectivity must be maintained and recent losses restored. Molecular population biology approaches provide a ready means for identifying fragmentation effects on a species at multiple scales. Such studies are required to examine the generality of our findings for other tree-dependent species

The Stanford Microarray Database: implementation of new analysis tools and open source release of software

The Stanford Microarray Database (SMD; ) is a research tool and archive that allows hundreds of researchers worldwide to store, annotate, analyze and share data generated by microarray technology. SMD supports most major microarray platforms, and is MIAME-supportive and can export or import MAGE-ML. The primary mission of SMD is to be a research tool that supports researchers from the point of data generation to data publication and dissemination, but it also provides unrestricted access to analysis tools and public data from 300 publications. In addition to supporting ongoing research, SMD makes its source code fully and freely available to others under an Open Source license, enabling other groups to create a local installation of SMD. In this article, we describe several data analysis tools implemented in SMD and we discuss features of our software release

The Stanford Microarray Database accommodates additional microarray platforms and data formats

The Stanford Microarray Database (SMD) (http://smd.stanford.edu) is a research tool for hundreds of Stanford researchers and their collaborators. In addition, SMD functions as a resource for the entire biological research community by providing unrestricted access to microarray data published by SMD users and by disseminating its source code. In addition to storing GenePix (Axon Instruments) and ScanAlyze output from spotted microarrays, SMD has recently added the ability to store, retrieve, display and analyze the complete raw data produced by several additional microarray platforms and image analysis software packages, so that we can also now accept data from Affymetrix GeneChips (MAS5/GCOS or dChip), Agilent Catalog or Custom arrays (using Agilent's Feature Extraction software) or data created by SpotReader (Niles Scientific). We have implemented software that allows us to accept MAGE-ML documents from array manufacturers and to submit MIAME-compliant data in MAGE-ML format directly to ArrayExpress and GEO, greatly increasing the ease with which data from SMD can be published adhering to accepted standards and also increasing the accessibility of published microarray data to the general public. We have introduced a new tool to facilitate data sharing among our users, so that datasets can be shared during, before or after the completion of data analysis. The latest version of the source code for the complete database package was released in November 2004 (http://smd.stanford.edu/download/), allowing researchers around the world to deploy their own installations of SMD

Clinical characteristics, multiorgan dysfunction and outcomes of patients with COVID-19: a prospective case series

BACKGROUND: Characterizing the multiorgan manifestations and outcomes of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 will inform resource requirements to address the long-term burden of this disease. We conducted a descriptive analysis using prospectively collected data to describe the clinical characteristics and spectrum of organ dysfunction, and in-hospital and longer-term clinical outcomes of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic at a Canadian centre. METHODS: We conducted a prospective case series involving adult patients (aged ≥ 18 yr) with COVID-19 admitted to 1 of 2 hospitals in London, Ontario, from Mar. 17 to June 18, 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic. We recorded patients\u27 baseline characteristics, physiologic parameters, measures of organ function and therapies administered during hospitalization among patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and in non-ICU settings, and compared the characteristics of hospital survivors and nonsurvivors. Finally, we recorded follow-up thoracic computed tomography (CT) and echocardiographic findings after hospital discharge. RESULTS: We enrolled 100 consecutive patients (47 women) hospitalized with COVID-19, including 32 patients who received ICU care and 68 who received treatment in non-ICU settings. Respiratory sequelae were common: 23.0% received high-flow oxygen by nasal cannula, 9.0% received noninvasive ventilation, 24.0% received invasive mechanical ventilation and 2.0% received venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Overall, 9.0% of patients had cerebrovascular events (3.0% ischemic stroke, 6.0% intracranial hemorrhage), and 6.0% had pulmonary embolism. After discharge, 11 of 19 patients had persistent abnormalities on CT thorax, and 6 of 15 had persistent cardiac dysfunction on echocardiography. INTERPRETATION: This study provides further evidence that COVID-19 is a multisystem disease involving neurologic, cardiac and thrombotic dysfunction, without evidence of hepatic dysfunction. Patients have persistent organ dysfunction after hospital discharge, underscoring the need for research on long-term outcomes of COVID-19 survivors

The Genome of the Stick Insect Medauroidea extradentata Is Strongly Methylated within Genes and Repetitive DNA

BACKGROUND: Cytosine DNA methylation has been detected in many eukaryotic organisms and has been shown to play an important role in development and disease of vertebrates including humans. Molecularly, DNA methylation appears to be involved in the suppression of initiation or of elongation of transcription. Resulting organismal functions are suggested to be the regulation of gene silencing, the suppression of transposon activity and the suppression of initiation of transcription within genes. However, some data concerning the distribution of methylcytosine in insect species appear to contradict such roles. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: By comparison of MspI and HpaII restriction patterns in genomic DNA of several insects we show that stick insects (Phasmatodea) have highly methylated genomes. We isolated methylated DNA fragments from the Vietnamese Walking Stick Medauroidea extradentata (formerly known as Baculum extradentatum) and demonstrated that most of the corresponding sequences are repetitive. Bisulfite sequencing of one of these fragments and of parts of conserved protein-coding genes revealed a methylcytosine content of 12.6%, mostly found at CpG, but also at CpT and CpA dinucleotides. Corresponding depletions of CpG and enrichments of TpG and CpA dinucleotides in some highly conserved protein-coding genes of Medauroidea reach a similar degree as in vertebrates and show that CpG methylation has occurred in the germline of these insects. CONCLUSIONS: Using four different methods, we demonstrate that the genome of Medauroidea extradentata is strongly methylated. Both repetitive DNA and coding genes appear to contain high levels of methylcytosines. These results argue for similar functions of DNA methylation in stick insects as those already known for vertebrates

Early mobilization in the critical care unit: A review of adult and pediatric literature.

Early mobilization of critically ill patients is beneficial, suggesting that it should be incorporated into daily clinical practice. Early passive, active, and combined progressive mobilizations can be safely initiated in intensive care units (ICUs). Adult patients receiving early mobilization have fewer ventilator-dependent days, shorter ICU and hospital stays, and better functional outcomes. Pediatric ICU data are limited, but recent studies also suggest that early mobilization is achievable without increasing patient risk. In this review, we provide a current and comprehensive appraisal of ICU mobilization techniques in both adult and pediatric critically ill patients. Contraindications and perceived barriers to early mobilization, including cost and health care provider views, are identified. Methods of overcoming barriers to early mobilization and enhancing sustainability of mobilization programs are discussed. Optimization of patient outcomes will require further studies on mobilization timing and intensity, particularly within specific ICU populations