Remote Interpreting: Issues of Multi-Sensory Integration in a Multilingual Task

This article seeks to present evidence for the pivotal role of multi-sensory integration in simultaneous interpreting. The lack of virtual presence has emerged as one of the major factors determining poorer performance in remote as opposed to live simultaneous interpreting. This deterioration of quality appears to be based in early onset of fatigue, which in turn seems to be a consequence of allocating additional cognitive resources to comprehension processes during simultaneous interpreting and therefore depriving other parts of the process, notably production, of the resources necessary to maintain a high level of performance during normal turn time.Cet article vise à mettre en évidence le rôle central de l’intégration multi-sensorielle dans l’interprétation simultanée. L’absence de présence virtuelle apparaît être un des principaux facteurs responsables des plus mauvaises performances dans l’interprétation à distance par opposition à l’interprétation simultanée en direct. Cette détérioration de la qualité apparaît être due aux premiers signes de fatigue, lesquels semblent être la conséquence de l’allocation de ressources cognitives supplémentaires aux processus de compréhension, privant ainsi les autres processus, notamment la production, des ressources nécessaires au maintien d’un bon niveau de performances pendant la durée normale d’un tour de parole

Environmental pre-requisites and social interchange : the participation experience of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder in Zurich

Aim: Participation of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder hardly occurs in settings outside of home and school. Little is known about how their participation is influenced by environmental factors. This study explored how and why adolescents with autism spectrum disorder perceive aspects of their environment as facilitators or barriers to their participation outside of home and school. Method: This explanatory case study explored the participation experiences of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (15-21 years) from Zurich and surroundings with in-depth interviews and photo-elicitation, using photos made by the participants during activities outside of home and school. Data was analysed with a 7-step procedure. Result: The presence of two main themes seemed necessary to facilitate participation outside of home and school: "environmental prerequisites to attend activities", which consists of five subthemes, such as "the company of trusted persons" and "the provision of knowledge and information", and "social interchange and engagement", which consists of three subthemes and describes how actual involvement can be supported. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the influence of trusted persons on adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, and the need to extend the support network for these adolescents to other individuals, services and society so that their participation in activities can be encouraged. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION: Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder perceive every kind of participation outside of home and school as social. We recommend using the company of trusted persons to encourage adolescents with autism spectrum disorder to actively participate outside of home and school. Rehabilitation professionals should promote environment-based approaches to achieve participation of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Rehabilitation professionals should actively approach, acknowledge and gently guide adolescents with autism spectrum disorder to support engagement in participation

Leveraging Virtual Learning Environments for Training Interpreter Trainers

While the demand for conference interpreters in traditional language combinations (the more widely used languages) is decreasing, the need for experts in less widely used languages is rapidly increasing with each enlargement of the EU. Post-war peace-keeping operations as well as warcrime tribunals have also increased the need for high-level interpreters in languages hitherto not used in the international arena and consequently more well-trained interpreter trainers both for traditional programs as well as ad-hoc intensive programs must be available. Interpreters are a highly mobile community of professionals, unable to be physically present in a university for long periods of time to be trained as trainers. The Certificate course for Interpreter Trainers at ETI (University of Geneva) has been offering the only postgraduate course for training interpreter trainers since 1996. To meet the demand for training around the world the Certificate course is now offered in a blended format: Nine months of distance learning are blended with one week of faceto-face learning. The portal (www.unige.ch/eti/certificate/training) offers a rich learning environment with a number of tools to implement the philosophy of collaborative learning. With its public access and a special section for students of interpreting the portal has become an international meeting point for interpreter trainers where participants in the Certificate course interact with interpreting students at ETI, and interpreter trainers from schools around the world can interact with the Certificate teaching staff and students. This paper reports on the first systematic assessment of both the learning environment and the learning outcomes of the Certificate course.La demande d’interprètes de conférence dans les langues les plus répandues est en baisse. Par contre, la demande ne cesse de croître dans des langues moins utilisées, notamment lors de chaque élargissement de l’UE. En parallèle, sur la scène internationale, la demande d’interprètes qualifiés ne cesse d’augmenter que ce soit dans des opérations de maintien de la paix ou dans des tribunaux de crime de guerre. Cette donne contribue à un besoin accru en formateurs d’interprètes tant pour des formations traditionnelles que pour des formations intensives et ponctuelles. Les interprètes forment un corps professionnel très mobile et de ce fait, il est difficile de les mobiliser pour de longues périodes de formation. Le cours du Certificat de formateurs d’interprète dispensé par l’ETI (Université de Genève) est le seul cours postgrade du genre depuis 1996. Pour répondre à la demande venue du monde entier, le cours est maintenant offert dans un format hybride, alliant neuf mois de distance à une semaine présentielle à Genève. Le portail utilisé (www.unige.ch/eti/certificate/training) offre un environnement d’apprentissage collaboratif élaboré. De part son interface accessible à tout public et une section réservée aux étudiants en interprétation, il devient un espace de rencontre entre différentes communautés. Cet article présente les premiers résultats obtenus, au niveau de l’environnement d’apprentissage et au niveau de l’apprentissage lui-même

Executive Control of Language in the Bilingual Brain: Integrating the Evidence from Neuroimaging to Neuropsychology

In this review we will focus on delineating the neural substrates of the executive control of language in the bilingual brain, based on the existing neuroimaging, intracranial, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and neuropsychological evidence. We will also offer insights from ongoing brain-imaging studies into the development of expertise in multilingual language control. We will concentrate specifically on evidence regarding how the brain selects and controls languages for comprehension and production. This question has been addressed in a number of ways and using various tasks, including language switching during production or perception, translation, and interpretation. We will attempt to synthesize existing evidence in order to bring to light the neural substrates that are crucial to executive control of language

Ectomycorrhiza succession patterns in Pinus sylvestris forests after stand-replacing fire in the Central Alps

Fires shape fundamental properties of many forest ecosystems and climate change will increase their relevance in regions where fires occur infrequently today. In ecosystems that are not adapted to fire, post-fire tree recruitment is often sparse, a fact that might be attributed to a transient lack of mycorrhizae. Ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi play an important role for recruitment by enhancing nutrient and water uptake of their hosts. The questions arise whether and for how long the EcM community is transformed by fire. We investigated the resistance and resilience of EcM fungal communities on a chronosequence of 12 Pinus sylvestris stands in Valais (Switzerland) and Val d'Aosta (Italy) affected by fire between 1990 and 2006. Soil samples from burnt and non-burnt forests were analyzed with respect to EcM fungi by means of a bioassay. The number of EcM species was significantly lower in samples from recently (2-5years) burnt sites than non-burnt forest, and increased with time since fire reaching levels of adjacent forests after 15-18years. Community composition changed after fire but did not converge to that of non-burnt sites over the 18year period. Only Rhizopogon roseolus and Cenococcum geophilum were abundant in both burnt sites and adjacent forest. Our data indicate fire resistance of some EcM fungal species as well as rapid resilience in terms of species number, but not in species composition. As long as the function of different EcM species for seedling establishment is unknown, the consequences of long-term shifts in EcM community composition for tree recruitment remain unclea

Ground vegetation monitoring in Swiss forests: comparison of survey methods and implications for trend assessments

At Swiss long-term forest ecosystem research sites, ground vegetation was assessed during the period 1994-2003/2008 following two approaches: (1) visual assessment of the cover of species occurring in sixteen 1m2 quadrats, distributed over a 43 × 43m area, and (2) phytosociological relevés in concentric circular plots of 30, 200, and 500m2. We first compared the two approaches with respect to diversity assessment. The number of species recorded in the 16 quadrats was in general higher than in the 30m2 plot and it represented 42% to 108% of the number of species recorded in the 500m2 plot. In a second step, we tested whether any temporal trends were apparent. In a few cases, a decrease or increase in Landolt's mean indicator values for light, nitrogen availability, soil pH, soil moisture, or temperature was found to be significant. However, these changes were usually restricted to one approach or one area. The only clear trend was detected in an unmanaged former coppice beech stand, for which all survey approaches indicated canopy closure. At another site, vegetation reacted to the local opening of the canopy following windthrow. In a third step, we compared the leaf area index (LAI), measured with an LAI-2000 instrument (Licor, Inc.) over each quadrat, with the indicator value of the vegetation for light (L). Within a site, there was no clear relationship between LAI and L values per quadrat. In contrast, across all sites, the relationship between LAI and L, averaged per site for all available years, was highly significan

Event-Free Survival in Adults With Heart Failure who Engage in Self-Care Management

Background Self-care management in heart failure (HF) involves decision-making to evaluate, and actions to ameliorate symptoms when they occur. This study sought to compare the risks of all-cause mortality, hospitalization, or emergency-room admission among HF patients who practice above-average self-care management, those who practice below-average self-care management, and those who are symptom-free. Methods A secondary analysis was conducted of data collected on 195 HF patients. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to examine the association between self-care management and event risk. Results The sample consisted of older (mean ± standard deviation = 61.3 ± 11 years), predominantly male (64.6%) adults, with an ejection fraction of 34.7% ± 15.3%; 60.1% fell within New York Heart Association class III or IV HF. During an average follow-up of 364 ± 288 days, 4 deaths, 82 hospitalizations, and 5 emergency-room visits occurred as first events. Controlling for 15 common confounders, those who engaged in above-average self-care management (hazard ratio, .44; 95% confidence interval, .22 to .88; P \u3c .05) and those who were symptom-free (hazard ratio, 0.48; 95% confidence interval, .24 to .97; P \u3c .05) ran a lower risk of an event during follow-up than those engaged in below-average self-care management. Conclusion Symptomatic HF patients who practice above-average self-care management have an event-free survival benefit similar to that of symptom-free HF patients

Phenotypic plasticity facilitates resistance to climate change in a highly variable environment

Increased summer drought will exacerbate the regeneration of many tree species at their lower latitudinal and altitudinal distribution limits. In vulnerable habitats, introduction of more drought-tolerant provenances or species is currently considered to accelerate tree species migration and facilitate forest persistence. Trade-offs between drought adaptation and growth plasticity might, however, limit the effectiveness of assisted migration, especially if introductions focus on provenances or species from different climatic regions. We tested in a common garden experiment the performance of Pinus sylvestris seedlings from the continental Central Alps under increased temperatures and extended spring and/or summer drought, and compared seedling emergence, survival and biomass allocation to that of P. sylvestris and closely related Pinus nigra from a Mediterranean seed source. Soil heating had only minor effects on seedling performance but high spring precipitation doubled the number of continental P. sylvestris seedlings present after the summer drought. At the same time, twice as many seedlings of the Mediterranean than the continental P. sylvestris provenance were present, which was due to both higher emergence and lower mortality under dry conditions. Both P. sylvestris provenances allocated similar amounts of biomass to roots when grown under low summer precipitation. Mediterranean seedlings, however, revealed lower phenotypic plasticity than continental seedlings under high precipitation, which might limit their competitive ability in continental Alpine forests in non-drought years. By contrast, high variability in the response of individual seedlings to summer drought indicates the potential of continental P. sylvestris provenances to adapt to changing environmental condition