Learning the surface structure of wh-questions in English and French with a non-parametric Bayesian model

The overt structure of wh-questions varies across and within languages. How does a child learn the number of wh-question types that are present in her language and the surface properties of each type? We propose a non-parametric Bayesian model of this aspect of language acquisition, focusing on discrete morphosyntactic properties of questions such as displacement and continuous prosodic properties such as wh-word duration, and apply it to data based on child-directed speech in English and French. The model successfully infers that English has fewer wh-question types than French, identifies the properties of the main question types in each language, and achieves reasonable classification accuracy on naturalistic test utterances. Non-parametric Bayesian inference is a promising method for addressing cross-linguistic and language-internal syntactic variation

Funding received from breastmilk substitute manufacturers and policy positions of national maternity care provider associations: an online cross-sectional review.

ObjectivesMaternity care providers play an essential role in supporting women to breast feed. It is critical that their professional associations limit influence from breastmilk substitute (BMS) manufacturers. Aims of this study were (i) to examine whether maternity care provider associations had policy or positions statements addressing BMS marketing and (ii) to explore the type of funding received by these associations.DesignAn online cross-sectional review.SettingNational or regional maternity provider professional associations in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada and the UK.ParticipantsTwenty-eight maternity care provider (obstetricians, midwives, nurses and others involved in perinatal care) professional association websites.InterventionsWebsites were examined from November 2019 to October 2020.Primary and secondary outcome measuresEvidence of BMS industry funding and policy or position statements addressing acceptance of funding from industries such as BMS.ResultsPolicies addressing the BMS industry were found for 14 associations (50%). UK-based associations (5/5, 100%) and perinatal associations (4/6, 67%) were most likely to have a policy. Six associations (6/28, 21%) received some form of BMS financial support. The highest rates of BMS support were seen in the form of event advertising (5/28, 18%); closely followed by event sponsorship (4/28, 14%). At a provider level, obstetric associations had the highest rates of BMS support (2/4, 50%). At a country level, US-based associations were most likely to receive BMS support (3/7, 43%).ConclusionsBMS industry financial support was received by one-fifth of maternity care provider associations. Half of these associations had policies addressing BMS marketing. BMS industry support can create conflicts of interest that can threaten efforts to support, protect and promote breast feeding. Healthcare provider associations should avoid BMS funding and at a minimum have policy or position statements addressing BMS marketing

Assessing the quality of antenatal corticosteroids in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the administration of intramuscular antenatal corticosteroids to women at risk of preterm birth to prevent preterm-associated neonatal mortality and morbidity. Poor quality medicines are a major problem for health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), however the quality of antenatal corticosteroids is not well understood. We aimed to conduct a systematic review of available studies describing the quality of recommended injectable antenatal corticosteroids (dexamethasone or betamethasone) in LMICs. METHODS: Structured search strategy was applied to six databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Global Index Medicus, WHO Medicines Quality Database), without year or language restrictions. Any primary study reporting any medicine quality parameter (Active Pharmacological Ingredient, pH and sterility) for injectable dexamethasone or betamethasone was eligible. Two authors independently screened studies for eligibility, extracted data on included studies and applied Medicine Quality Assessment Reporting Guidelines tool to assess study quality. Results were reported narratively, stratified by country of manufacture, organisation type and level of care. RESULTS: In total, 15,547 citations were screened with two eligible studies identified that focussed on dexamethasone quality (no studies of betamethasone were identified). One study included 19 samples from 9 LMICs, and the other included "less than 100 samples" from India. The prevalence of failed dexamethasone samples ranged from 3.14% to 32.2% due to inadequate Active Pharmacological Ingredient. A higher prevalence of failed dexamethasone samples were seen at the point of care and the public sector. CONCLUSIONS: Poor quality maternal and newborn health medicines can endanger women and newborns. Though available evidence on antenatal corticosteroids quality in LMICs is limited, results suggested poor quality dexamethasone may be prevalent in some countries. More primary studies are required to confirm these findings and guide policymakers on procurement of good-quality maternal and newborn health medicines

Small beer? Peer-to-peer lending in the craft beer sector

Peer to peer lending has advantages of ease of access to finance, timely and efficient delivery of funding, and is particularly beneficial at a specific time in the life cycle of the firm

Habitus emerging : the development of hybrid logics and collaborative business models in the Irish craft beer sector

This article analyses data from 25 Irish craft beer entrepreneurs supplemented by associated web and press material, to explore how habitus emerges in a nascent entrepreneurial field. Welter's frame of entrepreneurial contexts – business, social, spatial, and institutional – is combined with Bourdieusian theory to explain the emergence of habitus. Findings show that emerging habitus is enacted through hybridization of diverse global and local field logics, via the adoption, development and extension of their logics. It is also path-dependent upon the life and career histories of a critical mass of habitus members, previously exposed to these fields. The study shows both local and global strategies of collective resource sharing - a novel approach to tackling the resource paucity typically faced by partitioned specialists facing large scale generalists

Genetic associations with childhood brain growth, defined in two longitudinal cohorts

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) are unraveling the genetics of adult brain neuroanatomy as measured by cross-sectional anatomic magnetic resonance imaging (aMRI). However, the genetic mechanisms that shape childhood brain development are, as yet, largely unexplored. In this study we identify common genetic variants associated with childhood brain development as defined by longitudinal aMRI. Genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data were determined in two cohorts: one enriched for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (LONG cohort: 458 participants; 119 with ADHD) and the other from a population-based cohort (Generation R: 257 participants). The growth of the brain's major regions (cerebral cortex, white matter, basal ganglia, and cerebellum) and one region of interest (the right lateral prefrontal cortex) were defined on all individuals from two aMRIs, and a GWAS and a pathway analysis were performed. In addition, association between polygenic risk for ADHD and brain growth was determined for the LONG cohort. For white matter growth, GWAS meta-analysis identified a genome-wide significant intergenic SNP (rs12386571, P = 9.09 × 10-9 ), near AKR1B10. This gene is part of the aldo-keto reductase superfamily and shows neural expression. No enrichment of neural pathways was detected and polygenic risk for ADHD was not associated with the brain growth phenotypes in the LONG cohort that was enriched for the diagnosis of ADHD. The study illustrates the use of a novel brain growth phenotype defined in vivo for further study

On fixed point sets and Lefschetz modules for sporadic simple groups

We consider 2-local geometries and other subgroup complexes for sporadic simple groups. For six groups, the fixed point set of a noncentral involution is shown to be equivariantly homotopy equivalent to a standard geometry for the component of the centralizer. For odd primes, fixed point sets are computed for sporadic groups having an extraspecial Sylow p-subgroup of order p^3, acting on the complex of those p-radical subgroups containing a p-central element in their centers. Vertices for summands of the associated reduced Lefschetz modules are described.Comment: 22 page

Electron-Spin Excitation Coupling in an Electron Doped Copper Oxide Superconductor

High-temperature (high-Tc) superconductivity in the copper oxides arises from electron or hole doping of their antiferromagnetic (AF) insulating parent compounds. The evolution of the AF phase with doping and its spatial coexistence with superconductivity are governed by the nature of charge and spin correlations and provide clues to the mechanism of high-Tc superconductivity. Here we use a combined neutron scattering and scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) to study the Tc evolution of electron-doped superconducting Pr0.88LaCe0.12CuO4-delta obtained through the oxygen annealing process. We find that spin excitations detected by neutron scattering have two distinct modes that evolve with Tc in a remarkably similar fashion to the electron tunneling modes in STS. These results demonstrate that antiferromagnetism and superconductivity compete locally and coexist spatially on nanometer length scales, and the dominant electron-boson coupling at low energies originates from the electron-spin excitations.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures, supplementary information include