Vowel duration in stressed position in central & northern varieties of standard Italian

We report the results of a pilot study investigating the effect of 2 regional accents on stressed vowel duration according to word-position and syllable type in Central v. Northern accents of Standard Italian. While there is overall convergence, we also find significant regional differences in some contexts, i.e. closed syllables, and antepenultimate position. We then consider the implications of our results for the phonological description and phonetic investigation of Italian

The Unsolved Legacy of Forced Labour during World War II in Asia

Five decades after the end of WWII, a wave of WWII reparations lawsuits swept across Asia, targeting the Japanese government and over one hundred Japanese companies that toiled brutal forced labour during the war. For years, plaintiffs and their legal representatives travelled across Korea, Japan, China and the United States to fight for redress in court. But with more survivors passing away during court proceedings, historical justice became exceedingly urgent. In 2014, the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court agreed to hear lawsuits by Chinese forced labourers, with dozens of pending cases awaiting trial. And on October 30, 2018, the South Korean Supreme Court ordered Nippon Steel Corporation to pay four Korean forced labourers ₩100 million won (USD$84,000), escalating tensions and hostilities between victim countries and Japan. But despite progress towards redress in courts, the author finds that while retributive justice is necessary to advance the WWII forced labour redress movement, it is not sufficient to obtain acceptable reparations in the case of Japan. Notwithstanding court decisions ruling in favour of the plaintiffs in South Korea and Japan, the Shinzō Abe administration and the longstanding historical resentment between Japan and victim countries have created a strong barrier impeding postwar redress and accountability. In light of these rapid developments, this article highlights the voices of fourteen individuals, including one Korean forced labour survivor, bereaved family members, their legal representatives and academics. The lessons learned, recommendations and reforms within Japan’s economic, social and political sphere are applicable to furthering historical justice and accountability and move towards memorializing this chapter of history

Trekking the Educator Track at a Research-Intensive University: Five Accounts of Different Career Levels

In this paper, we offer personal accounts along the Educator Track from Instructor to Associate Professor as members of an English Language Centre at a leading research-intensive university in Asia. The Educator Track is a career pathway growing in significance and status and now boasts a full professorial grade. Our narratives provide an overview of what we and our institution deem as excellence in scholarly teaching leading to our recent promotions along the track. We also detail some of our identity construction processes as practitioners and how our Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has progressed over our careers. We draw on three frameworks. The first, Kern et al.’s (2015) Dimensions of Activities Related to Teaching, enables us to map what we do. The second, Shulman’s (2005) Habits of Mind, Hand, and Heart, is used to present important elements of how we teach our content and rationalize why we teach it. The last, Quinlan’s (2014) concept of Leadership of Teaching for Student Learning links the Associate Professor role to engagement in the wider community beyond the classroom. We hope that these accounts might help further understanding of what it means to be on the Educator Track at a research-intensive university

Trekking the Educator Track at a Research-Intensive University: Five Accounts of Different Career Levels

In this paper, we offer personal accounts along the Educator Track from Instructor to Associate Professor as members of an English Language Centre at a leading research-intensive university in Asia. The Educator Track is a career pathway growing in significance and status and now boasts a full professorial grade. Our narratives provide an overview of what we and our institution deem as excellence in scholarly teaching leading to our recent promotions along the track. We also detail some of our identity construction processes as practitioners and how our Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has progressed over our careers. We draw on three frameworks. The first, Kern et al.’s (2015) Dimensions of Activities Related to Teaching, enables us to map what we do. The second, Shulman’s (2005) Habits of Mind, Hand, and Heart, is used to present important elements of how we teach our content and rationalize why we teach it. The last, Quinlan’s (2014) concept of Leadership of Teaching for Student Learning links the Associate Professor role to engagement in the wider community beyond the classroom. We hope that these accounts might help further understanding of what it means to be on the Educator Track at a research-intensive university

Co-culture systems for the production of secondary metabolites: current and future prospects

Microorganisms are the great sources of Natural Products (NPs); these are imperative to their survival apart from conferring competitiveness amongst each other within their environmental niches. Primary and secondary metabolites are the two major classes of NPs that help in cell development, where antimicrobial activity is closely linked with secondary metabolites. To capitalize on the effects of secondary metabolites, co-culture methods have been often used to develop an artificial microbial community that promotes the action of these metabolites. Different analytical techniques will subsequently be employed based on the metabolite specificity and sensitivity to further enhance the metabolite induction. Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) and Gas Chromatography (GC)-MS are commonly used for metabolite separation while Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Mass Spectrometry (MS) have been used as tools to elucidate the structure of compounds. This review intends to discuss current systems in use for co-culture in addition to its advantages, with discourse into the investigation of specific techniques in use for the detailed study of secondary metabolites. Further advancements and focus on co-culture technologies are required to fully realize the massive potential in synthetic biological systems