Syntaktisk komplexitet och korrekthet i finska universitetsstudenters skriftliga inlärarsvenska: en jämförelse mellan två färdighetsnivåer.

I denna studie undersöks hur syntaktisk komplexitet och korrekthet skiljer sig på två olika färdighetsnivåer i skriftlig inlärarsvenska samt vilken relation som föreligger mellan komplexitet och korrekthet på dessa färdighetsnivåer. Enligt tidigare studier ökar både komplexiteten och korrektheten i syntaktiska strukturer i samband med ökade kunskaper i målspråket, men det finns också studier som har visat på motstridiga resultat (Wolfe-Quintero et al., 1998). Vidare är det oklart om relationen mellan dessa komponenter är konkurrerande (Skehan, 1998) eller stödjande (Robinson, 2001).Materialet i denna studie består av 31 uppsatser skrivna av finska universitetsstudenter. Fokuset ligger på strukturernas yttre komplexitet och följande komplexitetsmått används i analysen: den genomsnittliga längden på T-enheter och satser, andelen bisatser och förekomsten av bisatser med satsadverbial och topikaliserade strukturer. Korrekthetsaspekten avgränsas till fel i ordföljden och mäts med andelen felfria satser, felfria bisatser och felfria bisatser med satsadverbial samt förekomsten av inversion jämfört med det totala antalet topikaliserade strukturer.Resultaten tyder på att färdighetsnivån huvudsakligen påverkar korrekthetsaspekten medan komplexiteten också kan påverkas av andra faktorer, såsom inlärarens allmänna kännedom om strukturer i målspråket. Något överraskande visar resultaten inga statistiskt signifikanta korrelationer mellan komplexitet och korrekthet. Därmed visar resultaten inget stöd för vare sig konkurrerande eller stödjande samband mellan dessa komponenter, med eventuellt undantag för en tendens till konkurrerande relation mellan bisatser med satsadverbial och korrekthet på den högre färdighetsnivån och mellan topikaliserade strukturer och korrekthet på den lägre nivån.</p

Measuring Syntactic Complexity in Spoken and Written Learner Language: Comparing the Incomparable?

Spoken and written language are two modes of language. When learners aim at higher skill levels, the expected outcome of successful second language learning is usually to become a fluent speaker and writer who can produce accurate and complex language in the target language. There is an axiomatic difference between speech and writing, but together they form the essential parts of learners’ L2 skills. The two modes have their own characteristics, and there are differences between native and nonnative language use. For instance, hesitations and pauses are not visible in the end result of the writing process, but they are characteristic of nonnative spoken language use. The present study is based on the analysis of L2 English spoken and written productions of 18 L1 Finnish learners with focus on syntactic complexity. As earlier spoken language segmentation units mostly come from fluency studies, we conducted an experiment with a new unit, the U-unit, and examined how using this unit as the basis of spoken language segmentation affects the results. According to the analysis, written language was more complex than spoken language. However, the difference in the level of complexity was greatest when the traditional units, T-units and AS-units, were used in segmenting the data. Using the U-unit revealed that spoken language may, in fact, be closer to written language in its syntactic complexity than earlier studies had suggested. Therefore, further research is needed to discover whether the differences in spoken and written learner language are primarily due to the nature of these modes or, rather, to the units and measures used in the analysis.</p

Snacking Gamers

The digital games have become a major industry during last decades, and game-playing appears as an important leisure-time hobby for millions of consumers worldwide. In addition to playing at home, the serious gamers participate in LAN parties to join as a community of gamers for a weekend long event. While the popular culture connects gaming with the junk food and in many gaming events this seems to be true, we argue that this is just a half-truth. In this work-in-progress paper, we examine how the serious gamers eat during and outside the gaming events in relation to their mundane snacking practices. We introduce our research approach and the goals for a study that conducted in two LAN (Local Area Network) parties in Finland by observing and interviewing the participants (n=45). We aim to enrich existing discussions on the digital game-playing, eating practices, (un)healthy snacking and serious consumer communities.</p

Foodscapeista gamescapeiksi : välipalat pelaamiskäytännöissä

Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan pelaajien jokapäiväistä elämää etsimällä hetkiä, gamescapeja, joissa pelaamisen käytännöt yhdistyvät välipalojen kulutuskäytäntöihin. Näin pyritään vastaamaan näkemyksiin, joiden mukaan pelaamista tulisi tarkastella kokonaisvaltaisesti osana erilaisten ihmisten arkea moninaisissa tilanteissa ja ympäristöissä, osana kulttuurista kehystä. Työssä muodostetaan netnografisen metodologian avulla, arjen käytäntöihin ja tilallisuuteen perustuva gamescape-typologia: Tosissaan – Helposti energiaa, Yhdessä hauskaa – Herkuttelua tai kieltäytymistä, Liikkeellä – Eväät matkassa tai matkalta sekä Arjen välitilassa – Pelejä ja välipaloja. Työ rakentaa monipuolista kuvaa pelaajien arjesta ja siten rikkoo yksiulotteisia oletuksia pelaajien ruokakulttuurista. Tutkimus myös luo jatkotutkimusehdotuksia kulttuurisen pelitutkimuksen ja pelisuunnittelun kentälle.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Foodscapeista gamescapeiksi: Välipalat pelaamiskäytännöissä

Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan pelaajien jokapäiväistä elämää etsimällä hetkiä, gamescapeja, joissa pelaamisen käytännöt yhdistyvät välipalojen kulutuskäytäntöihin. Näin pyritään vastaamaan näkemyksiin, joiden mukaan pelaamista tulisi tarkastella kokonaisvaltaisesti osana erilaisten ihmisten arkea moninaisissa tilanteissa ja ympäristöissä, osana kulttuurista kehystä. Työssä muodostetaan netnografisen metodologian avulla, arjen käytäntöihin ja tilallisuuteen perustuva gamescape-typologia: Tosissaan - Helposti energiaa, Yhdessä hauskaa - Herkuttelua tai kieltäytymistä, Liikkeellä - Eväät matkassa tai matkalta sekä Arjen välitilassa - Pelejä ja välipaloja. Työ rakentaa monipuolista kuvaa pelaajien arjesta ja siten rikkoo yksiulotteisia oletuksia pelaajien ruokakulttuurista. Tutkimus myös luo jatkotutkimusehdotuksia kulttuurisen pelitutkimuksen ja pelisuunnittelun kentälle. </p

Coxsackievirus B1 infections are associated with the initiation of insulin-driven autoimmunity that progresses to type 1 diabetes

Aims/hypothesis Islet autoimmunity usually starts with the appearance of autoantibodies against either insulin (IAA) or GAD65 (GADA). This categorises children with preclinical type 1 diabetes into two immune phenotypes, which differ in their genetic background and may have different aetiology. The aim was to study whether Coxsackievirus group B (CVB) infections, which have been linked to the initiation of islet autoimmunity, are associated with either of these two phenotypes in children with HLA-conferred susceptibility to type 1 diabetes. Methods All samples were from children in the Finnish Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention (DIPP) study. Individuals are recruited to the DIPP study from the general population of new-born infants who carry defined HLA genotypes associated with susceptibility to type 1 diabetes. Our study cohort included 91 children who developed IAA and 78 children who developed GADA as their first appearing single autoantibody and remained persistently seropositive for islet autoantibodies, along with 181 and 151 individually matched autoantibody negative control children, respectively. Seroconversion to positivity for neutralising antibodies was detected as the surrogate marker of CVB infections in serial follow-up serum samples collected before and at the appearance of islet autoantibodies in each individual. Results CVB1 infections were associated with the appearance of IAA as the first autoantibody (OR 2.4 [95% CI 1.4, 4.2], corrected p = 0.018). CVB5 infection also tended to be associated with the appearance of IAA, however, this did not reach statistical significance (OR 2.3, [0.7, 7.5], p = 0.163); no other CVB types were associated with increased risk of IAA. Children who had signs of a CVB1 infection either alone or prior to infections by other CVBs were at the highest risk for developing IAA (OR 5.3 [95% CI 2.4, 11.7], p <0.001). None of the CVBs were associated with the appearance of GADA. Conclusions/interpretation CVB1 infections may contribute to the initiation of islet autoimmunity being particularly important in the insulin-driven autoimmune process.Peer reviewe

Permutation-based significance analysis reduces the type 1 error rate in bisulfite sequencing data analysis of human umbilical cord blood samples

DNA methylation patterns are largely established in-utero and might mediate the impacts of in-utero conditions on later health outcomes. Associations between perinatal DNA methylation marks and pregnancy-related variables, such as maternal age and gestational weight gain, have been earlier studied with methylation microarrays, which typically cover less than 2% of human CpG sites. To detect such associations outside these regions, we chose the bisulphite sequencing approach. We collected and curated clinical data on 200 newborn infants; whose umbilical cord blood samples were analysed with the reduced representation bisulphite sequencing (RRBS) method. A generalized linear mixed-effects model was fit for each high coverage CpG site, followed by spatial and multiple testing adjustment of P values to identify differentially methylated cytosines (DMCs) and regions (DMRs) associated with clinical variables, such as maternal age, mode of delivery, and birth weight. Type 1 error rate was then evaluated with a permutation analysis. We discovered a strong inflation of spatially adjusted P values through the permutation analysis, which we then applied for empirical type 1 error control. The inflation of P values was caused by a common method for spatial adjustment and DMR detection, implemented in tools comb-p and RADMeth. Based on empirically estimated significance thresholds, very little differential methylation was associated with any of the studied clinical variables, other than sex. With this analysis workflow, the sex-associated differentially methylated regions were highly reproducible across studies, technologies, and statistical models.Peer reviewe

Measuring Syntactic Complexity in Spoken and Written Learner Language: Comparing the Incomparable?

Spoken and written language are two modes of language. When learners aim at higher skill levels, the expected outcome of successful second language learning is usually to become a fluent speaker and writer who can produce accurate and complex language in the target language. There is an axiomatic difference between speech and writing, but together they form the essential parts of learners’ L2 skills. The two modes have their own characteristics, and there are differences between native and nonnative language use. For instance, hesitations and pauses are not visible in the end result of the writing process, but they are characteristic of nonnative spoken language use. The present study is based on the analysis of L2 English spoken and written productions of 18 L1 Finnish learners with focus on syntactic complexity. As earlier spoken language segmentation units mostly come from fluency studies, we conducted an experiment with a new unit, the U-unit, and examined how using this unit as the basis of spoken language segmentation affects the results. According to the analysis, written language was more complex than spoken language. However, the difference in the level of complexity was greatest when the traditional units, T-units and AS-units, were used in segmenting the data. Using the U-unit revealed that spoken language may, in fact, be closer to written language in its syntactic complexity than earlier studies had suggested. Therefore, further research is needed to discover whether the differences in spoken and written learner language are primarily due to the nature of these modes or, rather, to the units and measures used in the analysis

Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations at Birth in Children Screened for HLA-DQB1 Conferred Risk for Type 1 Diabetes

Context: Vitamin D has several effects on the immune system that might be of relevance for the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes (T1D).Objective: To evaluate whether umbilical cord serum concentrations of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25[OH]D) differ in children developing either islet autoimmunity (IA) or overt T1D during childhood and adolescence.Design: Umbilical cord serum samples from 764 children born from 1994 to 2004 with HLA-DQB1 conferred risk for T1 D participating in the Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention Study were analyzed for 25(OH)D using an enzyme immunoassay.Setting: DIPP clinics in Turku, Oulu, and Tampere University Hospitals, Finland.Participants: Two hundred fifty children who developed T1D diabetes at a median age of 6.7 years (interquartile range [IQR] 4.0 to 10.1 years) and 132 additional case children who developed IA, i.e., positivity for multiple islet autoantibodies. Cases were matched for date of birth, gender, and area of birth with 382 control children who remained autoantibody negative. The median duration of follow up was 9.8 years (IQR 5.7 to 13.1 years).Main Outcome Measure: The median 25(OH)D concentrations.Results: The median 25(OH)D concentration in cord serum was low [31.1 nmol/L (IQR 24.0 to 41.8); 88% Conclusions: The 25(OH)D concentrations at birth are not associated with the development of T1D during childhood.</div