Syntactic development in early foreign language learning: Effects of L1 transfer, input and individual factors

This study explores parallels and differences in the comprehension of wh-questions and relative clauses between early foreign-language (FL) learners and monolingual children. We test for (a) effects of syntactic first-language (L1) transfer, (b) the impact of input on syntactic development, and (c) the impact of individual differences on early FL syntactic development. We compare the results to findings in child second language (L2) naturalistic acquisition and adult FL acquisition. Following work on adult FL acquisition, we carried out a picture-based interpretation task with 243 child FL learners in fourth grade at different regular, partial, and high-immersion schools in Germany plus 68 monolingual English children aged 5 to 8 years as controls. The child FL learners display a strong subject-first preference but do not appear to use the L1 syntax in comprehension. Input differences across different schools affect overall accuracy, with students at high-immersion FL schools catching up to monolingual performance within 4 years of learning. Finally, phonological awareness is implicated in both early FL learning and naturalistic child L2 development. These findings suggest that early FL development resembles child L2 acquisition in speed and effects of individual factors, yet is different from adult FL acquisition due to the absence of L1 transfer effects.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Evaluating stance-annotated sentences from political blogs regarding the Brexit:a quantitative analysis

This paper offers a formally driven quantitative analysis of stance-annotated sentences in the Brexit Blog Corpus (BBC). Our goal is to identify features that determine the formal profiles of six stance categories (contrariety, hypotheticality, necessity, prediction, source of knowledge and uncertainty) in a subset of the BBC. The study has two parts: firstly, it examines a large number of formal linguistic features, such as punctuation, words and grammatical categories that occur in the sentences in order to describe the specific characteristics of each category, and secondly, it compares characteristics in the entire data set in order to determine stance similarities in the data set. We show that among the six stance categories in the corpus, contrariety and necessity are the most discriminative ones, with the former using longer sentences, more conjunctions, more repetitions and shorter forms than the sentences expressing other stances. necessity has longer lexical forms but shorter sentences, which are syntactically more complex. We show that stance in our data set is expressed in sentences with around 21 words per sentence. The sentences consist mainly of alphabetical characters forming a varied vocabulary without special forms, such as digits or special characters

Perspectives of nurses' role in interprofessional pharmaceutical care across 14 European countries: A qualitative study in pharmacists, physicians and nurses.

OBJECTIVES: To understand healthcare professionals' experiences and perceptions of nurses' potential or ideal roles in pharmaceutical care (PC). DESIGN: Qualitative study conducted through semi-structured in-depth interviews. SETTING: Between December 2018 and October 2019, interviews were conducted with healthcare professionals of 14 European countries in four healthcare settings: hospitals, community care, mental health and long-term residential care. PARTICIPANTS: In each country, pharmacists, physicians and nurses in each of the four settings were interviewed. Participants were selected on the basis that they were key informants with broad knowledge and experience of PC. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: All interviews were conducted face to face. Each country conducted an initial thematic analysis. Consensus was reached through a face-to-face discussion of all 14 national leads. RESULTS: 340 interviews were completed. Several tasks were described within four potential nursing responsibilities, that came up as the analysis themes, being: 1) monitoring therapeutic/adverse effects of medicines, 2) monitoring medicines adherence, 3) decision making on medicines, including prescribing 4) providing patient education/information. Nurses' autonomy varied across Europe, from none to limited to a few tasks and emergencies to a broad range of tasks and responsibilities. Intended level of autonomy depended on medicine types and level of education. Some changes are needed before nursing roles can be optimised and implemented in practice. Lack of time, shortage of nurses, absence of legal frameworks and limited education and knowledge are main threats to European nurses actualising their ideal role in PC. CONCLUSIONS: European nurses have an active role in PC. Respondents reported positive impacts on care quality and patient outcomes when nurses assumed PC responsibilities. Healthcare professionals expect nurses to report observations and assessments. This key patient information should be shared and addressed by the interprofessional team. The study evidences the need of a unique and consensus-based PC framework across Europe

Enterocyte tight junctions as a target for Candida albicans translocation through the gut barrier.

Candida albicans (C. albicans) est une levure appartenant au microbiote de l’Homme, pouvant être à l’origine d’infections systémiques sévères et potentiellement mortelles chez les patients fragilisées. Le tractus gastro-intestinal est reconnu comme la principale source d’infections disséminées à C. albicans, la barrière entérocytaire jouant un rôle protecteur vis-à-vis de ces infections. Les jonctions serrées (JSs) reliant les entérocytes adjacents assurent l’imperméabilité et l’intégrité de la barrière intestinale. Les travaux de recherche de cette thèse portent sur l’étude de la modulation de l’intégrité des JSs au cours de l’infection des entérocytes par C. albicans et la spécification des mécanismes cellulaire et moléculaire permettant au champignon de traverser la barrière intestinale. Un modèle d’interaction entre la barrière digestive et C. albicans a été développé. Dans ce contexte, la perméabilité tissulaire est augmentée lors du traitement de la monocouche de cellules Caco-2 avec du sécrétome de C. albicans SC5314. La rupture de l’intégrité de la barrière épithéliale est corrélée avec une modulation de la fonctionnalité des JSs entérocytaires et implique un peptide fongique appartenant à la protéine Repressed by tup1 (Rbt1). En conséquence, la translocation de C. albicans de la flore intestinale vers les tissus sous-jacents est potentialisée, favorisant son invasion tissulaire par mécanisme d’endocytose.Candida albicans (C. albicans), a yeast belonging to the human microbiota, can cause of severe and potentially fatal systemic infections in debilitated patients. The gastrointestinal tract is recognized as the main source of disseminated C. albicans infections, the enterocyte barrier playing a protective role against these infections. The tight junctions (TJs) connecting adjacent enterocytes provide impermeability and integrity of the intestinal barrier. The research work of this thesis concerns the modulation of the integrity of TJs during the infection of enterocytes by C. albicans and the specification of the molecular and cellular mechanism allowing the fungus to cross the intestinal barrier. A model of interaction between the intestinal barrier and C. albicans has been developed. In this context, tissue permeability is increased upon treatment of the Caco-2 cell monolayers with the secretome of C. albicans SC5314. The disruption of the epithelial barrier is correlated with a modulation of the functionnality of the enterocyte TJs and involves a fungal peptide belonging to the protein Repressed by tup1 (Rbt1). Consequently, the translocation of C. albicans from the intestinal flora to the underlying tissues is potentiated, favoring its tissue invasion by endocytosis mechanism

Diffusion spatiotemporelle du virus Puumala en Europe de l'Ouest représentée sur une carte issue du serveur Geoportail

cas imageDiffusion spatiotemporelle du virus Puumala en Europe de l'Ouest représentée sur une carte issue du serveur Geoportai

Tight Junctions as a Key for Pathogens Invasion in Intestinal Epithelial Cells

Tight junctions play a major role in maintaining the integrity and impermeability of the intestinal barrier. As such, they act as an ideal target for pathogens to promote their translocation through the intestinal mucosa and invade their host. Different strategies are used by pathogens, aimed at directly destabilizing the junctional network or modulating the different signaling pathways involved in the modulation of these junctions. After a brief presentation of the organization and modulation of tight junctions, we provide the state of the art of the molecular mechanisms leading to permeability breakdown of the gut barrier as a consequence of tight junctions’ attack by pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites

“ Candida Albicans Interactions With The Host: Crossing The Intestinal Epithelial Barrier”

International audienceFormerly a commensal organism of the mucosal surfaces of most healthy individuals, Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen that causes infections ranging from superficial to the more life-threatening disseminated infections, especially in the ever-growing population of vulnerable patients in the hospital setting. In these situations, the fungus takes advantage of its host following a disturbance in the host defense system and/or the mucosal microbiota. Overwhelming evidence suggests that the gastrointestinal tract is the main source of disseminated C. albicans infections. Major risk factors for disseminated candidiasis include damage to the mucosal intestinal barrier, immune dysfunction, and dysbiosis of the resident microbiota. A better understanding of C. albicans' interaction with the intestinal epithelial barrier will be useful for designing future therapies to avoid systemic candidiasis. In this review, we provide an overview of the current knowledge regarding the mechanisms of pathogenicity that allow the fungus to reach and translocate the gut barrier