bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Language-Specificity in the Perception of Paralinguistic Intonational Meaning
Authors: Chen Aoju , Gussenhoven Carlos , Rietveld Toni
Published: December 2008

This study examines the perception of paralinguistic intonational meanings deriving from Ohala's Frequency Code (Experiment 1) and Gussenhoven's Effort Code (Experiment 2) in British English and Dutch. Native speakers of British English and Dutch listened to a number of stimuli in their native language and judged each stimulus on four semantic scales deriving from these two codes: SELF-CONFIDENT versus NOT SELF-CONFIDENT, FRIENDLY versus NOT FRIENDLY (Frequency Code); SURPRISED versus NOT SURPRISED, and EMPHATIC versus NOT EMPHATIC (Effort Code). The stimuli, which were lexically equivalent across the two languages, differed in pitch contour, pitch register and pitch span in Experiment 1, and in pitch register, peak height, peak alignment and end pitch in Experiment 2. Contrary to the traditional view that the paralinguistic usage of intonation is similar across languages, it was found that British English and Dutch listeners differed considerably in the perception of “confident,” “friendly,” “emphatic,” and “surprised.” The present findings support a theory of paralinguistic meaning based on the universality of biological codes, which however acknowledges a language-specific component in the implementation of these codes.
Sentential Context and the Interpretation of Familiar Open-Compounds and Novel Modifier-Noun Phrases
Authors: Gagné Christina L. , Spalding Thomas L. , Gorrie Melissa C.
Published: December 2008

Two experiments investigated the influence of sentential context on the relative ease of deriving a particular meaning for novel and familiar compounds. Experiment 1 determined which of two possible meanings was preferred for a set of novel phrases. Experiment 2 used both novel (e.g., brain sponge) and familiar compounds (e.g., bug spray). The compounds appeared in a sentential context that supported either the dominant or subdominant meaning. Next, participants saw either the dominant or subdominant definition and indicated whether it was plausible. When the definition was consistent with the preceding sentence, the participants were more likely to consider the definition plausible regardless of whether the compound was novel or familiar, although this difference was more pronounced for novel phrases than for familiar phrases. In terms of response times, the effect of sentential context also depended on the degree of dominance. The data suggest that the interpretation of compounds is affected by at least two sources of information: sentential context and the relative dominance of the preferred meaning.
English-learning Infants' Segmentation of Verbs from Fluent Speech
Authors: Nazzi Thierry , Dilley Laura C. , Jusczyk Ann Marie , Shattuck-Hufnagel Stefanie , Jusczyk Peter W.
Published: December 2008

Two experiments sought to extend the demonstration of English-learning infants' abilities to segment nouns from fluent speech to a new lexical class: verbs. Moreover, we explored whether two factors previously shown to influence noun segmentation, stress pattern (strong-weak or weak-strong) and type of initial phoneme (consonant or vowel), also influence verb segmentation. Our results establish the early emergence of verb segmentation in English: by 13.5 months for strong-weak consonant- or vowel-initial verbs and for weak-strong consonant-initial verbs; and by 16.5 months for weak-strong verbs beginning with a vowel. This generalizes previous reports of early segmentation to a new lexical class, thereby providing additional evidence that segmentation is likely to contribute to lexical acquisition. The effects of stress pattern and onset type found are similar to those previously obtained for nouns, in that verbs with a weak-strong stress pattern and verbs beginning with a vowel appear to be at a disadvantage in segmentation. Finally, we present prosodic analyses that suggest a possible effect of prosodic boundary and pitch accent distribution on segmentation. These prosodic differences potentially explain a developmental lag in verb segmentation observed in the present study compared to earlier findings for noun segmentation.
Developmental, Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Visual Word Recognition
Authors: Simpson Greg B. , Kang Hyewon
Published: December 2008

In this paper, we argue that a complete understanding of language processing, in this case word-recognition processes, requires consideration both of multiple languages and of developmental processes. To illustrate these goals, we will summarize a 10-year research program exploring word-recognition processes in Korean adults and children. We describe the particular issue to which this research is directed (the relationship between print and the sound system of the language), and describe the characteristics of the Korean writing system that are relevant to this issue. We then outline our research examining the use of lexical and sublexical processes in recognizing Korean words. We use these studies to argue that cross-linguistic and developmental investigations may constrain models of language processes, and must be considered for a complete understanding of word-recognition and reading processes.
Finding Referents in Time: Eye-Tracking Evidence for the Role of Contrastive Accents
Authors: Weber Andrea , Braun Bettina , Crocker Matthew W.
Published: December 2008

In two eye-tracking experiments the role of contrastive pitch accents during the on-line determination of referents was examined. In both experiments, German listeners looked earlier at the picture of a referent belonging to a contrast pair ( red scissors , given purple scissors) when instructions to click on it carried a contrastive accent on the color adjective (L + H*) than when the adjective was not accented. In addition to this prosodic facilitation, a general preference to interpret adjectives contrastively was found in Experiment 1: Along with the contrast pair, a noncontrastive referent was displayed ( red vase) and listeners looked more often at the contrastive referent than at the noncontrastive referent even when the adjective was not focused. Experiment 2 differed from Experiment 1 in that the first member of the contrast pair ( purple scissors ) was introduced with a contrastive accent, thereby strengthening the salience of the contrast. In Experiment 2, listeners no longer preferred a contrastive interpretation of adjectives when the accent in a subsequent instruction was not contrastive. In sum, the results support both an early role for prosody in reference determination and an interpretation of contrastive focus that is dependent on preceding prosodic context.
On the Function of Stress Rhythms in Speech: Evidence of a Link with Grouping Effects on Serial Memory
Authors: Boucher Victor J.
Published: December 2008

Language learning requires a capacity to recall novel series of speech sounds. Research shows that prosodic marks create grouping effects enhancing serial recall. However, any restriction on memory affecting the reproduction of prosody would limit the set of patterns that could be learned and subsequently used in speech. By implication, grouping effects of prosody would also be limited to reproducible patterns. This view of the role of prosody and the contribution of memory processes in the organization of prosodic patterns is examined by evaluating the correspondence between a reported tendency to restrict stress intervals in speech and size limits on stress-grouping effects. French speech is used where stress defines the endpoints of groups. In Experiment 1, 40 speakers recalled novel series of syllables containing stress-groups of varying size. Recall was not enhanced by groupings exceeding four syllables, which corresponded to a restriction on the reproducibility of stress-groups. In Experiment 2, the subjects produced given sentences containing phrases of differing length. The results show a strong tendency to insert stress within phrases that exceed four syllables. Since prosody can arise in the recall of syntactically unstructured lists, the results offer initial support for viewing memory processes as a factor of stress-rhythm organization.
Measuring Syntactic Complexity in Spontaneous Spoken Swedish
Authors: Roll Mikael , Frid Johan , Horne Merle
Published: December 2008

Hesitation disfluencies after phonetically prominent stranded function words are thought to reflect the cognitive coding of complex structures. Speech fragments following the Swedish function word att `that' were analyzed syntactically, and divided into two groups: one with att in disfluent contexts, and the other with att in fluent contexts. Complexity was calculated in terms of a number of measures related to syntactic tree structures produced by the analysis tool GRAMMAL. Results showed that disfluent att is in general associated with significantly higher mean complexity values than fluent att. This information can be used to predict whether the function word at the beginning of a fragment is likely to be disfluent or not. Two kinds of statistical classification algorithms (Bayesian and neural networks) were used to test this hypothesis. The best result was 71% correctly classified cases, which is significantly better than a system that is based on selecting the data's majority class.
Speech Error Elicitation and Co-occurrence Restrictions in two Ethiopian Semitic Languages
Authors: Rose Sharon , King Lisa
Published: December 2008

This article reports the results of speech error elicitation experiments investigating the role of two consonant co-occurrence restrictions in the productive grammar of speakers of two Ethiopian Semitic languages, Amharic and Chaha. Higher error rates were found with consonant combinations that violated co-occurrence constraints than with those that had only a high degree of shared phonological similarity or low frequency of co-occurrence. Sequences that violated two constraints had the highest error rates. The results indicate that violations of consonant co-occurrence restrictions significantly increase error rates in the productions of native speakers, thereby supporting the psychological reality of the constraints.
Do 11-month-old French Infants Process Articles?
Authors: Hallé Pierre A. , Durand Catherine , de Boysson-Bardies Bénédicte
Published: December 2008

The first part of this study examined (Parisian) French-learning 11-month-old infants' recognition of the six definite and indefinite French articles: le, la, les, un, une, and des. The six articles were compared with pseudoarticles in the context of disyllabic or monosyllabic nouns, using the Head-turn Preference Procedure. The pseudo articles were similar to real articles in terms of phonetic composition and phonotactic probability, and real and pseudo noun phrases were alike in terms of overall prosodic contour. In three experiments, 11-month-old infants showed preference for real over pseudo articles, suggesting they have the articles' word-forms stored in long-term memory. The second part of the study evaluates several hypotheses about the role of articles in 11-month-olds infants' word recognition. Evidence from three experiments supports the view that articles help infants to recognize the following words. We propose that 11-month-olds have the capacity to parse noun phrases into their constituents, which is consistent with the more general view that function words define a syntactic skeleton that serves as a basis for parsing spoken utterances. This proposition is compared to a competing account, which argues that 11-month-olds recognize noun-phrases as whole-words.
The Delay of Principle B Effect (DPBE) and its Absence in Some Languages
Authors: Di Sciullo Anna Maria , Agüero-Bautista Calixto
Published: December 2008

The Delay of Principle B Effect (DPBE) has been discussed in various studies that show that children around age 5 seem to violate Principle B of Binding Theory (Chomsky, 1981, and related works), when the antecedent of the pronoun is a name, but not when the antecedent is a quantifier. The analysis we propose can explain the DPBE in languages of the Dutch-English type, and its exemption in languages with (dis)placed pronouns (clitics). In both types of languages, the phenomenon arises when children have to compare two alternative representations for equivalence. The principle that induces the comparison is different in both cases, however. The comparision of children speaking languages with pronouns occurring within the VP is induced by Grodzinsky and Reinhart's (1993) Rule I. However, the comparison of children in languages where the pronouns occur above the VP is induced by Scope Economy. In both cases the result is similar: the children take guesses in the process of interpreting the anaphoric dependency, thereby performing at chance level.
Typology of American Poverty
Authors: Peters David J.
Published: December 2008

This analysis seeks to better understand the geography of American poverty over time. Cluster analysis is used to group 34,908 minor civil divisions according to their similarity in mean-centered poverty rates from 1980 to 2000. Logistic regression is used to asses the groupings' statistical validity and accuracy. Results identify twelve statistically distinct groupings and that over three thousand subcounty places had poverty rates of nearly 20 percent above the national average going back to 1980. However, less than 50 percent of these fall within the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Persistent Poverty Counties. The new typology shows the diversity of poverty in terms and identifies places based on poverty's relative severity. The typology also uniquely identifies places that moved into and out of high poverty and identifies many poor places that are ``statistically invisible'' using existing typologies. Results show that correlates of poverty identified in the literature generally hold true across smaller geographic scales.
Productivity Polarization across Regions in Europe
Authors: Basile Roberto
Published: December 2008

The regional distribution of labor productivity in Western Europe is characterized by a core-periphery spatial pattern: high (low)-productivity regions are in a proximate relationship with other high (low)-productivity regions. Over the period 1980—2003, intradistribution dynamics has generated long-run multiple equilibria with the formation of two clubs of convergence. The observed dynamics can be only marginally explained by nonlinear (threshold) effects in the accumulation of physical capital. In contrast, the joint effect of spatial dependence and nonlinearities in growth behavior plays a key role in determining multiple equilibria and reinforcing polarization of labor productivity.
Participation of Individuals With Developmental Disabilities and Families on Advisory Boards and Committees
Authors: Caldwell Joe , Hauss Sharon , Stark Bethany
Published: December 2008

A participatory action research approach was adopted to explore supports that enhance participation of individuals with developmental disabilities and family members on advisory committees. Focus groups and open-ended surveys were conducted with staff from University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities and members of their Consumer Advisory Committees. Five themes emerged: (a) individualized supports, (b) financial supports, (c) coordination and communication, (d) leadership development, and (e) value and outcomes. Themes provide practical guidance to organizations as well as highlight broader systemic issues.
Unmarked structures and emergent rankings in second language phonology
Authors: Broselow Ellen
Published: December 2008

One of the most interesting features of language contact situations involves the appearance of systematic patterns that are not manifested in either of the two languages in contact. A full analysis of such patterns may require constraint rankings that differ from those of both the native and the target languages. I examine possible sources of these constraint rankings with respect to the devoicing of final obstruents in learners whose native language contains either no final consonants or no final obstruents, and whose target language contains both voiced and voiceless final obstruents. I conclude that the interlanguage ranking follows from the frequency of different input structures, given the assumption that constraint rankings are stochastic (Boersma & Hayes, 2001), and that final devoicing is an effect of positional markedness constraints. I then consider possible alternative explanations of interlanguage final devoicing: as a reflection of native language rankings of positional faithfulness constraints; as an effect of perceptual filtering; and/or as a function of articulatory difficulty of sustaining voicing in final position.
Prosodic constraints on allophonic distribution in adult L2 acquisition
Authors: Young-Scholten Martha
Published: December 2008

Data from three American teenagers acquiring German during an exchange year show uneven acquisition patterns with respect to allophonic variation. Acquisition of [ ç ] / [ x ], as in [ dıç ] dich 'you' and [bax] Bach 'stream', is early, but acquisition of final obstruent devoicing is not acquired at all during the data collection period. In pairs of words exhibiting alternations, such as [ kınt ] ~ [ kındɐ ] Kind / Kinder 'child / children' the final /d/ is either realized as *[ d ] or the obstruent is voiceless in both positions: [ kınt ] ~ *[ kıntɐ ]. Factors such as markedness (Eckman, 1977) and similarity (Flege, e.g., 1995) fail to account for these acquisition patterns. An account based on learners' transfer of their American English intervocalic flapping (of /t/ and /d /) captures these facts and tentatively provides evidence in support of the Asymmetry Hypothesis (Young-Scholten, 1994). Flapping itself is not necessarily transferred in a direct way, but the domain of application larger than that of final devoicing is; transfer is thus taken to have the indirect effect of leading learners to erroneously surmise that a voiced alvealor stop in the input could be derived from underlying /t/. That the [ kınt ] ~ *[ k*ıntɐ] pattern is found only for alvealor stops supports this conclusion.
The development of narrative competence in the L1 and L2 of Spanish-English bilingual children
Authors: Montanari Simona
Published: December 2008

The present paper examines the development of narrative competence in the two languages of three Spanish-English bilingual children with different proficiency levels in each language. The children's narratives, elicited at two different times over a six-month span, are examined in terms of the young narrator's ability to organize the story around an overall theme line, his/her capacity to evaluate the narrative and reach the audience, and his /her appropriate use of those linguistic devices—such as temporal perspective and cohesion—that relate utterances to one another allowing for the creation of a narrative text. The results indicate that impoverished linguistic resources might be detrimental for narrative competence. Without an array of linguistic devices at their disposal, the children in this study fail to produce coherent and cohesive narratives in their L2. Yet, their L1 narrative discourse suggests that the children possess the cognitive skills underlying the ability to construct thematically oriented and linguistically cohesive accounts. Evaluation, on the other hand, appears to be proficiency-independent: despite their limited L2 competence, the children are capable, from early on, of evaluating both their Spanish and English narratives, and they do so by means of a preferred evaluative strategy or by a combination of different expressive devices.
Extending the Competition Model
Authors: MacWhinney Brian
Published: December 2008

This paper presents an extended formulation of the Competition Model. The extended model, called the Unified Competition Model, is designed to account for a larger range of phenomena in first and second language acquisition, including bilingualism. As in the classic version of the Competition Model, competition is at the core of a set of non-modular interacting forces. However, the various inputs to competition are now described in terms of six additional subcomponents: arenas, mappings, chunking, storage, codes, and support. Learning is viewed as a resonant process that relies on storage, chunking, and support to acquire new mappings.
Child codeswitching and adult content contrasts
Authors: Ervin-Tripp Susan , Reyes Iliana
Published: December 2008

This paper discusses links between the conditions of developing child bilingualism and the adult outcomes in semiotic contrast in elicited speech and codeswitching.

Analysis of interaction of children raised as bilinguals shows that from the beginning they can recognize the appropriate language for addressees. When the lexical repertoire is inadequate, borrowing occurs, and codeswitching of longer segments appears before age two. Throughout childhood and adolescence, codeswitching has increasing interactional functions as children's pragmatic skills grow.

Some adult codeswitching relies on semiotic differences implied by language. It is likely that both such codeswitching and the dual selves shown in elicited discourse in different languages are limited to specific sociolinguistic situations and personal histories. These include education in a second language, adult immigration, and frequent contact with a monolingual community.
Bilingualism across the lifespan: The rise and fall of inhibitory control
Authors: Bialystok Ellen , Martin Michelle M. , Viswanathan Mythili
Published: December 2008

Previous research has shown that bilingual children perform better than comparable monolinguals on tasks requiring control of attention to inhibit misleading information. The present paper reports a series of studies that traces this processing difference into adulthood and eventually aging. The task used in all groups, from children to older adults, is the Simon task, a measure of stimulus-response incompatibility. The results showed that bilinguals performed better than monolinguals in early childhood, adulthood, and later adulthood. There was no difference in performance between monolinguals and bilinguals who were young adults, specifically university undergraduates. Our interpretation is that performance is at its peak efficiency for that group and bilingualism offers no further boost. The results are discussed in terms of the effect of bilingualism on control of attention and inhibition through the lifespan.
A radical approach to early mixed utterances
Authors: Deuchar Margaret , Vihman Marilyn
Published: December 2008

We take a radical approach to the organizing principles of emergent grammars in bilingual children: (1) We adopt the framework of Radical Construction Grammar (Croft, 2001) and (2) we undertake an extensive analysis of a wide range of utterances, covering the first six months of word combinations in two children. We address two questions: (1) Do predicates fail to match the language context more often than arguments? (2) What is the nature of the mixed child predicates, and does it change over time? We find that (1) for both children predicates do fail to match the language context more often and (2) both children move from the use of non-verbs as predicates in the first months to adult-like use of verb predicates later. A third question arises from our findings: Why should bilingual children treat predicates differently from arguments in early word combination? We attribute this to the learning process itself and to a difference in accessibility established in adult studies for concrete or imageable as compared with abstract words. The arguments used in the first word combinations, derived directly from experience with objects and persons, are readily imageable, while early predicates have to be learned through a process of abstraction.
The multilingual potential in emerging grammars
Authors: Gawlitzek-Maiwald Ira , Tracy Rosemarie
Published: December 2008

Our contribution deals with the nature of children's earliest word combinations. Based on data from monolingual (German) and bilingual (German/English) children we argue that there is no pregrammatical stage once children move beyond single-word utterances. As soon as words combine, basic organizational principles, such as the binary distinction between head and non-head, are activated and enter into coalitions with other (semantic, pragmatic) levels of representation.

In addition we claim that monolinguals behave very much like bilinguals in that initially all children create coexisting grammars. Various types of evidence in favor of this proposal are considered. Convergence comes about when children (assisted by universal grammar) reconstruct derivational relationships linking hitherto independent systems. The overall process is slow, making it possible for us to detect transitional problems. Bilingual language mixing yields important insights into children's early awareness of cross-linguistic equivalence and contrasts and can be related to specific properties of a child's grammars at different developmental stages.
Linguistic change and social meaning: Codeswitching in the media
Authors: Mahootian Shahrzad
Published: December 2008

This article investigates the relationship between code choice, bilingual identity and language change. Code choice and codeswitches in a bilingual Spanish-English publication are examined with two questions in mind. The first asks the extent to which stylistic and social variables, including identity, govern code choice. The second looks at the relationship of code choice to language change. Based on the pattern of code choice found in a popular women's magazine, I conclude that codemixed discourse is one of three varieties of code available to the bilingual, and where this variety is used intentionally, it is meant to emphasize the speaker's bilingual identity. I also consider structural aspects of codemixed discourse and determine that although the L1-L2 structure of this discourse is distinct from the monolingual L1 and L2 structures, it nevertheless follows from universal principles of grammar and does not require the positing of a third grammar. I further argue that the use of mixed-code discourse, especially in written media, as a pragmatically and structurally distinct variety available to bilingual speakers, falls within the Weinreich, Labov, and Herzog (1968) and Labov (1972 a,b) conceptions of language change. Thus, I suggest that in some contexts, codeswitching, is itself an instantiation of language change.
First language attrition and linguistic creativity
Authors: Skaaden Hanne
Published: December 2008

The empirical base for this article is the speech that adult migrants produce in their first language (L1) after they have lived several years in the new country. The speakers all migrated after puberty, and thus had a “fully” developed L1 at the onset of migration. The aim is to examine whether the impact of L1 attrition restricts itself to the speakers' control over their lexicon, or whether it may also affect their marking of grammatical distinctions. The examples analyzed illustrate that the migrant speakers may choose nonconventional solutions not only in their expression of declarative content, but also in their organization of linguistic structure. Hence, the data indicate that the boundary between lexical and grammatical information should not be regarded as totally discrete in the case of L1 attrition. The sampled speakers' L1 is Serbian or Croatian1 and their second language (L2) is Norwegian.
The relationship between the phonological complexity of a bilingual child's words and those of the target languages
Authors: Bunta Ferenc , Davidovich Ingrid , Ingram David
Published: December 2008

The study of an English-Hungarian two-year-old child was conducted to explore two research issues: (1) the relationship between the complexity of the child's productions and their respective target words in each language, and (2) the similarities of the child's word shapes and consonant inventories in the two languages to address the issue of one versus two phonological systems. The results of the analysis of the complexity of child word forms (as measured by Phonological Mean Length of Utterance, Ingram, 2002) and their targets revealed that the child's English and Hungarian words and their target words were significantly longer for Hungarian than for English. The proximity to the target words in each language, however, was approximately the same (i.e., 68% and 67%, respectively). These results suggest that keeping close to the adult target forms may be as important in phonological acquisition as improving overall complexity in all words. The results of the phonological analyses revealed surface differences, suggestive of separate phonological systems. However, the actual syllable shapes and phonological features found were the same for both languages. These results are interpreted as supporting a model in which the child was building the phonological systems from the same phonological units, but was using them in differentiated ways that produced different-looking surface forms.
Do bilinguals have different concepts? The case of shape and material in Japanese L2 users of English
Authors: Cook Vivian , Bassetti Benedetta , Kasai Chise , Sasaki Miho , Takahashi Jun Arata
Published: December 2008

An experiment investigated whether Japanese speakers' categorization of objects and substances by shape or material is influenced by acquiring English. Based on Imai and Gentner (1997), subjects were presented with an item such as a cork pyramid and asked to choose between two other items that matched it for shape (plastic pyramid) or for material (piece of cork). The hypotheses were that for simple objects the number of shape-based categorizations would increase according to experience of English and that the preference for shape- and material-based categorizations of Japanese speakers of English would differ from monolingual speakers of both languages. Subjects were 18 adult Japanese users of English who had lived in English-speaking countries between six months and three years (short-stay group), and 18 who had lived in English-speaking countries for three years or more (long-stay group). Both groups achieved above criterion on an English vocabulary test. Results were: both groups preferred material responses for simple objects and substances but not for complex objects, in line with Japanese monolinguals, but the long-stay group showed more shape preference than the short-stay group and also were less different from American monolinguals. These effects of acquiring a second language on categorization have implications for conceptual representation and methodology.
Codeswitching in Mirpuri speaking Pakistani heritage preschool children: Bilingual language acquisition
Authors: Pert Sean , Letts Carolyn
Published: December 2008

In an environment where bilingual adults codeswitch routinely, children are likely to show codeswitching in their own utterances from an early age. However, child language has rarely been studied from this viewpoint and codeswitching may be viewed negatively by many educators and other professionals involved with bilingual children. This research examines codeswitching recorded during the assessment of two groups of preschool Mirpuri speaking children living in Rochdale, U.K. The children's codeswitched utterances are examined using the Myers-Scotton Matrix Language Frame (MLF) and 4M models. The results show that codeswitching was common. Codeswitched utterances were generally longer than utterances that did not display codeswitching and they conformed to the MLF/4M models. Codeswitched utterances may be the most representative utterances of a bilingual child's expressive potential; only when speaking to a fellow bilingual who accepts codeswitching is the bilingual child able to express him- or herself to this potential. Codeswitched utterances, and not solely L1 or L2 utterances, should therefore form the basis for establishing bilingual norms of bilingual language acquisition for populations where codeswitching is effectively the L1.
(In)vulnerable agreement in incomplete bilingual L1 learners
Authors: Bolonyai Agnes
Published: December 2008

This study investigates morphological vulnerability in incomplete bilingual L1 acquisition. It examines the production of L1 inflections by L2-dominant bilingual children, with the aim of exploring causes of difficulty in agreement marking. Spontaneous data (18 hours) from six Hungarian-English bilingual children, aged seven to nine, is used to compare the production of possessive inflections and verbal inflections, which are expressed by identical surface morphology in Hungarian. Drawing on recent analysis of Hungarian (Alberti, 1995; Szabolcsi, 1994), the paper asks where and why agreement morphology is susceptible to variability in bilingual children's weaker L1. Results indicate significant differences in the accuracy of agreement morphology. Inflections are almost error-free in possessive nominals and subject-verb agreement. However, they are frequently omitted in possessive be-clauses, which can be attributed to a combination of factors: (i) influence of semantic-syntactic properties of English have on Hungarian be possessive construction (transfer from L2); (ii) difficulty with long-distance agreement in Hungarian be-possessives (structural complexity of L1); and (iii) influence of Hungarian existential and locative constructions on possessive- be (ambiguity in L1). It is argued that morphological variability is selective, and the main source of vulnerability is the syntax-semantics interface where the weaker L1 is most susceptible to L2 influence.
Command of gender agreement in school-age Spanish-English Bilingual Children
Authors: Montrul Silvina , Potowski Kim
Published: December 2008

By age three to four, monolingual Spanish-speaking children master gender marking and agreement in noun phrases. It is unclear whether bilingual children acquire gender marking rules by the same age as do monolingual children, and whether they in fact ever acquire these rules with 100% accuracy. This study tested sixty 6 to 11-year-old bilingual children attending a Spanish-English two-way immersion school in Chicago divided into two main age groups: younger (ages 6—8) and older (ages 9—11). Thirty-eight children came from Spanish-speaking homes (heritage speakers) and 22 came from English-speaking homes (L2 learners of Spanish). A group of 29 monolingual children from Mexico matched for age formed the comparison group. The children were first asked to narrate the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and then they were asked to complete an elicited picture description task with colored animals. Results of the two tasks showed that the bilingual children produced more gender errors than the monolingual children. In general, heritage speakers were more accurate than L2 learners, although there were differences by age of onset of bilingualism in both groups. Crucially, there was no evidence of language loss with increased age. Our results suggest that a dual immersion school curriculum is conducive to both language acquisition and maintenance.
Use of Picture Dictionaries to Promote Functional Communication in Students With Deafness and Intellectual Disabilities
Authors: Highnote Allgood Margaret , Heller Kathryn Wolff , Easterbrooks Susan R. , Fredrick Laura D.
Published: December 2008

A mismatch of communication modalities can occur between students who communicate using sign language and coworkers at community-based vocational sites who do not use sign language. This study investigated the use of picture dictionaries to facilitate note writing as a form of expressive communication for students who were deaf and had mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. Students were systematically taught to use their picture dictionaries to initiate requests using the system of least prompts and the environmental arrangement strategy. A multiple baseline probe design was used. All students were able to successfully use the picture dictionaries to promote communication initiations. Implications regarding using the picture dictionaries for communication and for improving spelling of target vocabulary are discussed.
Three-Year Outcome Data of Second-Line Antiretroviral Therapy in Ugandan Adults: Good Virological Response but High Rate of Toxicity
Authors: Castelnuovo Barbara , John Laurence , Lutwama Fred , Ronald Allan , Spacek Lisa A. , Bates Michael , Kamya Moses R. , Colebunders Robert
Published: December 2008

Objective. To evaluate the safety and virological response to lopinavir/ritonavir containing second-line therapy after failing a first line nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) based regimen. Design. Prospective 36 months cohort study of patients switched to zidovudine/stavudine plus didanosine plus lopinavir/ritonavir capsules as second-line regimen. Methodology. Structured interview, medical examination, and laboratory assessment performed every 6 months. Results. We enrolled 40 patients; 1 died and 3 were lost to follow-up. Median CD4+ count at baseline was 108 cell/μL, median log viral load was 4.8 copies/mL. Sixteen (40%) patients had baseline genotypic resistant test, 14 (87%) had lamivudine resistance mutations, and all had NNRTIs resistance mutations. At month 36, 82% of the patients achieved viral suppression (<400 copies/ mL) and the median increase in CD4+ count was 214 cell/μL, (interquartile range: 128-295). Twenty-five patients (62%) experienced at least one adverse event. Conclusions. Our study confirms lopinavir/ ritonavir-based second-line regimen but with a high rate of toxicities.
Silence Is Not Golden
Authors: Geroux Kema , Sherman Whitney H.
Published: December 2008

A case developed for courses in leadership education—particularly for those centered in social justice and ethical leadership—is described. Students test their own assumptions about “difference” and are called on to make leadership responses that are grounded in ethical frameworks. This case highlights tensions that surround lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students in increasingly diverse school settings. The story is revealed through the eyes of a principal who must turn a negative response to a Gay—Straight Alliance event to one that fosters school and community discussion on inclusiveness and demonstrates the power of advocacy.
Osseointegrated Finger Prostheses
Authors: DOPPEN P. , SOLOMONS M. , KRITZINGER S.
Published: December 2008

Amputation of a digit can lead to functional and psychological problems and patients can benefit from digital prostheses. Unfortunately, standard prostheses are often unstable, particularly when fitted over short amputation stumps. Prosthesis fixation by osseointegration is widely used in oral and extraoral applications and may help avoid the problem of instability. This paper reports the results of four patients with five finger amputations who were treated with osseointegrated implants to attach finger prostheses. One implant failed to osseointegrate and the procedure was abandoned. Three patients were successfully treated to completion of three finger prostheses and are extremely satisfied with their outcomes, both cosmetically and functionally, with osseoperception reported by all three patients.
Cold Hypersensitivity 6 To 10 Years after Replantation or Revascularisation of Fingers: Consequences for Work and Leisure Activities
Authors: VAKSVIK T. , HETLAND K. , RØKKUM M. , HOLM I.
Published: December 2008

We investigated cold hypersensitivity and activity in 81 adults (male/female 76/5), 6 to 10 years after finger replantation/revascularisation (mean age at injury 43 (SD 15) years). Questionnaires included the McCabe Cold Sensitivity Severity Scale, Potential Work-Exposure Scale and the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) score. Eighty per cent of the respondents were cold hypersensitive; 20% were severely or extremely cold hypersensitive. Of the 74 patients employed at injury, 7% had changed work and 4% were not working due to cold hypersensitivity. The median score for cold exposure at work at follow-up was 153 (scale 0–300). The correlation between cold sensitivity and DASH work was low. One-third of the respondents experienced limitations in their leisure activities because of cold complaints. Long-term cold sensitivity was mild or moderate for most patients. Many cold hypersensitive patients managed to continue to work even under cold conditions and cold hypersensitivity was a greater problem in leisure activities.
The fate of the duplicated androgen receptor in fishes: a late neofunctionalization event?
Authors: Douard Véronique , Brunet Frédéric , Boussau Bastien , Ahrens-Fath Isabelle , Vlaeminck-Guillem Virginie , Haendler Bernard , Laudet Vincent , Guiguen Yann
Published: December 2008

Background

Based on the observation of an increased number of paralogous genes in teleost fishes compared with other vertebrates and on the conserved synteny between duplicated copies, it has been shown that a whole genome duplication (WGD) occurred during the evolution of Actinopterygian fish. Comparative phylogenetic dating of this duplication event suggests that it occurred early on, specifically in teleosts. It has been proposed that this event might have facilitated the evolutionary radiation and the phenotypic diversification of the teleost fish, notably by allowing the sub- or neo-functionalization of many duplicated genes.

Results

In this paper, we studied in a wide range of Actinopterygians the duplication and fate of the androgen receptor (AR, NR3C4), a nuclear receptor known to play a key role in sex-determination in vertebrates. The pattern of AR gene duplication is consistent with an early WGD event: it has been duplicated into two genes AR-A and AR-B after the split of the Acipenseriformes from the lineage leading to teleost fish but before the divergence of Osteoglossiformes. Genomic and syntenic analyses in addition to lack of PCR amplification show that one of the duplicated copies, AR-B, was lost in several basal Clupeocephala such as Cypriniformes (including the model species zebrafish), Siluriformes, Characiformes and Salmoniformes. Interestingly, we also found that, in basal teleost fish (Osteoglossiformes and Anguilliformes), the two copies remain very similar, whereas, specifically in Percomorphs, one of the copies, AR-B, has accumulated substitutions in both the ligand binding domain (LBD) and the DNA binding domain (DBD).

Conclusion

The comparison of the mutations present in these divergent AR-B with those known in human to be implicated in complete, partial or mild androgen insensitivity syndrome suggests that the existence of two distinct AR duplicates may be correlated to specific functional differences that may be connected to the well-known plasticity of sex determination in fish. This suggests that three specific events have shaped the present diversity of ARs in Actinopterygians: (i) early WGD, (ii) parallel loss of one duplicate in several lineages and (iii) putative neofunctionalization of the same duplicate in percomorphs, which occurred a long time after the WGD.
Outcome of retinopathy of prematurity patients following adoption of revised indications for treatment
Authors: Alme Aaron M , Mulhern Michael L , Hejkal Thomas W , Meza Jane L , Qiu Fang , Ingvoldstad David D , Margalit Eyal
Published: December 2008

Background

The Early Treatment for Retinopathy of Prematurity study (ETROP), published in 2003, established new guidelines for treatment of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and demonstrated improved outcomes compared to previous guidelines. We examined outcomes before and after implementing the ETROP recommendations.

Methods

A retrospective chart review was performed using records of infants who had laser ablations for ROP performed from January, 2000 through December, 2005. Data collected included date of birth; birth weight; estimated gestational age (EGA); grading of ROP; date of laser ablation; and outcome of laser surgery. Univariate association with threshold or prethreshold treatment (Pre-ETROP and Post-ETROP, respectively) were assessed using t-tests or Wilcoxon tests. Additional comparison between groups was performed using Fisher's exact tests.

Results

581 patients were examined before and 464 after December 2003. Of these, 29/581 (5% – Pre-ETROP Group) and 53/464 (11% – Post-ETROP Group) patients advanced to criteria requiring laser treatment respectively (P = 0.0001). The average estimated gestational age (EGA) at birth was 26.3 and 25.2 weeks, with an average birth weight of 888 and 707 grams for Pre and Post-ETROP Groups, respectively. Stage 5 retinal detachment (RD) developed in 10.3% of eyes in the Pre-ETROP Group and 1.9% of eyes in the Post-ETROP Group (P = 0.02).

Conclusion

After the ETROP guidelines were implemented, there was a decrease from 10.3% to 1.9% of eyes developing Stage 5 retinal detachment, despite this group having a lower average EGA and lower average birth weight. These results underscore the importance of adoption of the Revised Indications.
Biological processes, properties and molecular wiring diagrams of candidate low-penetrance breast cancer susceptibility genes
Authors: Bonifaci Núria , Berenguer Antoni , Díez Javier , Reina Oscar , Medina Ignacio , Dopazo Joaquín , Moreno Víctor , Pujana Miguel Angel
Published: December 2008

Background

Recent advances in whole-genome association studies (WGASs) for human cancer risk are beginning to provide the part lists of low-penetrance susceptibility genes. However, statistical analysis in these studies is complicated by the vast number of genetic variants examined and the weak effects observed, as a result of which constraints must be incorporated into the study design and analytical approach. In this scenario, biological attributes beyond the adjusted statistics generally receive little attention and, more importantly, the fundamental biological characteristics of low-penetrance susceptibility genes have yet to be determined.

Methods

We applied an integrative approach for identifying candidate low-penetrance breast cancer susceptibility genes, their characteristics and molecular networks through the analysis of diverse sources of biological evidence.

Results

First, examination of the distribution of Gene Ontology terms in ordered WGAS results identified asymmetrical distribution of Cell Communication and Cell Death processes linked to risk. Second, analysis of 11 different types of molecular or functional relationships in genomic and proteomic data sets defined the "omic" properties of candidate genes: i/ differential expression in tumors relative to normal tissue; ii/ somatic genomic copy number changes correlating with gene expression levels; iii/ differentially expressed across age at diagnosis; and iv/ expression changes afterBRCA1perturbation. Finally, network modeling of the effects of variants on germline gene expression showed higher connectivity than expected by chance between novel candidates and with known susceptibility genes, which supports functional relationships and provides mechanistic hypotheses of risk.

Conclusion

This study proposes that cell communication and cell death are major biological processes perturbed in risk of breast cancer conferred by low-penetrance variants, and defines the common omic properties, molecular interactions and possible functional effects of candidate genes and proteins.