Speech Codes Theory

Rooted in the ethnography of communication and based on empirical research, speech codes theory is a theoretical/methodological tool for studying situated communication practices. Two important applications of speech codes theory are to reveal local cultures and to examine the ways in which people make use of communication to accomplish important goals pertaining to communal life. Speech codes theory offers researchers a systematic approach to describing, interpreting, analyzing, and comparing local communicative practices and the cultures which they instantiate

Linguistic incompetence: giving an account of researching multilingually

This paper considers the place of linguistic competence and incompetence in the context of researching multilingually. It offers a critique of the concept of competence and explores the performative dimensions of multilingual research and its narration, through the philosophy of Judith Butler, and in particular her study Giving an account of oneself. It explores aspects of risk, justice, narrative limit and a morality of multilingualism in emergent multilingual research frameworks. These theoretical dimensions are explored through consideration of ‘linguistically incompetent’ ethnographic work with refugees and asylum seekers, in contexts of hospitality and in life long learning research in the Gaza Strip, and of early attempts to learn new languages. The paper offers a prospect of a relational approach to researching multilingually and affirms the vulnerability at the heart of linguistic hospitality

Challenging Social Cognition Models of Adherence:Cycles of Discourse, Historical Bodies, and Interactional Order

Attempts to model individual beliefs as a means of predicting how people follow clinical advice have dominated adherence research, but with limited success. In this article, we challenge assumptions underlying this individualistic philosophy and propose an alternative formulation of context and its relationship with individual actions related to illness. Borrowing from Scollon and Scollon’s three elements of social action – “historical body,” “interaction order,” and “discourses in place” – we construct an alternative set of research methods and demonstrate their application with an example of a person talking about asthma management. We argue that talk- or illness-related behavior, both viewed as forms of social action, manifest themselves as an intersection of cycles of discourse, shifting as individuals move through these cycles across time and space. We finish by discussing how these dynamics of social action can be studied and how clinicians might use this understanding when negotiating treatment with patients

Processing of Nonconjugative Resistance Plasmids by Conjugation Nicking Enzyme of Staphylococci

ABSTRACT Antimicrobial resistance in Staphylococcus aureus presents an increasing threat to human health. This resistance is often encoded on mobile plasmids, such as pSK41; however, the mechanism of transfer of these plasmids is not well understood. In this study, we first examine key protein-DNA interactions formed by the relaxase enzyme, NES, which initiates and terminates the transfer of the multidrug resistance plasmid pSK41. Two loops on the NES protein, hairpin loops 1 and 2, form extensive contacts with the DNA hairpin formed at the oriT region of pSK41, and here we establish that these contacts are essential for proper DNA cleavage and religation by the full 665-residue NES protein in vitro . Second, pSK156 and pCA347 are nonconjugative Staphylococcus aureus plasmids that contain sequences similar to the oriT region of pSK41 but differ in the sequence predicted to form a DNA hairpin. We show that pSK41-encoded NES is able to bind, cleave, and religate the oriT sequences of these nonconjugative plasmids in vitro . Although pSK41 could mobilize a coresident plasmid harboring its cognate oriT , it was unable to mobilize plasmids containing the pSK156 and pCA347 variant oriT mimics, suggesting that an accessory protein like that previously shown to confer specificity in the pWBG749 system may also be involved in transmission of plasmids containing a pSK41-like oriT . These data indicate that the conjugative relaxase in trans mechanism recently described for the pWBG749 family of plasmids also applies to the pSK41 family of plasmids, further heightening the potential significance of this mechanism in the horizontal transfer of staphylococcal plasmids. IMPORTANCE Understanding the mechanism of antimicrobial resistance transfer in bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus is an important step toward potentially slowing the spread of antimicrobial-resistant infections. This work establishes protein-DNA interactions essential for the transfer of the Staphylococcus aureus multiresistance plasmid pSK41 by its relaxase, NES. This enzyme also processed variant oriT -like sequences found on numerous plasmids previously considered nontransmissible, suggesting that in conjunction with an uncharacterized accessory protein, these plasmids may be transferred horizontally via a relaxase in trans mechanism. These findings have important implications for our understanding of staphylococcal resistance plasmid evolution

Psychology

The Internet explosion and broad interest in collaborative technology have driven increased interest in the field of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). Historically, behavioral research on CSCW applications has reflected a strong influence from ethnomethodology. This article argues that the CSCW community should adopt a stronger orientation to other social science disciplines, particularly psychology. Greater attention to the psychological literature provides three benefits. First, psychologists offer well-validated principles about human behavior in group and organizational contexts that are relevant to CSCW research. Second, psychologists offer reliable and proven measures of human behavior that, if adopted by CSCW researchers, can provide a uniform basis for comparison across studies. Finally, psychologists offer data collection and analysis methods that identify salient and generalizable features of human behavior, which may lead to the development of universal principles of CSCW design.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68835/2/10.1177_089443939801600106.pd

What counts as ‘responding’? Contingency on previous speaker contribution as a feature of interactional competence

The ability to interact with others has gained recognition as part of the L2 speaking construct in the assessment literature and in high- and low-stakes speaking assessments. This paper first presents a review of the literature on interactional competence (IC) in L2 learning and assessment. It then discusses a particular feature – producing responses contingent on previous speaker contribution – that emerged as a de facto construct feature of IC oriented to by both candidates and examiners within the school-based group speaking assessment in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) English Language Examination. Previous studies have, similarly, argued for the importance of ‘responding to’ or linking one’s own talk to previous speakers’ contributions as a way of demonstrating comprehension of co-participants’ talk. However, what counts as such a response has yet to be explored systematically. This paper presents a conversation analytic study of the candidate discourse in the assessed group interactions, identifying three conversational actions through which student-candidates construct contingent responses to co-participants. The thick description about the nature of contingent responses lays the groundwork for further empirical investigations on the relevance of this IC feature and its proficiency implications