Omaha Language Preservation in the Macy, Nebraska Public School

A native language renewal program at the Macy, Nebraska Public School is described that is designed to preserve Omaha, a native American Indian language that is only a generation away from extinction. At the time of this research, only about 100 fluent Omaha speakers lived on the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska. The language and culture program, instituted in 1970, has employed various instruction techniques and methodologies, including immersion, memorization of words and phrases, and publication of student-authored stories in English and Omaha. The program has suffered from a lack of consistency; frequent changes in funding, personnel, and curriculum; and a lack of attention to syntax, morphology, and conversational competence. Although the program has not been successful in preserving Omaha as a living spoken language,it has helped to improve tribal solidarity and pride. Nearly every child knows at least some Omaha words and phrases, and the classes have provided satisfaction and a sense of pride for children and elders. In addition, many teachers at the school believe that the program has led to better attitudes and academic performance for at least some students. The program may enhance Omaha cultural survival and enrich the educational experience of the children. Umaha (Omaha) is a dying language. Like many other Native American languages, including several of its Siouan relatives, Omaha is in all likelihood just one generation away from extinction. A dramatic decline in number of speakers and contexts of use has occurred in just the past two or three generations. While exact figures are not available, there appear to be about 100 fluent speakers on the Omaha Reservation, in northeastern Nebraska, and a few more scattered in Omaha, Lincoln, andd other cities. All of the fluent speakers are elderly. Many middle-aged Omaha Tribe members know a few words of Omaha, but younger adults generally do not, and tests of kindergardeners entering school in Macy, Nebraska,the most solidly Omaha town on the Omaha reservation, indicate virtually no knowledge of the language among young children. The woman I sat next to at a Senior Center lunch in Macy a few days ago told a typical story. Her parents spoke almost no Englioh, and she herself couldn\u27t even say yes or no until she was sent to school at the age of eight. She is fluent in English but prefers Omaha. Her daughter understands and can speak Omaha, but is more comfortable in English.Her grandchildren, who are in their thirties, know no Omaha. Fourteen years ago Wallace Chafe reported that Omaha had a thousand or more speakers, some of whom may still be children (1970:20), but even at that time this figure must have included a large number of non-fluent or semi-fluent speakers. However, although most tribe members do not speak Omaha fluently, the language remains important to tribal coneciousness and is used ceremonially in speeches on public occasions such as feasts, funerals, Native American Church services, and the annual Powwow. Omaha is not obligatory on these occasions; some speeches are made in English, and often there is at least a summary or preview or both in English for the benefit of those who do not understand Omaha. Sometimes a speaker who is fluent in both Omaha and English will even repeat a whole speech in both languages. But Omaha is felt to be most appropriate if the speaker is able to use it. Knowledge of traditional names, kinship terms, and other vocabulary items is considered a crucial key to retention of cultural identity. Because of its cultural importance, some elders and others have become concerned enough about the impending loss of the language to institute an Omaha language renewal program in the Macy public school. This paper describes and evaluates the school\u27s language preservation efforts, including both oral language classes and written projects

Advances in the study of Siouan languages and linguistics

The Siouan family comprises some twenty languages, historically spoken across a broad swath of the central North American plains and woodlands, as well as in parts of the southeastern United States. In spite of its geographical extent and diversity, and the size and importance of several Siouan-speaking tribes, this family has received relatively little attention in the linguistic literature and many of the individual Siouan languages are severely understudied. This volume aims to make work on Siouan languages more broadly available and to encourage deeper investigation of the myriad typological, theoretical, descriptive, and pedagogical issues they raise. The 17 chapters in this volume present a broad range of current Siouan research, focusing on various Siouan languages, from a variety of linguistic perspectives: historical-genetic, philological, applied, descriptive, formal/generative, and comparative/typological. The editors' preface summarizes characteristic features of the Siouan family, including head-final and "verb-centered" syntax, a complex system of verbal affixes including applicatives and subject- possessives, head-internal relative clauses, gendered speech markers, stop- systems including ejectives, and a preference for certain prosodic and phonotactic patterns. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Professor Robert L. Rankin, a towering figure in Siouan linguistics throughout his long career, who passed away in February of 2014

How to See Hidden Patterns in Metamaterials with Interpretable Machine Learning

Metamaterials are composite materials with engineered geometrical micro- and meso-structures that can lead to uncommon physical properties, like negative Poisson's ratio or ultra-low shear resistance. Periodic metamaterials are composed of repeating unit-cells, and geometrical patterns within these unit-cells influence the propagation of elastic or acoustic waves and control dispersion. In this work, we develop a new interpretable, multi-resolution machine learning framework for finding patterns in the unit-cells of materials that reveal their dynamic properties. Specifically, we propose two new interpretable representations of metamaterials, called shape-frequency features and unit-cell templates. Machine learning models built using these feature classes can accurately predict dynamic material properties. These feature representations (particularly the unit-cell templates) have a useful property: they can operate on designs of higher resolutions. By learning key coarse scale patterns that can be reliably transferred to finer resolution design space via the shape-frequency features or unit-cell templates, we can almost freely design the fine resolution features of the unit-cell without changing coarse scale physics. Through this multi-resolution approach, we are able to design materials that possess target frequency ranges in which waves are allowed or disallowed to propagate (frequency bandgaps). Our approach yields major benefits: (1) unlike typical machine learning approaches to materials science, our models are interpretable, (2) our approaches leverage multi-resolution properties, and (3) our approach provides design flexibility.Comment: Under revie

Uncertainty Quantification of Bandgaps in Acoustic Metamaterials with Stochastic Geometric Defects and Material Properties

This paper studies the utility of techniques within uncertainty quantification, namely spectral projection and polynomial chaos expansion, in reducing sampling needs for characterizing acoustic metamaterial dispersion band responses given stochastic material properties and geometric defects. A novel method of encoding geometric defects in an interpretable, resolution independent is showcased in the formation of input space probability distributions. Orders of magnitude sampling reductions down to $\sim10^0$ and $\sim10^1$ are achieved in the 1D and 7D input space scenarios respectively while maintaining accurate output space probability distributions through combining Monte Carlo, quadrature rule, and sparse grid sampling with surrogate model fitting

Non-immunological toxicological mechanisms of metamizole-associated neutropenia in HL60 cells

Metamizole is an  analgesic and  antipyretic , but can cause  neutropenia and  agranulocytosis . We investigated the toxicity of the metabolites N-methyl-4-aminoantipyrine (MAA),  4-aminoantipyrine (AA), N-formyl-4-aminoantipyrine (FAA) and N-acetyl-4-aminoantipyrine (AAA) on neutrophil granulocytes and on HL60 cells (granulocyte precursor cell line). MAA, FAA, AA, and AAA (up to 100 µM) alone were not toxic for HL60 cells or granulocytes. In the presence of the  myeloperoxidase substrate H2O2, MAA reduced cytotoxicity for HL60 cells at low concentrations (<50 µM), but increased cytotoxicity at 100 µM H2O2. Neutrophil granulocytes were resistant to H2O2 and MAA. Fe2+ and Fe3+ were not toxic to HL60 cells, irrespective of the presence of H2O2 and MAA. Similarly, MAA did not increase the toxicity of  lactoferrin ,  hemoglobin or  methemoglobin for HL60 cells.  Hemin (hemoglobin degradation product containing a  porphyrin ring and Fe3+) was toxic on HL60 cells and cytotoxicity was increased by MAA.  EDTA , N-acetylcystein and  glutathione prevented the toxicity of hemin and hemin/MAA. The absorption spectrum of hemin changed concentration-dependently after addition of MAA, suggesting an interaction between Fe3+and MAA. NMR revealed the formation of a stable MAA reaction product with a reaction pathway involving the formation of an electrophilic intermediate. In conclusion, MAA, the principle metabolite of metamizole, increased cytotoxicity of hemin by a reaction involving the formation of an electrophilic metabolite. Accordingly, cytotoxicity of MAA/hemin could be prevented by the  iron chelator EDTA and by the electron donors NAC and glutathione. Situations with increased production of hemin may represent a risk factor for metamizole-associated  granulocytopenia

A forgotten figure in Siouan and Caddoan linguistics: Samuel Stehman Haldeman.

The Siouan family comprises some twenty languages, historically spoken across a broad swath of the central North American plains and woodlands, as well as in parts of the southeastern United States. In spite of its geographical extent and diversity, and the size and importance of several Siouan-speaking tribes, this family has received relatively little attention in the linguistic literature and many of the individual Siouan languages are severely understudied. This volume aims to make work on Siouan languages more broadly available and to encourage deeper investigation of the myriad typological, theoretical, descriptive, and pedagogical issues they raise. The 17 chapters in this volume present a broad range of current Siouan research, focusing on various Siouan languages, from a variety of linguistic perspectives: historical-genetic, philological, applied, descriptive, formal/generative, and comparative/typological. The editors' preface summarizes characteristic features of the Siouan family, including head-final and "verb-centered" syntax, a complex system of verbal affixes including applicatives and subject-possessives, head-internal relative clauses, gendered speech markers, stop-systems including ejectives, and a preference for certain prosodic and phonotactic patterns. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Professor Robert L. Rankin, a towering figure in Siouan linguistics throughout his long career, who passed away in February of 2014

Advances in the study of Siouan languages and linguistics

The Siouan family comprises some twenty languages, historically spoken across a broad swath of the central North American plains and woodlands, as well as in parts of the southeastern United States. In spite of its geographical extent and diversity, and the size and importance of several Siouan-speaking tribes, this family has received relatively little attention in the linguistic literature and many of the individual Siouan languages are severely understudied. This volume aims to make work on Siouan languages more broadly available and to encourage deeper investigation of the myriad typological, theoretical, descriptive, and pedagogical issues they raise. The 17 chapters in this volume present a broad range of current Siouan research, focusing on various Siouan languages, from a variety of linguistic perspectives: historical-genetic, philological, applied, descriptive, formal/generative, and comparative/typological. The editors' preface summarizes characteristic features of the Siouan family, including head-final and "verb-centered" syntax, a complex system of verbal affixes including applicatives and subject-possessives, head-internal relative clauses, gendered speech markers, stop-systems including ejectives, and a preference for certain prosodic and phonotactic patterns. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Professor Robert L. Rankin, a towering figure in Siouan linguistics throughout his long career, who passed away in February of 2014