The Development of Pragmatic Competence through Telecollaboration: An Analysis of Requesting Behavior

Telecollaboration is a pedagogical approach in which geographically distant parties work together for the purposes of culture and language learning. A growing body of literature documents the benefits of telecollaboration for the foreign language classroom, specifically in the area of interlanguage pragmatic development. While peer-peer telecollaborative studies are well represented in this strand of research, there has been a lack of attention to novice-expert telecollaboration, a gap this dissertation seeks to fill. The study investigated the requesting behavior of American learners of German for Professional Purposes (`novices') as they interacted via synchronous Web conferences with German-speaking professionals in Germany (`experts'). Requesting behavior was examined through four focal areas: directness, internal modification, external modification, and appropriateness. In addition to comparing the requesting behavior of novices and experts, the study also examined the effect of interaction with experts and data-driven focused instruction on the development of novices' requesting behavior. The research used a mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative analytic approaches to evaluate transcribed and coded request sequences. The two groups showed a number of differences: novice speakers used more direct requests than experts, experts used more internal modification than novices, and experts were rated as more appropriate than novices. This result broadly corresponds to previous research findings. In contrast to earlier findings, the two groups showed similarities in their use of external modifiers, including both the frequency and range of use. Novice development was not evident from quantitative analysis, but qualitative analysis revealed individual differences among the learners profiled, including the emergence of an unexpected category of request modification: the modified external support move. Although certain learners were seen to exhibit pragmatic development, other learners showed the opposite trend, namely an overreliance on formulaic language use. In addition to supporting previous research findings about the nature of request production in second language learners, the study confirms the utility of explicit instruction in pragmatic development occurring within a telecollaborative context. It further contributes new understanding to the field of second language acquisition by identifying the limits of existing coding taxonomies for speech act research, and it suggests the need to develop better tools for quantitative research of interlanguage pragmatic development

Targeting DNA Damage Response and Replication Stress in Pancreatic Cancer

Background and aims: Continuing recalcitrance to therapy cements pancreatic cancer (PC) as the most lethal malignancy, which is set to become the second leading cause of cancer death in our society. The study aim was to investigate the association between DNA damage response (DDR), replication stress and novel therapeutic response in PC to develop a biomarker driven therapeutic strategy targeting DDR and replication stress in PC. Methods: We interrogated the transcriptome, genome, proteome and functional characteristics of 61 novel PC patient-derived cell lines to define novel therapeutic strategies targeting DDR and replication stress. Validation was done in patient derived xenografts and human PC organoids. Results: Patient-derived cell lines faithfully recapitulate the epithelial component of pancreatic tumors including previously described molecular subtypes. Biomarkers of DDR deficiency, including a novel signature of homologous recombination deficiency, co-segregates with response to platinum (P < 0.001) and PARP inhibitor therapy (P < 0.001) in vitro and in vivo. We generated a novel signature of replication stress with which predicts response to ATR (P < 0.018) and WEE1 inhibitor (P < 0.029) treatment in both cell lines and human PC organoids. Replication stress was enriched in the squamous subtype of PC (P < 0.001) but not associated with DDR deficiency. Conclusions: Replication stress and DDR deficiency are independent of each other, creating opportunities for therapy in DDR proficient PC, and post-platinum therapy

sj-docx-13-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 – Supplemental material for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients

Supplemental material, sj-docx-13-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients by Erika L. Cyphert, Shannon Clare, Alexander Dash, Jacob C. Nixon, Joseph Raphael, Jonathan Harrison, Alison Heilbronner, Han Jo Kim, Matthew Cunningham, Darren Lebl, Frank Schwab, Christopher J. Hernandez and Emily M. Stein in HSS Journal®</p

sj-docx-9-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 – Supplemental material for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients

Supplemental material, sj-docx-9-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients by Erika L. Cyphert, Shannon Clare, Alexander Dash, Jacob C. Nixon, Joseph Raphael, Jonathan Harrison, Alison Heilbronner, Han Jo Kim, Matthew Cunningham, Darren Lebl, Frank Schwab, Christopher J. Hernandez and Emily M. Stein in HSS Journal®</p

sj-docx-1-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 – Supplemental material for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients by Erika L. Cyphert, Shannon Clare, Alexander Dash, Jacob C. Nixon, Joseph Raphael, Jonathan Harrison, Alison Heilbronner, Han Jo Kim, Matthew Cunningham, Darren Lebl, Frank Schwab, Christopher J. Hernandez and Emily M. Stein in HSS Journal®</p

sj-docx-3-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 – Supplemental material for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients

Supplemental material, sj-docx-3-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients by Erika L. Cyphert, Shannon Clare, Alexander Dash, Jacob C. Nixon, Joseph Raphael, Jonathan Harrison, Alison Heilbronner, Han Jo Kim, Matthew Cunningham, Darren Lebl, Frank Schwab, Christopher J. Hernandez and Emily M. Stein in HSS Journal®</p

sj-docx-6-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 – Supplemental material for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients

Supplemental material, sj-docx-6-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients by Erika L. Cyphert, Shannon Clare, Alexander Dash, Jacob C. Nixon, Joseph Raphael, Jonathan Harrison, Alison Heilbronner, Han Jo Kim, Matthew Cunningham, Darren Lebl, Frank Schwab, Christopher J. Hernandez and Emily M. Stein in HSS Journal®</p

sj-docx-12-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 – Supplemental material for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients

Supplemental material, sj-docx-12-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients by Erika L. Cyphert, Shannon Clare, Alexander Dash, Jacob C. Nixon, Joseph Raphael, Jonathan Harrison, Alison Heilbronner, Han Jo Kim, Matthew Cunningham, Darren Lebl, Frank Schwab, Christopher J. Hernandez and Emily M. Stein in HSS Journal®</p

sj-docx-7-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 – Supplemental material for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients

Supplemental material, sj-docx-7-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients by Erika L. Cyphert, Shannon Clare, Alexander Dash, Jacob C. Nixon, Joseph Raphael, Jonathan Harrison, Alison Heilbronner, Han Jo Kim, Matthew Cunningham, Darren Lebl, Frank Schwab, Christopher J. Hernandez and Emily M. Stein in HSS Journal®</p

sj-docx-5-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 – Supplemental material for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients

Supplemental material, sj-docx-5-hss-10.1177_15563316231201410 for A Pilot Study of the Gut Microbiota in Spine Fusion Surgery Patients by Erika L. Cyphert, Shannon Clare, Alexander Dash, Jacob C. Nixon, Joseph Raphael, Jonathan Harrison, Alison Heilbronner, Han Jo Kim, Matthew Cunningham, Darren Lebl, Frank Schwab, Christopher J. Hernandez and Emily M. Stein in HSS Journal®</p