Linguistic Interference and Religious Identity: The Case of a Lebanese Speech Community

Multilingualism and multiculturalism are cornerstones of Lebanese society. There is a considerable amount of Arabic-French bilingualism, although English has been rapidly gaining ground in recent years. This situation has obviously affected the Lebanese dialect: loan words and even cases of phonological, morphological and syntactical change are widespread. Moreover, we constantly witness phenomena of code-switching and linguistic mixing between Lebanese/French and Lebanese/ English. This has become associated with a certain cultural and religious identity. The literature that investigates the role of foreign languages in Lebanon generally focuses on their use in Lebanese education and on the speakers’ perception of the foreign languages. The present study examines the role of foreign languages in authentic speech and explores the linguistic phenomena of code-switching and code-mixing as markers of speaker religious identity. Various extracts of authentic informal speech are analysed in order to define further the correspondence between language study and identity in the Lebanese context

Web-Arabic as Lingua Franca (WALF): Variation and Standard in Teaching Arabic as Foreign Language (TAFL)

One of the most interesting issues in second language teaching is how students should be exposed to language variation using methods based on the analysis and comparison of authentic texts. In this respect, research regarding the teaching of Arabic is relatively lacking. Moreover, in recent years Arabic has been changing rapidly, strongly influenced by the social networks. The most evident result of this is the emergence of Web-Arabic, which can be regarded as a lingua franca in online communication. Although characterized by a prevalent use of Standard Arabic, it is also marked by recourse to colloquialisms and dialectal features. The present study illustrates how a group of Italian teachers of Arabic participating in teacher education courses were introduced to the teaching of language variation through the analysis of Web-Arabic as Lingua Franca (WALF). The most significant preliminary findings are that WALF can provide an innovative tool in the teaching of variation in Arabic and provide stimulating considerations for new strategies

Arabic neologisms in IT terminology: the role of the Academies

Cette contribution se focalise sur la traduction de la terminologie informatique en langue arabe. Les innovations dans ce domaine et l’usage toujours plus répandu des ordinateurs dans la vie quotidienne ont obligé les communautés non‑anglophones à chercher des expressions et des mots nouveaux pour exprimer un univers nouveau. Les Académies de langue arabe encouragent l’usage des mots non‑étrangers mais l’absence de coordination entre elles a amené à une pluralité de solutions dans les dictionnaires spécialisés et dans les manuels. Malgré les résistances des puristes de la langue, plusieurs stratégies complexes ont été adoptées dans le but de trouver des solutions convenables : l’analyse de ces stratégies constitue l’objet de cette contribution.This contribution focuses on the rendering of IT terminology in Arabic. The innovations in this field and the use of computers in everyday life have forced the non‑Anglophone countries to find new terms to express a new world. The Academies of Arabic language encourage the non use of foreign terminology but the absence of coordination among them has led to the variety of solutions in specific dictionaries and manuals. Despite purist resistances, complex and different strategies have been adopted in order to solve the problem: the analysis of these strategies represents the core of this contribution.تتمحور هذه المقالة حول مسألة ترجمة المصطلحات الحاسوبية إلى اللغة العربية فالتجديد اللغوي المستمر في هذا المجال والانتشار المتزايد للمعلوماتية في الحياة اليومية أجبرا الناطقين بغير اللغة الإنكليزية على البحث عن مفردات وتراكيب جديدة للتعبير عن هذا العالم الجديد. وإذا كانت مجامع اللغة العربية تدعو إلى استخدام الكلمات غير الأجنبية فإن انعدام التنسيق فيما بينها أدى إلى ظهور أشكال متعددة للتعبير عن هذه المستجدات وحلول مختلفة لها باختلاف القواميس والنصوص المتخصصة في هذا المجال. ورغم مقاومة دعاة الحفاظ على نقاء اللغة العربية من أي تأثير أعجمي، فقد تم تبني استراتيجيات معقدة ومتعددة لإيجاد الحلول المناسبة لهذه المستجدات وسيكون تحليل هذه الاستراتيجيات موضوع هذه المداخلة

Use of the KlADH4 promoter for ethanol-dependent production of recombinant human serum albumine in Kluyveromyces lactis

KlADH4 is a gene of Kluyveromyces lactis encoding a mitochondrial alcohol dehydrogenase activity which is specifically induced by ethanol. The promoter of this gene was used for the expression of heterologous proteins in K. lactis, a very promising organism which can be used as an alternative host to Saccharomyces cerevisiae due to its good secretory properties. In this paper we report the ethanol-driven expression in K. lactis of the bacterial beta-glucuronidase and of the human serum albumin (HSA) genes under the control of the KlADH4 promoter. In particular, we studied the extracellular production of recombinant HSA (rHSA) with integrative and replicative vectors and obtained a significant increase in the amount of the protein with multicopy vectors, showing that no limitation of KlADH4 trans-acting factors occurred in the cells. By deletion analysis of the promoter, we identified an element (UASE) which is sufficient for the induction of KlADH4 by ethanol and, when inserted in the respective promoters, allows ethanol-dependent activation of other yeast genes, such as PGK and LAC4. We also analyzed the effect of medium composition on cell growth and protein secretion. A clear improvement in the production of the recombinant protein was achieved by shifting from batch cultures (0.3 g/liter) to fed-batch cultures (1 g/liter) with ethanol as the preferred carbon source

BioSense platform quick start guide to using ESSENCE

NSSP\ue2\u20ac\u2122s BioSense Platform hosts the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE)\ue2\u20ac\u201da system that will let you analyze events of public health interest, monitor healthcare data for events that could affect public health, and share data and analyses.This Quick Start Guide supports NSSP ESSENCE v.1.20 and will help you access and navigate the system\ue2\u20ac\u2122s main features. This guide is NOT intended to be a comprehensive user\ue2\u20ac\u2122s manual.The National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) promotes and advances development of the cloud-based BioSense Platform, a secure integrated electronic health information system that hosts standardized analytic tools and facilitates collaborative processes. The BioSense Platform is a product of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).CS268926-Abiosense-platform-quick-start-guide-for-essence.pd

Digital Platforms in Teaching Arabic Dialects

The use of teaching platforms and accessible online materials is a response to the increasing demand for distance training courses and, consequently, the need for innovation in the methodological, technical and strategical approaches to language teaching. In Teaching Arabic Language as Foreign Language (TAFL) the linguistic variation represents nowadays a central issue in the teaching practice. The Arabic linguistic world is usually described as diglossic speech communities. In the last decades, this representation of linguistic reality has been reviewed. The reconceptualisation of the diglossic theory leads to a deep reconsideration of the didactic material to use in teaching Arabic besides dialects as foreign language. Our proposal deals with the use of MOODLE in teaching Arabic colloquial varieties besides Modern Standard Arabic

The "Kitāb Sībawayhi" Project : Sībawayhi from Sībawayhi’s perspective – A thematic approach to the translation of the "Kitāb"

The Kitāb Sībawayhi Project aims at a new English translation and analysis of the Kitāb Sībawayhi, with an innovative approach that will shed light on the way the linguistic system of Arabic has been described by the most prominent figure of the Arabic linguistic tradition

Modelling soil water conent in a tomato field: proximal gamma ray spectroscopy and soil-crop system models

Proximal soil sensors are taking hold in the understanding of soil hydrogeological processes involved in precision agriculture. In this context, permanently installed gamma ray spectroscopy stations represent one of the best space-time trade off methods at field scale. This study proved the feasibility and reliability of soil water content monitoring through a seven-month continuous acquisition of terrestrial gamma radiation in a tomato test field. By employing a 1 L sodium iodide detector placed at a height of 2.25 m, we investigated the gamma signal coming from an area having a ~25 m radius and from a depth of approximately 30 cm. Experimental values, inferred after a calibration measurement and corrected for the presence of biomass, were corroborated with gravimetric data acquired under different soil moisture conditions, giving an average absolute discrepancy of about 2%. A quantitative comparison was carried out with data simulated by AquaCrop, CRITeRIA, and IRRINET soil-crop system models. The different goodness of fit obtained in bare soil condition and during the vegetated period highlighted that CRITeRIA showed the best agreement with the experimental data over the entire data-taking period while, in presence of the tomato crop, IRRINET provided the best results.Comment: 18 pages, 9 Figures, 3 Table

The highly conserved nuclear lamin Ig-fold binds to PCNA: its role in DNA replication

This study provides insights into the role of nuclear lamins in DNA replication. Our data demonstrate that the Ig-fold motif located in the lamin C terminus binds directly to proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), the processivity factor necessary for the chain elongation phase of DNA replication. We find that the introduction of a mutation in the Ig-fold, which alters its structure and causes human muscular dystrophy, inhibits PCNA binding. Studies of nuclear assembly and DNA replication show that lamins, PCNA, and chromatin are closely associated in situ. Exposure of replicating nuclei to an excess of the lamin domain containing the Ig-fold inhibits DNA replication in a concentration-dependent fashion. This inhibitory effect is significantly diminished in nuclei exposed to the same domain bearing the Ig-fold mutation. Using the crystal structures of the lamin Ig-fold and PCNA, molecular docking simulations suggest probable interaction sites. These findings also provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the numerous disease-causing mutations located within the lamin Ig-fold