A contrastive analysis of the sound structure of Sotho-Tswana for second-language acquisition

The paper addresses second language teaching of phonetic, phonological and prosodic features in the Sotho-Tswana languages (Southern Bantu) from a linguistic perspective. It motivates the inclusion of phonetic, phonological and prosodic background knowledge in second language teaching, and singles out potential areas of learners’ difficulties based on a comparative analysis, assuming a Germanic language as the learner’s first language. It adopts the idea that learner problems can be overcome by a mixture of linguistic background explanation and practical, contrast-directed exercises.

Navigating agroecological urbanism: examining linkages and interdependencies within alternative food networks

In pursuing agroecological urbanism – a strategic endeavor to dismantle disempowering structures within urban food systems through cultivating mutual interdependencies – alternative food networks (AFNs) emerge as pivotal catalysts for transformative change. Indeed, there are increasing arguments for AFNs working on diverse issues to pool resources and address food system challenges from multiple perspectives under a common frame. However, a pressing need exists for greater clarity on tensions and challenges in establishing a network of AFNs within a shared framework, such as that fostered by agroecological urbanism. This study explores impediments to organizing AFNs into transformative networks, drawing insights from two diverse urban contexts – Preston, England, and Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country – using a case study methodology comprising online semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Our findings underscore three primary barriers to this process: divergent conceptualizations of food questions, education and awareness-raising as a limited convergence point, and constrained resources. Such barriers generate a practical divorce between social and environmental goals in the experiences analyzed. Central to this division is also the pivotal question of the subject of justice – whether AFNs advocate primarily for urban citizens’ interests or prioritize peri-urban and rural farmers’ concerns. The analysis highlights the need to develop inclusive socio-ecological narratives within the overarching framework of agroecological urbanism as a critical step in fostering collaborative coalitions among AFNs that move beyond individualized change. Building these coalitions would depend on funding availability for long-term strategic collaborative efforts, emphasizing the crucial role of public authorities in such processes

Intonational Features of Spontaneous Narrations in Monolingual and Heritage Russian in the U.S.—An Exploration of the RUEG Corpus

This article presents RuPro, a new corpus resource of prosodically annotated speech by Russian heritage speakers in the U.S. and monolingually raised Russian speakers. The corpus contains data elicited in formal and informal communicative situations, by male/female and adolescent/adult speakers. The resource is presented with its architecture and annotation, and it is shown how it is used for the analysis of intonational features of spontaneous mono- and bilingual Russian speech. The analyses investigate the length of intonation phrases, types and number of pitch accents, and boundary tones. It emerges that the speaker groups do not differ in the inventory of pitch accents and boundary tones or in the relative frequency of these tonal events. However, they do differ in the length of intonation phrases (IPs), with heritage speakers showing shorter IPs also in the informal communicative situation. Both groups also differ concerning the number of pitch accents used on content words, with heritage speakers using more pitch accents than monolingually raised speakers. The results are discussed with respect to register differentiation and differences in prosodic density across both speaker groups.German Research Foundation (DFG)projects P8 and PcPeer Reviewe

Evaluierung des Homocystein-Immunoassays am Immulite 2500

Eine moderate Hyperhomocysteinämie (>12 µmol/l) ist der D.A.CH.-Liga Homocystein zufolge bei 5-10% der Allgemeinbevölkerung und bei bis zu 40% der Patienten mit Gefäßerkrankungen zu erwarten, weshalb die Bestimmung des Homocysteins ein Teil des individuellen Risikoprofils für Patienten mit Herz-Kreislauf-Erkrankungen sein sollte. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde der Immulite 2500 Homocystein-Assay der Firma DPC (Diagnostic Products Corporation) Biermann analytisch evaluiert. Bei dem Immulite 2500 Homocystein-Assay handelt es sich um einen kompetitiven Festphasen-Chemilumineszenz-Immunoassay. Für die Messung der Intra-Assay-Präzision (n=20) wurden Patientenseren vier unterschiedlicher Konzentrationen und Kontrollen drei verschiedener Level gemessen. Die Inter-Assay-Präzision (n=12) wurde ebenfalls mit den drei Kontrollen und mit Patientenseren in drei verschiedenen Konzentrationen durchgeführt. Desweiteren wurden die Verschleppung und die Verdünnungslinearität gemessen. Zur Ermittlung der Stabilität des Homocysteins in verschiedenen Blutentnahmeröhrchen wurde die Homocysteinkonzentration über 24 Stunden gemessen. Ein Methodenvergleich wurde mit dem ADVIA Centaur (Bayer) und der Hochdruckflüssigkeitschromatographie (HPLC) anhand von 118 Patientenproben und zusätzlich anhand von 110 Dialysepatientenproben durchgeführt und nach Bablock/Passing und Bland/Altman ausgewertet. Die Messung der Intra-Assay-Präzision ergab Variationskoeffizienten in einem Bereich von 3,9% bis 7,4%. Die Variationskoeffizienten der Inter-Assay-Präzision lagen zwischen 5,2% und 10,4%. Die Linearität wurde in einem Bereich von 2,7 µmol/l bis 45,5 µmol/l getestet, wobei die lineare Regression im ersten Ansatz bei R = 0,9941 und im zweiten Ansatz bei R = 0,996 lag. Bei Messungen einer hohen Probe (Mittelwert 46,4 µmol/l) und einer niedrigen Probe (Mittelwert 6,2 µmol/l) im Wechsel wurde keine Verschleppung der hohen Probe in die niedrige Probe festgestellt. Der Methodenvergleich mit dem ADVIA Centaur der Firma Bayer und der HPLC wurde mit Proben in einem Bereich von 2,8 µmol/l bis 38,2 µmol/l bzw. mit Proben von Dialysepatienten in einem Bereich von 2,9 µmol/l bis 49,8 µmol/l durchgeführt. Hier ergaben sich gute Korrelationskoeffizienten von R=0,992 für den Vergleich des Immulite 2500 mit dem Centaur und R=0,994 für den Vergleich des Immulite 2500 mit der HPLC. Auch in der vergleichenden Messung der Dialysepatientenproben korrelieren die ermittelten Ergebnisse gut (R = 0,971 (ADVIA Centaur) und R = 0,993 (HPLC)). Festgestellt wurde im Methodenvergleich mittels Bland/Altman, dass sowohl der ADVIA Centaur als auch die HPLC identische Patientenproben höher messen als der Immulite 2500. Diese Abweichungen nahmen im Bereich höherer Konzentrationen zu, was einen proportionalen Fehler demonstriert. Um das Verhalten der Homocysteinkonzentration in unterschiedlichen Blutentnahme-Röhrchen und unter der Voraussetzung zentrifugiert oder nicht zentrifugiert zu untersuchen, wurde eine Stabilitätsmessung über 24 Stunden bei Aufbewahrung der Proben bei Raumtemperatur vorgenommen. Verwendet wurden EDTA-Plasma-, Heparin-Plasma- und Serum-Röhrchen. Die Ergebnisse zeigten einen starken Anstieg der Homocysteinkonzentration in allen nicht zentrifugierten Proben. In den zentrifugierten Proben verhielt sich die Homocysteinkonzentration annähernd konstant. Der Immulite 2500 Homocystein-Assay ist einfach in der Handhabung und liefert nach 65 Minuten das Ergebnis. Empfohlen ist eine Verwendung von Heparin- oder EDTA-Plasma. Auch Serum kann verwendet werden, sollte aber umgehend zentrifugiert werden. Der Immulite 2500 Homocystein-Assay ist geeignet für den Einsatz im Routinelabor

Intonational features of spontaneous narrations in monolingual and heritage Russian in the U.S. : an exploration of the RUEG corpus

This article presents RuPro, a new corpus resource of prosodically annotated speech by Russian heritage speakers in the U.S. and monolingually raised Russian speakers. The corpus contains data elicited in formal and informal communicative situations, by male/female and adolescent/adult speakers. The resource is presented with its architecture and annotation, and it is shown how it is used for the analysis of intonational features of spontaneous mono- and bilingual Russian speech. The analyses investigate the length of intonation phrases, types and number of pitch accents, and boundary tones. It emerges that the speaker groups do not differ in the inventory of pitch accents and boundary tones or in the relative frequency of these tonal events. However, they do differ in the length of intonation phrases (IPs), with heritage speakers showing shorter IPs also in the informal communicative situation. Both groups also differ concerning the number of pitch accents used on content words, with heritage speakers using more pitch accents than monolingually raised speakers. The results are discussed with respect to register differentiation and differences in prosodic density across both speaker groups.German Research Foundation (DFG)projects P8 and P

Порядок слов в эритажном русском: влияние типа клаузы и языка окружения

Heritage speakers (HSs) are known to differ from monolingual speakers in various linguistic domains. The present study focuses on the syntactic properties of monolingual and heritage Russian. Using a corpus of semi-spontaneous spoken and written narratives produced by HSs of Russian residing in the US and Germany, we investigate HSs’ word order patterns and compare them to monolingual speakers of Russian from Saint Petersburg. Our results show that the majority language (ML) of HSs as well as the clause type contribute to observed differences in word order patterns between speaker groups. Specifically, HSs in Germany performed similarly to monolingual speakers of Russian while HSs in the US generally produced more SVO and less OVS orders than the speakers of the latter group. Furthermore, HSs in the US produced more SVO orders than both monolingual speakers and HSs in Germany in embedded clauses, but not in main clauses. The results of the study are discussed with the reference to the differences between main and embedded clauses as well as the differences between the MLs of the HSs.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (1034)Peer Reviewe

The Role of Local Authorities in Shaping Local Food Systems

Given the importance that current food-related challenges pose to our society, the potential of local food initiatives to address sustainability has gained increased attention. Nevertheless, research has increasingly demonstrated that local food initiatives are limited in fulfilling their sustainability potential. This realisation has led many scholars to argue that the path towards food system transformation needs to be based on interconnected networks of these ‘alternative’ practices—what this paper terms local food systems. Nevertheless, as many local food initiatives rely on funding and volunteer work, their capacity to create infrastructures for integrated approaches is limited. In this context, influential players—those who can provide resources, such as local authorities—become key in the assemblage of local food systems. However, there is limited understanding of how the role of local authorities affects the internal dynamics of local food systems and potential outcomes. This study addresses this research gap by analysing two case studies (Preston, England and Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country). Using urban political ecology (UPE) as a theoretical framework, this study offers original insight into the key governance elements affecting the direction of local food systems and thus the alignment of diverse local food initiatives, limiting their sustainability potential

Leveraging knowledge-policy interfaces for food systems transformation in the UK: lessons from civil society

This report presents the findings of a research project that explored how civil society organisations (CSOs) navigate ‘knowledge-policy interfaces’ to influence food policy in the UK. These interfaces encompass processes, spaces, and structures related to knowledge exchange amongst policy actors, including but not limited to researchers, policymakers, CSOs, and industry. The report provides insights into CSOs’ approaches, constraints, and roles within these interfaces. It aims to make visible the important and challenging work of CSOs in driving food policy change and share valuable lessons for shaping food policy between sectors

Community Hubs in Lancashire and South Cumbria: Emergence, Development and Next Steps Research Project: Final Report

Background, Rationale and Community Hub Characterisation This report summarises research into the emergence and development of community hubs within Lancashire and South Cumbria (L&SC). The project has been funded by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and was developed following discussions with the Partnerships Manager at Community Futures – the Community Council of Lancashire. The phrase ‘community hub’ has existed for a number of years and usually relates to a range of community initiatives, including community centres, community spaces, and many other projects that provide services to a community [1, 2]. Most of these initiatives have originated in the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector. However, since the proliferation of community hubs during the COVID-19 pandemic, hubs operated by district-level local authorities have emerged in greater number. These are perceived to have been a successful response to the challenges posed by the pandemic, and to have reduced barriers to communication between organisations and led to an increase in partnership working [3]. In L&SC there are a couple of large programmes being developed by public bodies such as Lancashire County Council and the local NHS foundation trust that build on the theme of community hubs. The range of initiatives that the phrase ‘community hub’ can refer to has created some confusion amongst members of the VCFSE sector who are unsure how these programmes will affect them and what role, if any, they may be expected to fulfil within them. At times there is little agreement (and some tautology) over what constitutes either a ‘community’ or a ‘hub’ – ‘community’ indicating the constituents served by a hub, and ‘hub’ referring to the nature of the community initiative in question. This report begins by outlining the geographical parameters of the study in the context of the L&SC Integrated Care System (ICS) before considering definitional issues, drawing on insights from the literature and our research interviews. It then sets out the study’s aim and objectives, summarises the study design and methods, and acknowledges some limitations. It goes on to introduce the ‘landscape’ of community hubs, before presenting findings from the qualitative data collection – examining the development of community hubs; motivations and drivers; challenges; facilitators; and public-civil society tensions

Community Hubs in Lancashire and South Cumbria: Emergence, Development and Next Steps Research Project: Final Report – Executive Summary

Introduction This report summarises research into the emergence and development of community hubs within Lancashire and South Cumbria (L&SC). The project has been funded by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and was developed following discussions with the Partnerships Manager at Community Futures – the Community Council of Lancashire. It acknowledges a degree of confusion and overlap regarding hubs in the L&SC region, some led by the VCSFE and others by the statutory sector. It addresses differences in perceptions of the role and function of hubs and aims to give an overview of the emerging landscape, challenges, motivations and drivers for hub formation, as well as reflecting on public and VCFSE sector perspectives. Aims and Objectives Aims a) To characterise the emergence and development of community hubs in Lancashire and Cumbria, accounting for their diversity and the key challenges they are attempting to address. b) To inform the development of a joined-up, coherent and sustainable approach to establishing effective community hubs in L&SC. Objectives a) To examine the approaches to developing and resourcing community hubs within L&SC. b) To gain an overview of existing and proposed community hub-related developments within L&SC. c) To increase understanding of how these community hub-related developments are responding to community need, infrastructure and provision. d) To underpin a joined-up approach to working across sectors within L&SC and produce policy recommendations that can lead to better outcomes and less duplication. Methods The study followed a mixed-methods approach and ethical approval was secured from the relevant UCLan Ethics Committee. Three phases of data collection included: Desk-based research and mapping exercise. Semi-structured interviews with decision makers and project managers from public bodies. Small-group and individual interviews with participants from a sample of community hubs