Investigating the dual function of gesture in blind and visually impaired children. (Poster)

Co-speech gesture research explores the role of gesture in communication, i.e. whether gestures are intended for the listener/audience (e.g. Mol et al. 2009; Alibali et al., 2001; Holler & Beattie, 2003) or support the process of speech production (Kita & Davies, 2009; Hostetter et al. 2007). To investigate the role of gesture in communication we turn to blind and visually impaired speakers whose opportunities to learn gestures visually are limited (cf. Iverson & Goldin-Meadow 1998; 2001). The present study aims at providing insight into the nature and occurrence of co-speech gestures in spontaneous speech: between blind, severely visually impaired and sighted individuals. Participants were asked to read a short story (either in print or in Braille) and to re-tell it to the interviewer. Care was taken to establish an environment in which the participants would feel safe and would not refrain from gesturing for fear of hurting themselves or others. We predicted that if blind speakers did not gesture as much as their visually impaired peers it would suggest that gesture is to some extent acquired through visual instruction. However, following Iverson et al. (2000) and Iverson and Goldin-Meadow (1998) we hypothesized that despite the absence of visual gestural stimuli during the language-learning process gesture is present in the language of the blind participants - but there would be differences in gesture form, types and functions. The present study aims at exploring and categorizing these differences, with regard to how sensory references are visible in the gestures of participants with various degrees of sight impairment. Regardless of dissimilarities, the presence of gesture in both the blind and impaired individuals points towards a dual function of co-speech gestures, i.e. a device for both the speaker and their interlocutor

Znaczenie badawcze gestu w analizie procesów poznawczych osób niewidomych i niedowidzących

Gestykulacja jest wszechobecną cechą komunikacji wśród ludzi, choć występuje również u małp człekokształtnych. Gest daleki jest jednak od bycia przypadkową serią ruchów rąk. Według teoretyków nauk kognitywnych gest i język to dwa uzupełniające się źródła wiedzy na temat procesów umysłowych leżących u ich podstawy. Jeżeli więc gest, podobnie jak język, jest odzwierciedleniem struktury umysłowej człowieka, z której się wywodzi można założyć, iż analiza gestu stanowić będzie istotne źródło danych potwierdzających lub obalających teorie na temat natury konceptualizacji oraz kategoryzacji; w szczególności teorię ucieleśnionego poznania oraz opartą na niej kognitywną teorię metafory. Badanie języka jako ekspresji procesów rozgrywających się na poziomie umysłu — dokładniej rzecz biorąc — ucieleśnionego umysłu jest fundamentalnym założeniem lingwistyki kognitywnej. Niniejszy artykuł przygląda się powiązaniu gestu, języka oraz zjawisk umysłowych, ze szczególną uwagą traktując metaforyczny gest osób niewidomych oraz niedowidzących. Pokazując konceptualne oraz społeczne konotacje występowania różnych typów gestu autorki starają się wykazać, iż jego analiza stanowić może istotny przyczynek do rozwoju kognitywnej teorii poznania.Narodowe Centrum Nauki (grant 2011/01/N/HS6/04050

Shared information structure: Evidence from cross-linguistic priming

This study asked whether bilinguals construct a language-independent level of information structure for the sentences that they produce. It reports an experiment in which a Polish–English bilingual and a confederate of the experimenter took turns to describe pictures to each other and to find those pictures in an array. The confederate produced a Polish active, passive, or conjoined noun phrase, or an active sentence with object–verb–subject order (OVS sentence). The participant responded in English, and tended to produce a passive sentence more often after a passive or an OVS sentence than after a conjoined noun phrase or active sentence. Passives and OVS sentences are syntactically unrelated but share information structure, in that both assign emphasis to the patient. We therefore argued that bilinguals construct a language-independent level of information structure during speech

Molecular Epidemiology of Acquired-Metallo-β-Lactamase-Producing Bacteria in Poland

We have analyzed 40 metallo-β-lactamase (MBL)-producing isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 38), Pseudomonas putida (n = 1), and Acinetobacter genospecies 3 (n = 1) from 17 hospitals in 12 cities in Poland that were identified in 2000 to 2004. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis typing classified the P. aeruginosa isolates into eight types, with two types differentiated further into subtypes. Each of the types was specific either to a given center or to several hospitals of the same or neighboring geographic area. Almost all of the organisms produced β-lactamase VIM-2; the only exceptions were several P. aeruginosa isolates from two centers which expressed VIM-4. The bla(VIM) genes resided exclusively within class 1 integrons, and these were located in either chromosomal or plasmid DNA. PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism study of the variable regions of the integrons, followed by DNA sequencing, revealed the presence of eight different, mostly novel gene cassette arrays, six of which contained bla(VIM-2) and two of which contained bla(VIM-4). The occurrence of the integron variants correlated well with the geographic distribution of the MBL-producing organisms, and this suggested that their emergence in particular parts of the country had been likely due to a number of independent events. The following regional dissemination of MBL producers could be attributed to various phenomena, including their clonal spread, horizontal transmission of resistance determinants, or both. All of the data collected in this study revealed that even at this early stage of detection, the epidemiological situation concerning MBL producers in Poland has already been complex and very dynamic

Synthetic Nanopores as a Test Case for Ion Channel Theories: The Anomalous Mole Fraction Effect without Single Filing

The predictions of a theory for the anomalous mole fraction effect (AMFE) are tested experimentally with synthetic nanopores in plastic. The negatively charged synthetic nanopores under consideration are highly cation selective and 50 Å in diameter at their smallest point. These pores exhibit an AMFE in mixtures of Ca2+ and monovalent cations. An AMFE occurs when the conductance through a pore is lower in a mixture of salts than in the pure salts at the same concentration. For ion channels, the textbook interpretation of the AMFE is that multiple ions move through the pore in coordinated, single-file motion. However, because the synthetic nanopores are so wide, their AMFE shows that single filing is not necessary for the AMFE. It is shown that the AMFE in the synthetic nanopores is explained by a theory of preferential ion selectivity. The unique properties of the synthetic nanopores allow us to experimentally confirm several predictions of this theory. These same properties make synthetic nanopores an interesting new platform to test theories of ion channel permeation and selectivity in general