Translation of idioms across languages

This paper explores the translation of idioms across a set of languages (viz. English, Arabic, French, Kurdish, Persian and Turkish), applying Baker’s (1992/2011) strategies for translating idioms. The study first examines Baker’s strategies as to whether they can be considered a practical model to extrapolate in rendering idioms across languages. Secondly, given the type of strategies employed, the study attempts to find out whether idioms can be treated as a culture-specific or universal phenomenon. The results show that Baker’s strategies require modification to be considered a practical model, and that idioms generally carry properties of the culture in which they emerge

Procedures and strategies in English-Kurdish translation of written media discourse

The present research explores translation procedures and strategies employed in current English-Kurdish translation of written media discourse. It is located within Toury’s (1995/2012) framework of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS). The research sets out to contribute to Translation Studies, specifically the study of journalism translation. Despite the fact that translation has been an inseparable part of media and journalism activities for decades, if not centuries, the systematic study of media translation is as recent as the turn of the new millennium. This study focuses on English-Kurdish translation of written media discourse, which has remained largely under-researched. The study precisely sets out to identify the patterns of translation procedures and the overall translation strategies prevalent in Kurdish translations of English journalistic texts. To do so, a composite model is formulated based on an integration of three influential taxonomies of translation procedures proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet (1958/1995), Newmark (1988) and Dickins, Hervey and Higgins (2002). The model is applied to a set of 45 journalistic texts translated from English into Kurdish, which altogether make a corpus of approximately 75,000 words. A comparative analysis of ST-TT coupled pairs is carried out to identify patterns of translation procedures at the linguistic as well as cultural level. To look at the findings from a different perspective, a research questionnaire is also conducted with English-Kurdish translators working in the Kurdish media. Based on the patterns of translation procedures, the overall transition strategies are then determined. Analysis in Chapters 6, 7 and 8 leads to the conclusion that literal translation, borrowing and omission are the most frequent translation procedures at the linguistic level, and cultural borrowing, cultural redomestication and calque are the most frequent at the cultural level, keeping in mind that the notion of cultural redomestication constitutes the present study’s major contribution to Translation Studies. As for the overall strategies, semantic translation is the predominant orientation of the linguistic aspect of the translation, while foreignization is the predominate orientation of the cultural aspect of the translation

Impact of antibiotic usage on resistance in microorganisms; urinary tract infections with E-coli as a case in point

Objectives: In this study, we sought to establish a correlation between consumption of flouoroquinolones in our hospital and the emergence of ofloxacin resistant strains of E. coli in the urinary specimens. Data of all urinary samples, received at Aga Khan University Hospital between January 1995 and December 2002, was retrieved and analyzed. Specimens yielding E-coli as an isolate were included in this study. Methods: E. coli Isolates showing \u3e103 colonies were identified using standard microbiological techniques. Antibiotic susceptibility of E. coli was tested using Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method. Antimicrobial usage data, obtained through hospital Pharmacy as unit utilized per year for Quinolones in different medical and surgical units was available only for the period of 1997- 2002. Results: Among 32,722 urinary specimens E. coli (53%) was the most frequent isolate. Steady increase in the number of ofloxacin resistant E. coli was noted, 24% in 1995 to 55% in 2002. Maximum quinolone resistant E. coli have been observed in Medical units, 41% in 1997 increasing to 70% in 2002, followed by Surgery units (35% to 54%) and Pediatrics (12 to 38%). Sharp increase in ofloxacin consumption in our hospital, 1997 (28613 units) to 2002 (96880 units) has been observed. Trends in quinolone resistance correlate significantly with utilization in the same period as shown by linear regression. Conculsion: E. coli resistance against most antibiotics has been on a rise particularly for quinolones. The utilization of quinolones correlates with increasing resistance in our hospitalized patients

Revisiting the Second Law and Weak Cosmic Censorship Conjecture in High-Dimensional Charged-AdS Black Hole: an Additional Assumption

The verification of the second law of black hole mechanics and the WCCC in the context of enthalpy as mass of the black hole and its related thermodynamic properties has not been tested through a vast number of literature in the recent past. Such studies are of great physical importance as they provide us with a large number of information regarding the thermodynamics and the dynamics of AdS black hole systems. We invest the prior limited surveys of such analysis to investigate the WCCC for the $D$- dimensional asymptotically AdS-charged black holes characterized by its mass ($M$), electric charge ($Q$), and AdS radius ($l$) under the absorption of scalar particles of charge $q$. We examine the WCCC by analyzing the energy-momentum condition of the electrically charged particles as absorbed by the black holes. We prove that the conjecture is well verified irrespective of whether the initial black hole configurations are extremal or non-extremal by changing its charge, the AdS radius, and their variations. We show that the first law and the WCCC are valid for all spacetime dimensions ($D$) independent of the choice of the parameters characterizing the black holes. But to verify the second law in the extremal and non-extremal configurations one has to be very cautious as it gets strongly affected by the choices of the values of the black hole parameters and their variations... In the context of the extended phase space, taking the grand canonical potential into account allow us to obtain the missing information about the variation of the cosmological constant necessary to construct the extended phase space, namely the notion of the black hole pressure, and which is absent in the previous literature so far.Comment: 51 pages and 32 figures. Text improved and references update

Topology of Born-Infeld-AdS Black Hole Phase Transition

The thermodynamic criticality of the AdS black holes serves as an important structure during the thermal phase transition. This paper discusses about the critical points and their topology during thermal phase transitions of the Born-Infeld AdS black holes. We make such investigations using two different topological approaches, namely, using Duan's topological current $\phi$-mapping theory, and the off-shell free energy. Within Duan's formalism, we observe that for a given value of the Born-Infeld parameter $b$, there exists an associated electric charge parameter $Q$, which is highly sensitive to the topological phase transitions. This way we examine the connections of the first-order phase transition and the topological nature of the critical points. We find that the topological nature has a possible breakdown in certain parametric ranges. In effect, we determine the unconventional and the conventional phase critical points as the creation (topologically vortex) and annihilation (topologically anti-vortex) points (pairs). As the second approach, we call the off-shell free energy to determine the topological classes: of which one corresponds to the AdS-Schwarzschild black hole phases, while the other provides a possible topological phase transition. Here we also reveal a novel phase transition between two unstable phases, namely, the unstable small black hole and the intermediate black holes. For a certain parametric values of the Born-Infeld parameter and the pressure, we also study the different topological descriptions that inevitably correspond to the AdS-Reissner-Nordstr\Ddot{o}m black hole phases. As a consistency check of the critical points during the topological phase transitions, we study the vortex/anti-vortex annihilation thermodynamics from local as well as global thermodynamic viewpoint.Comment: 48 pages and 32 figures, references update

Endocrine cell dysplasia (nesidioblastosis): A relatively unrecognized entity in Pakistan?

Nesidioblastosis is quantitative as well as qualitative abnormality of pancreatic endocrine cells. There is scattering of small endocrine cell clusters arranged haphazardly rather than the peripheral location within the lobule1,2. Islet contours are irregular, tailing off into parenchyma3. These islets are present in intimate association with ducts forming ductuloinsular complexes1 We recently encountered a new born baby with signs and symptoms of endocrine cell dysplasia

Assessment of macronutrients consumption in the diet of adolescent school children in four seasons: A longitudinal study from an urban city in Pakistan

Background: A healthy diet in the adolescence period is essential for physical, mental, and immunological development. We aimed to assess macronutrient consumption in the diet of adolescent school children using 24 h recalls in four seasons of the year.Method: This was a longitudinal study conducted from February 2014 to June 2015. The study population included 155 school children aged 7-14 years from an urban school in Karachi. 24HR recall was conducted on 4 random days of the 4 main seasons. A food composition table was developed where the weight, calories, carbohydrate, fat, and protein content of the food items were listed. Macronutrients quantification was calculated by using proportional weight from the food composition table. Food groups were also assigned to each food item including vegetables, fruits, grains, protein foods, dairy products, and oils.Results: A total of 155 adolescent children aged between 7 and 14 years were approached. Out of the 155 preadolescents and adolescents, 150 (96.7%) agreed to participate. The mean (SD) age of the children was 11.31 (1.6) years, and 59% of all the children were males. Overall mean (SD) daily intake for all seasons was 195.31 (86.87) grams of carbohydrates, 94.77 (71.87) grams of proteins, and 55.87 (30.79) grams of fats. Carbohydrates formed 48.16%, protein 21.92%, and fat 29.93% of the total caloric intake. The mean (SD) daily caloric intake was 1517 (644) grams. Overall, the highest source of calories was from carbohydrate 781 (347) Kilocalories (Kcal), followed by fat 502 (277) Kcal and protein 379 (287). The Carbohydrate intake in 24 h was highest in the autumn; 212.81 (85.37), and there was a significant difference in carbohydrate intake in all seasons (p value 0.003). Consumption of discretionary food group was high (31.3%), and consumption of fruits and vegetables was low (29%).Conclusion: The study reports a suboptimal caloric intake of fewer than 2000 cal/day among the adolescents from school. The highest source of calories was from carbohydrates.The highest consumption of food was in autumn and the least in summer. Fruits and vegetable intake was low, and discretionary food intake was high

The Polysemy of “Head” in English and Kurdish

تعدد المعاني ظاهرة تشير فيها الوحدة اللغوية إلى معانٍ متعددة لكنها مرتبطة ببعضها البعض. هذه الامتدادات الدلالية لها دافع واضح عبر الاستعارة أو الكناية التي تعتبر أساسية في اللغويات المعرفية. تدقق هذه الدراسة المعاني المتعددة لمصطلح جزء من الجسم "الرأس" باللغتين الإنجليزية والكردية، وتحاول الحصول على نظرة عامة واضحة على المحتوى الدلالي حول تعدد المعاني لـ لیکسیم  "الرأس" فيما يتعلق بأوجه التشابه والاختلاف بالاستعارة والكناية. بيانات هذا القاموس هي قواميس للغات الإنجليزية. فيما يتعلق باللغة الكردية، یعتمد الباحثون على خبرتهم، لأنهم يتحدثون اللغة الكردية بشكل أصلي إلى جانب بعض القواميس الكردية ثنائية اللغة والتفسيرية. تظهر النتائج أن هناك تقاربًا في المعنى أكثر من الاختلاف بين اللغتين عندما يتعلق الأمر بالمعاجم. أحد الأسباب هو أنه تم استخدام "الرأس" و "سەر" للتعبير عن أغراض مجازية أكثر تشابهًا بخلاف الأغراض المجازية. ومع ذلك، يمكن للثقافة أن تفرض نفسها ولها دور بارز فيما يتعلق بمصطلح تعدد أعضاء الجسم، إذ تستخدم اللغة الكردية مصطلحات مختلفة لأجزاء الجسم بدلاً من "الرأس" لمشاركة نفس الأغراض مع اللغة الإنجليزية.Polysemy is the phenomenon where a linguistic unit denotes multiple yet related meanings. These semantic extensions have a clear motivation through either metaphor or metonymy which are central to cognitive linguistic. This paper examines the polysemous meanings of body part term “head” in both the English and the Kurdish languages and reveals certain similarities and differences in terms of metaphor and metonymy. The data of this paper are dictionaries of the English Language. As far as the Kurdish language is concerned, the researchers depend on their experiences, because they are native speakers of the Kurdish language besides some bilingual and explanatory the Kurdish dictionaries. The results show that there is more convergence in meaning than divergence between the two languages when it comes to the lexeme. One of the reasons is that “head” is used in the English and the Kurdish to express more similar metaphorical purposes other than metonymical purposes

Combined chemo-magnetic field-photothermal breast cancer therapy based on porous magnetite nanospheres

The efficacy of different modalities of treating breast cancer is inhibited by several limitations such as off-targeted drug distribution, rapid drug clearance, and drug resistance. To overcome these limitations, we developed Lf-Doxo-PMNSs for combined chemo-MF-PTT. The PMNSs were synthesized by hydrothermal method and their physicochemical properties were examined by FE-SEM, TEM, DLS, TGA, XRD investigations. The cytotoxicity of as-synthesized NPs against 4T1 cells was carried out by MTT and flow cytometry assays. Afterwards, the anti-cancer activities of as-synthesized Lf-Doxo-PMNSs on the tumor status, drug distribution and apoptosis mechanism were evaluated. The anti-cancer assays showed that Lf-Doxo-PMNSs significantly suppressed the cancer cell proliferation and tumor weight by prolonging drug availability and potential drug loading in tumor cells; whereas they showed a minimum cytotoxicity against non-cancerous cells. Likewise, combined chemo-MF-PTT using Lf-Doxo-PMNSs displayed the highest anti-cancer activity followed by combined chemo-PTT and combined chemo-MF therapy based on altering the apoptosis mechanism. Therefore, these results showed that combined chemo-MF-PTT based on Lf-Doxo-PMNSs can be used as a promising therapeutic platform with potential targeted drug delivery and high loading capacity features as well as reducing cancer drug resistance