L1 Influences on Bulgarian-Accented German : Prosodic Units and Prenuclear Pitch Accents

This study investigates the L1 influence on the use of accentual patterns, choice of prenuclear pitch accent types and their realization on L2 prosody. We use Mennen’s LILt model as a framework for our analysis. We recorded ten Bulgarian female speakers of German and ten female native German speakers who read Aesop’s fable The North Wind and the Sun. We found that the tendency for the Bulgarian native speakers to use more pitch accents than German native speakers is transferred to the L2 German of the Bulgarian learners. L*+H was the most frequent prenuclear pitch accent used by all groups. We also found that the Bulgarian learners stressed more function words and tolerated more stress clashes than the native German speakers. When speaking German, under the influence of the statistical regularities that relate to prosodic word patterns in their mother tongue, Bulgarian learners phrased their L2 speech into a higher number of shorter prosodic words, and therefore realized more pitch accents and aligned the high tonal target earlier than the native speakers. Concerning the variable alignment of the high target, we propose the prosodic word or the two-syllable window as the tentative candidate for an anchorage region. Our findings can be explained with respect to age of learning, as proposed by LILt’s general theoretical assumptions

Cellular, Antibody and Cytokine Pathways in Children with Acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection and MIS-C—Can We Match the Puzzle?

The newly identified strain of the Coronaviridae family called severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) recently became the most significant health threat for adults and children. Some main predictors of severe clinical course in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection are age and concomitant health conditions. Therefore, the proper evaluation of SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity is urgently required to understand and predict the spectrum of possible clinical phenotypes and recommend vaccination options and regimens in children. Furthermore, it is critical to characterize the nature of SARS-CoV-2-specific immune responses in children following asymptomatic infection and COVID-19 and other related conditions such as multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), para-infectious and late postinfectious consequences. Recent studies involving children revealed a variety of cytokines, T cells and antibody responses in the pathogenesis of the disease. Moreover, different clinical scenarios in children were observed-asymptomatic seroprevalence, acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, and rarely severe COVID-19 with typical cytokine storm, MIS-C, long COVID-19, etc. Therefore, to gain a better clinical view, adequate diagnostic criteria and treatment algorithms, it is essential to create a realistic picture of the immunological puzzle of SARS-CoV-2 infection in different age groups. Finally, it was demonstrated that children may exert a potent and prolonged adaptive anti-SARS-CoV-2 immune response, with significant cross-reactions against other human Corona Viruses, that might contribute to disease sparing effect in this age range. However, the immunopathology of the virus has to be elucidated first

Cellular, Antibody and Cytokine Pathways in Children with Acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection and MIS-C—Can We Match the Puzzle?

The newly identified strain of the Coronaviridae family called severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) recently became the most significant health threat for adults and children. Some main predictors of severe clinical course in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection are age and concomitant health conditions. Therefore, the proper evaluation of SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity is urgently required to understand and predict the spectrum of possible clinical phenotypes and recommend vaccination options and regimens in children. Furthermore, it is critical to characterize the nature of SARS-CoV-2-specific immune responses in children following asymptomatic infection and COVID-19 and other related conditions such as multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), para-infectious and late postinfectious consequences. Recent studies involving children revealed a variety of cytokines, T cells and antibody responses in the pathogenesis of the disease. Moreover, different clinical scenarios in children were observed-asymptomatic seroprevalence, acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, and rarely severe COVID-19 with typical cytokine storm, MIS-C, long COVID-19, etc. Therefore, to gain a better clinical view, adequate diagnostic criteria and treatment algorithms, it is essential to create a realistic picture of the immunological puzzle of SARS-CoV-2 infection in different age groups. Finally, it was demonstrated that children may exert a potent and prolonged adaptive anti-SARS-CoV-2 immune response, with significant cross-reactions against other human Corona Viruses, that might contribute to disease sparing effect in this age range. However, the immunopathology of the virus has to be elucidated first

Abstracts From The 3Rd International Severe Asthma Forum (Isaf)

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