bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Quality Assurance in Online, Open, and Distance Education
Authors: Jung Insung
Published: January 2023

Over the past few decades, online, open, and distance education (ODE) has enjoyed phenomenal growth across different regions, and with the spread of the COVID-19 virus, its use has adopted more quickly and widely at all levels of education in both developed and developing countries. There has also been a surge in trans-institutional online courses and programs. Despite this surge in widespread practice of ODE, an image problem that perceives ODE as a second-rate education, indicated by Daniel (Quality assurance and accreditation in distance education and e-learning: Models, policies, and research. Routledge, New York, 2011) a decade ago, still exists, meaning that there is a need for even stronger measures to ensure that ODE is as good as in-person education and that quality assurance (QA) systems are in place as it enters the mainstream of education.

Applying QA to ODE processes and outcomes is a relatively new phenomenon. Drawing upon previous literature on quality and QA in ODE, including institutional case studies, this chapter examines various definitions of quality and QA in ODE practice, difficulties, and challenges presented by QA in ODE and the role of stakeholders in QA in ODE. It then discusses how different ODE institutions judge and assure the quality of their courses, programs, and services and what values and assumptions underpin such QA approaches. It finally draws conclusions about what still needs to be considered and actioned.
Quality Assurance Systems for Digital Higher Education in Europe
Authors: Ubachs George , Henderikx Piet
Published: January 2023

Since the corona crisis, digital higher education practices permeate higher education in Europe. In degree education, various digital pedagogies are used in courses and programs, such as synchronous hybrid, blended, and online education and distance learning. In addition to degree education, higher education institutions offer online continuing education and open education through MOOCs. Microcredentials are high on the agenda of the European Commission, national governments, and institutions.

The international dimension has also become important in all these areas. Universities organize joint curricula and virtual mobility schemes. This development has even been reinforced by the European Universities Initiatives of the European Commission (EUI), which already created 41 university alliances across Europe.

Digital education plays a vital role in creating a new pedagogical landscape shaping the Commission’s Transformation of the European University 2030. This has implications for the internal and external quality assurance of education, which should lead to better quality and more robust maturity.

This chapter illustrates how quality assurance models and practices in Europe have evolved towards a multilevel and multi-stakeholder approach. It describes the development of quality assurance systems and guidelines for digital higher education in Europe in recent decades. In addition, it focuses on new quality assurance challenges to respond to the next stages of development in higher education, keeping pace with future innovations. Finally, it provides an overview of the current position of quality assurance with the most important conclusions.
Digital Information and Library Services in ODDE
Authors: Owusu-Ansah Christopher M. , Rodrigues Antonio da Silva
Published: January 2023

This chapter is anchored on Collaboration being a new construct in the Digital Library Reference Model proposed by the DELOS Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries. The chapter argues that distance learning library services will be significantly enhanced with a collaboratively implemented digital library service taking into cognizance the role of collaboration in strategic planning and policy development, provision of digital collections and information services, and technological infrastructure and skills development in the distance education context. The study concludes that the collaborative model for implementing digital libraries in open, distance, and digital education (ODDE) can ensure that digital libraries are collaboratively designed leading to wider acceptance and use in ODDE.
Administrative Support System
Authors: Teixeira António Moreira
Published: January 2023

Administrative support provided to teachers, learners, and staff is critical for ensuring the quality of the teaching and learning experience in open, distance, and digital education (ODDE). Having been seen for a long time as a peripheral function, administrative support is now recognized as playing a decisive role in suppressing student dropout, improving teaching effectiveness, and promoting learning success. This chapter examines in detail how administrative support systems are organized and should be redesigned to efficiently assist stakeholders. This analysis is conducted in the framework of the ongoing digital transformation process of higher education institutions (HEIs). Reference models for implementing digital learning innovation are described and analyzed. The chapter proposes that administrative student support in ODDE should not be organized as a separate autonomous structure. It is argued that in such complex and unstable innovation-driven institutional environments, the learner, faculty, and staff administrative support system should be designed as a hub of resources and services operating within an open and flexible learning ecosystem. It is suggested that multidisciplinary teams are set across the HEIs to collaboratively design, deliver, and support ODDE provision. Administrative staff professional development is also suggested to be reorganized in this innovative framework.
Supporting Learners with Special Needs in Open, Distance, and Digital Education
Authors: Kocdar Serpil , Bozkurt Aras
Published: January 2023

Open, distance, and digital education (ODDE) is meant to provide unique educational opportunities for everyone, including learners with special needs. While promising flexible and accessible learning experiences for learners with special needs, ODDE may simultaneously result in the creation of certain barriers. Supporting learners with special needs in ODDE environments, therefore, becomes a critical task for all educational institutions. This chapter focuses on the challenges that learners with special needs encounter during their learning process in ODDE, as well as those mechanisms that can be used to support them in order to overcome these challenges, such as means of increasing accessibility, recognizing Universal Design for Learning principles, using assistive technologies, providing accommodations, and adaptations in terms of pedagogical, managerial, social, and technical support. The chapter suggests that ODDE is inclusive in nature and that it should therefore further focus on empathy and care-oriented pedagogies. ODDE, inspired by openness philosophy, envisions equity, equality, and justice for every learner, including learners with special needs.
Developing Digital Literacy for Teaching and Learning
Authors: Marín Victoria I. , Castañeda Linda
Published: January 2023

Digital literacy is a critical competence for empowering citizenship in a digital world. It has become a key element in teaching and learning across the different educational stages that has been addressed since the last decade of the twentieth century within the field of open, distance, and digital education. The literature so far has not agreed on a common definition, but multiple international, national, and even local, frameworks exist to foster digital literacy and to evaluate and certificate it, especially with a focus on educators and students in different educational levels, but also with the citizen perspective. These frameworks are reviewed in this chapter, along with the evolution and conceptualization of digital literacy and some strategies to foster digital literacy in different educational sectors, with a focus on the educator as a key player in this fostering action. The most remarkable challenges for developing digital literacy for teaching and learning include the same conception of digital literacy, which is multiple and situated, the digital divide and the actual consideration of digital literacy as a social practice. Being digital literacy a transversal competency nowadays, clear implications for education can be drawn, such as reshaping organizations to the digital conditions, thinking on digital literacy as a collective effort, and enriching the global discourse through diversity in debates.
Online Doctoral Education
Authors: Lee Kyungmee
Published: January 2023

This chapter discusses different factors underpinning the development of online doctoral education and pedagogical concerns influencing the design of online doctoral programs. The rapid development of online doctoral education has been guided by recent changes in doctoral education and distance education contexts, both conceptually and empirically. To develop a comprehensive understanding of the nature of online doctoral education, 47 journal articles concerning the design of existing online doctoral programs were systematically selected and reviewed. The review results demonstrate that online doctoral education is a complex entity developed and influenced by a dynamic interplay among multiple factors relevant to different aspects of online higher education, professional doctoral education and internationalized education. However, there has been a lack of holistic research approaches to develop a comprehensive understanding of online doctoral education. In particular, literature grounded in online higher education and professional doctoral education scholarship has not been effectively integrated and synthesized, creating an unhelpful chasm. Within the chasm, a range of pedagogical concerns and contradictions have emerged in online doctoral programs, which can be understood and addressed only when online doctoral educators have a holistic perspective bridging the two. Therefore, while the present review reveals valuable insights into online doctoral education research and practice, it also suggests that more research needs to be conducted using a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of online doctoral students and their experiences.
Designing Online Learning in Higher Education
Authors: Martin Florence , Bolliger Doris U.
Published: January 2023

Design is critical in online learning. This chapter reviews research and practice on designing effective online courses in higher education. Firstly, the importance of design in online learning is described including asynchronous, synchronous, and bichronous delivery methods, as well as the significance of course organization and meeting learner needs in online courses. Secondly, we provide a brief overview of online course design research in higher education. Thirdly, standards and rubrics for online course design from US colleges and universities as well as professional organizations across the world are reviewed. Fourthly, we describe a research-based and validated online course design element rubric, which includes overview, course presentation, interaction and communication, assessment and evaluation, and student support. Fifthly, the chapter describes how instructors can be prepared for and supported in online course design, incorporating administrator support, pedagogical support, technology support, and personnel support. Sixthly, the role of instructional designers in online course design is described. The chapter concludes with recommendations for instructors and designers and topics for future research.
Serious Games and Game-Based Learning
Authors: Schrader Claudia
Published: January 2023

This chapter summarizes theory and empirical research concerned with the use of serious games and game-based learning in educational contexts. Relevant characteristics and theoretical foundations of the value of games are assessed. The reviewed empirical findings indicate a strong effect of serious games and game-based learning on learner motivation, affect, and cognitive outcomes. However, the direction of their impact is not always straightforward as it depends on the interplay of conditions including the game type, design features, learner characteristics, and learning activities. This chapter suggests that developers and educators take this interplay into account to ensure optimal learner experiences when developing or choosing serious games or game-based learning approaches for educational purposes.
Newer Theories for Digital Learning Spaces
Authors: Downes Stephen
Published: January 2023

The emergence of newer theories for digital learning spaces occurs because of a general dissatisfaction with the theorizing of earlier generations of open and distance education (ODE). After an outline of the traditional conception of the requirements for a “learning theory,” this chapter traces the sources for this dissatisfaction in traditional theories such as behaviourism and cognitivism, then traces some theoretical attempts to address them. It identifies a range of emerging theories, including connectivist pedagogy, personal learning environments, and open educational practices, characterizing these in terms of their response to the original dissatisfaction. It then returns to the characterization of a “learning theory,” suggesting that in the light of this new work a reconceptualization of theory may be required.
#KitaJagaKita: (De)legitimising the Government During the 2020 Movement Control Order
Authors: Lee Charity
Published: January 2023

On 18th March 2020, the Malaysian government enforced a movement control order (MCO) that required everyone to stay in their homes until 4th May 2020 to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. During this time, social media became not only a source of information for citizens but also the main space for their mediated social and public lives. Besides the hashtags #stayhome and #dudukrumah, the hashtag #KitaJagaKita started trending as netizens and civil society took the initiative to champion the proper enforcement of the MCO and safe distancing, as well as to find solutions for the shortage of medical safety equipment. This chapter presents findings from a discourse analysis on the discourses surrounding the hashtag #KitaJagaKita on Twitter and its use to (de)legitimise the Perikatan Nasional government and its leader, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Pro-government netizens use the hashtag to represent the government as protecting citizens through its policies and guidelines, and fellow citizens, who adhere to the MCO, as partnering in this effort. Netizens who are less supportive of the government, however, argue that the government is not doing enough to protect citizens and healthcare workers. They use the hashtag to criticise government policies and a lack of decisiveness and speed in properly implementing the MCO. They also use the hashtag to rally citizens to take care of each other by fundraising and finding “better” solutions for healthcare workers.
Women Representation on Editorial Boards in Latin America Journals: Promoting Gender Equity in Academic Surgery, Anesthesia, and Obstetrics
Authors: Campos Letícia Nunes , Naus Abbie , Rangel Ayla Gerk , Brandão Gabriela Rangel , Faria Isabella , Pierre Tayana Assomptia Jean , Freire Camila Verônica Souza , Schlindwein Sofia Schmitt , Feres Brenda , Wagemaker Sofia , Salgado Lucas Sousa , Ferreira Roseanne , Ferreira Júlia Loyola
Published: January 2023

Background

Inequitable representation in journal editorial boards may impact women's career progression across surgical, anesthesia, and obstetric (SAO) specialties. However, data from Latin America are lacking. We evaluated women's representation on editorial boards of Latin America SAO journals in 2021.

Methods

We conducted a cross‐sectional analysis, retrieving journals through Scimago Journal and Country Rank 2020. Journals were included if active, focused on SAO topics, and publicly provided information on editorial board staff. Editorial board member names and positions were extracted from journals’ websites. Members were classified into senior (e.g., editor‐in‐chief), academic (e.g., reviewer), and non‐academic roles (e.g., administrative office). Women's representation was predicted from first names using Genderize.io. The number of women SAO physicians per country was obtained from articles and governmental reports.

Results

We included 19 of 25 identified journals and analyzed 1,318 names. Three anesthesiology, seven obstetric, and nine surgical journals represented five Latin American countries. Women held 17% (224/1,318) of board positions [p < 0.0001; 95% CI(0.14, 0.19)]. Women held fewer academic roles (14.3%, 155/1,084) compared to senior [28.9%, 64/221 (p < 0.001)] and non‐academic roles [38.4%, 5/13 (p = 0.042)]. Surgical journals had fewer women (7.7%, 58/752) compared to anesthesia [25.5%, 52/204 (p = 0.006)] and obstetrics [31.5%, 114/362 (p < 0.001)]. Women's proportion on editorial boards increased according to the number of women SAO physicians per country (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Our study assessed the composition of editorial boards from Latin America SAO journals and demonstrated that women remain underrepresented. Our findings highlight the need for regional strategies to advance women's careers across SAO specialties.
Tissue structure and mechanical properties of the exoskeleton of the huge claws of the mud crab, Scylla serrata
Authors: Inoue Tadanobu , Hiroto Takanobu , Hara Yuka , Nakazato Koji , Oka Shin-ichiro
Published: January 2023

The mud crab, Scylla serrata, has huge claws in comparison with its body size. The color of the claw top’s finger surface changes from white to deep-mottled blue, and this discoloration was strongly associated with the change in hardness inside the finger cross section. With special attention to the discoloration points, the tissue structure of the exoskeleton was investigated via scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the mechanical properties were examined using Vickers hardness and nanoindentation tests. The exocuticle in the deep blue surface exoskeleton was as thin as that in other crustaceans, and the exoskeleton was occupied by the endocuticle with a twisted plywood structure. On the other hand, in the white surface exoskeleton, the thickness of the hard and dense exocuticle accounted for 52–59% of the exoskeleton thickness. This percentage increased at the claw tip. The hardness of the exocuticle was 2.5 times that of the endocuticle, and the microstructures and mechanical properties gradually varied at the boundary between the exo- and endocuticle. The mechanical properties were almost constant in the exocuticle, but calcium (Ca) concentrations decreased from the outer surface toward the boundary in that region and magnesium (Mg) concentrations increased. The change in the unit cell volume obtained via XRD suggested that some of the Ca atoms in the calcite crystal structure in that region were replaced with Mg atoms. Changes in crustacean coloration may help us to understand the tissue structure and mechanical properties within the exoskeleton.

Graphical Abstract
Gut-on-a-chip for exploring the transport mechanism of Hg(II)
Authors: Wang Li , Han Junlei , Su Weiguang , Li Anqing , Zhang Wenxian , Li Huimin , Hu Huili , Song Wei , Xu Chonghai , Chen Jun
Published: January 2023

Animal models and static cultures of intestinal epithelial cells are commonly used platforms for exploring mercury ion (Hg(II)) transport. However, they cannot reliably simulate the human intestinal microenvironment and monitor cellular physiology in situ; thus, the mechanism of Hg(II) transport in the human intestine is still unclear. Here, a gut-on-a-chip integrated with transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) sensors and electrochemical sensors is proposed for dynamically simulating the formation of the physical intestinal barrier and monitoring the transport and absorption of Hg(II) in situ. The cellular microenvironment was recreated by applying fluid shear stress (0.02 dyne/cm2) and cyclic mechanical strain (1%, 0.15 Hz). Hg(II) absorption and physical damage to cells were simultaneously monitored by electrochemical and TEER sensors when intestinal epithelial cells were exposed to different concentrations of Hg(II) mixed in culture medium. Hg(II) absorption increased by 23.59% when tensile strain increased from 1% to 5%, and the corresponding expression of Piezo1 and DMT1 on the cell surface was upregulated.
Scientists take steps in the lab toward climate sustainability
Authors: Feder Toni
Published: January 2023

They are working to lower greenhouse gas emissions without compromising research.
Shades of feeling
Authors: Lamond Margrete
Published: January 2023

This chapter discusses how author-illustrator Lane Smith manipulates formal aesthetic elements to activate involuntary emotional responses that influence meaning. Specifically, it works with systems neuroscience to discuss the unease in A Perfect Day and the ways the emotional impact of risky content gets flattened in Grandpa Green. Systems neuroscience examines processes that underlie and inform conscious thought and offers a complementary approach to the investigation of emotional meaning in picturebook illustration. Rather than addressing concepts of mental imagery, self-awareness, language, or mental activity that are the bedrock of normative analysis, the neuroscience of the visual system allows us to view picturebook narratives from a different perspective, and to discover significances that might not be evident by way of conceptual analysis alone.
The cultural politics of confidence in Chetan Bhagat’s select fiction
Authors: Dogra Sakshi
Published: January 2023

Chetan Bhagat’s fiction were not only immensely popular at the beginning of the twenty-first century among India’s young adults, but they also highlight a new Indian subjectivity that believes in the ethos of enterprise and an attitude of get-up-and-go. For this young generation, self-actualization is tied to national aggrandizement in inextricable ways. The chapter argues that an entanglement such as this is affective in nature. To be more precise, in portraying plotlines and characters that emphasize futurity, both personal and national, Chetan Bhagat’s fiction works by attuning youth to the emotion of confidence. In employing a vocal, oral, vernacular, and intimate English in his narrations, Bhagat’s writings capacitate young people to achieve maturation in post-liberalization India, to experience confidence in one’s language, and to find their place in the world.
The affective construction of Chinese child citizenship in Little Friend, 1945–1949
Authors: Xiang Lidong
Published: January 2023

After the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), Chinese society underwent a transition in imagining the nation and its citizenry. The visual and textual narratives in the long-running children’s periodical Little Friend highlight these changes as its post-war content features affective mechanisms to enlist children in a labor-oriented proletarian citizenship that emphasizes collectivism. Drawing on affect’s stickiness and retrospective way of working (Ahmed), the chapter details Little Friend’s affective crafting of a Chinese child citizenship through the periodical’s representations of laboring and disciplined child bodies, as well as its geographical discourses. This crafting, the chapter argues, served as a means to encourage children’s empathetic identification with the anticipated citizenship and the imagined nation during the late Republican period.
What everybody knows
Authors: Aikhenvald Alexandra Y.
Published: January 2023

Every language has a variety of ways of expressing how one knows what one is talking about. In quite a few of the world’s languages, one has to always specify the information source through grammatical means. Evidential terms may combine reference to the information sources of the speaker and of the addressee and to information shared by everyone. A special term for ‘common knowledge’ is a feature of a few large systems of evidentials. Sharing information source and common knowledge may constitute part of the meaning of an existing evidential within a large system. Shared context allows speakers and the audience to distinguish the exact reference of each evidential term. If a language becomes obsolescent, the meanings of the evidential terms change. This is illustrated with a case study from Tariana, an endangered Arawak language from north-west Amazonia, Brazil.
Revisiting verbs and plurality
Authors: Amaral Patrícia
Published: January 2023

This chapter examines a frequentative periphrasis found in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), formed by the verb viver ‘to live’ and a verb in the gerund, and analyzes its aspectual and evaluative properties. Building on data from contemporary BP (
Corpus NILC/São Carlos
and Twitter), it is proposed that the evaluative meaning of the periphrasis (a negative evaluation of the high number of event repetitions) is associated with its aspectual meaning of a large and unspecified number of event iterations. This chapter reassesses a previous proposal regarding the theoretical status of the negative implication of pluractional forms (Amaral 2013b) and discusses its context-dependence. A pragmatic account is proposed regarding the evaluative meaning of plurals in the nominal and verbal domains across languages.
(No) faltaba/faltaría más
Authors: Cifuentes Honrubia José Luis
Published: January 2023

In this paper we examine the functions and origins of the constructions (no) faltaba más and (no) faltaría más through the analysis of the examples extracted from the CDH and CORPES XXI. The different variants are formally and significantly grammaticalized as an interjective sentential idiom of an exclamatory nature. This grammaticalization is manifested by the fixation of the construction and by the loss of the verbal characteristics of faltar. We have confirmed how the change from full syntactic construction to epistemic discourse marker is rendered by the aspect of focalization, and we have differentiated five meanings of the construction. The meaning in the origin of the construction is rejection of something which was previously indicated. The epistemic change from rejection of something which was previously indicated to confirmation of a previous element is caused by the meaning of rejection of something negative, which results in its positive confirmation. The politeness value arises as confirmation of an expression of politeness, leading the construction to adopt this politeness value. Finally, confirmation of posterior elements was indicated from the meanings of confirmation (either positive or negative) of previous elements. This last confirmation is possible because it was frequent in cases of confirmation for the argumentation to continue, so that an argumentative line could be established with both the former and the latter. Finally, we have verified that the construction does not involve any type of covert negation, but instead, its grammaticalization as an interjective sentential idiom of an exclamative nature develops epistemic values intensified by means of exclamation, manifesting surprise, and whose epistemological link has been corroborated throughout the study.
The present tense as a mark of evidentiality and intersubjectivity in Spanish
Authors: Fernández Jaén Jorge
Published: January 2023

For some time now, studies about evidentiality have begun to explore the link between the grammatical coding of information sources and the expression of tense and aspect. Within this line of research, it is worth highlighting the works that have recently described the evidential nature of future. Our paper will present a study which delves deeper into this field of study, focusing on the interaction between evidentiality and grammatical present. Taking specific works as a reference and adopting a cognitive point of view, we will try to provide evidence that the present can assume evidential values – above all, visual and inferential ones – in Spanish. Our analysis will be exemplified by certain uses of perception verbs, which illustrate the interaction of tense, (inter)subjectivity and the information source in a particularly clear way.
Acostumar (a/de) + inf. From the habitual aspect to the generic aspect
Authors: Montserrat Buendia Sandra
Published: January 2023

This study is part of a project that aims to offer a complete analysis of aspectual verbal periphrases in Catalan from the Middle Ages to the present day. Using data provided by current grammatical studies, lexicographical works and corpora, we analyse the periphrasis acostumar (a/de) + inf in contemporary Catalan as a prelude to research on its uses in early (9th–13 centuries) and late medieval (13th–15th centuries) Catalan, which present various difficulties. The purpose is to determine the current meanings of the construction. We propose that the periphrasis fundamentally expresses
habituality, frequency, and
generality. To analyse this periphrasis, we apply a methodology based on the semantics of cognitive orientation. Specifically, we suggest a possible path of grammaticalization marked by the process of (inter) subjectification, which is one of the regularities of semantic change described by Traugott and Dasher (2002), Traugott (2010a, 2010b, 2012), and Nuyts (2001, 2005, 2012). and 2014) and is based on invited inferences from the communicative context (Invited Inferencing Theory of Semantic Change, TCSII)
Time after time
Authors: Rodríguez Rosique Susana
Published: January 2023

This paper analyzes the construction <No ir
Fut. a + infinitive> in Spanish. At first sight, the construction is made up of two futures: the so-called periphrastic future  [going to + infinitive] and the morphological future (Fut.) in which the auxiliary of the periphrasis occurs. However, neither of them seems to denote posteriority. The construction is rather used to convey the speaker’s surprise towards a contextually activated situation that is considered inappropriate, which falls under the umbrella of mirativity. Both the deictic instruction of ‘distance forward’ invoked by the morphological future and the lexical characterization of the verb ir [‘to go’] are acknowledged as productive mechanisms in the creation of meaning. The uses of their respective spatial configurations, in the relevant contextual environment, explain the interaction between future and mirativity in Spanish.
Meaning, degrees of abstraction and shared knowledge
Authors: Sánchez-López Elena
Published: January 2023

Human communication has proven to be a complex, multi-layered phenomenon, embracing social and individual, abstract and concrete, conceptual and referential elements. This complexity has found its reflection in the several linguistic branches devoted to its study: cognitive and functional linguistics, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, conversational analysis, among others. Far from excluding each other, these different strands can be complementary and contribute to a better understanding of human communication and the semiotic system attached to it. The main objective of this chapter is to bring together the knowledge on human communication, language and meaning construction in order to relate meaning with its different levels of abstraction and pinpoint a definition of shared knowledge.
The role of context in imperative form choice
Authors: Schwenter Scott A. , Hoff Mark R.
Published: January 2023

When languages have more than one dedicated imperative, the distinct forms often correspond to different person/number combinations. But what happens when there is variation between two forms for the same person/number combination, e.g. 2nd person singular? This chapter analyzes the competing 2sg imperatives in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), which illustrate this situation. BP permits this option in both affirmative and negative contexts, where the historical imperative tu form for 2sg alternates with the 3sg present subjunctive form used with the 2sg pronoun você (cf. Lamberti & Schwenter 2018). Through the multivariate analysis of an experimental survey, we argue that the variation between the two forms can be accounted for in terms of the semantic-pragmatic notion of presumed settledness (Hoff 2019), i.e. speaker confidence about how the future will unfold, and can be operationalized in terms of contextual characteristics such as markers of temporal immediacy and addressee specificity. More broadly, we suggest that these characteristics are relevant to accounting for contrasts between imperative forms across languages such as those with “delayed/deferred imperatives” (Aikhenvald 2014).
Posar fronteres a la mar
Authors: Nadal Josep M.
Published: January 2023

This programmatic text constitutes an unconventional theoretical approach to the linguistic fact, the foundation of the languages existence, the processes with which they have been constituted historically, the functions that correspond to them and the emotional implications that they always have for speakers.

Written for the purpose of an academic “ultima lectio” at the university, it becames a synthesis of the work and the often cross-disciplinary reflections that its author has carried out for years in the field of languages, and a starting point for innovative speculations, both in the field of linguistic theory and, more particularly, in that of studies on the Catalan language and its internal and territorial articulation.
Pour une autobiographie linguistique critique
Authors: Eloy Jean-Michel
Published: January 2023

At first we wonder if a linguistic autobiography is likely to be a valid document. Linguistic autobiography needs the notion of language to be put apart from language practices. Family biography, as well as individual, consists mainly in linguistic ideas about language practices, that’s why true story-telling is difficult.

Historical perspective helps to put the individual linguistic history in a social linguistic history. So experience may take sense in history, often using linguistic insecurity as a telling detail.
Territory and language from the perspective of 19th and 20th century Macedonia (as a representation of the Balkans)
Authors: Sujecka Jolanta
Published: January 2023

This work aims to present the image of Macedonian territory and the concept of language which emerged as an idea in the end of 19th and very beginning of 20th century, but have very significant continuation in the first half of 20th century. From this image and from this concept emanates the current idea that Macedonians have of themselves, the prevailing contemporary historical discourse, which significantly diverges from the historical reality of the Balkans.
Modelant l’estandardització
Authors: Ayres-Bennett Wendy
Published: January 2023

In this chapter, I outline certain developments in work on standardization since the turn of this century that has challenged traditional thinking on modelling standardization. From the 2000s, there has been a proliferation of publications and approaches, whether focusing on the linguistic, social, cultural, educational, political or other dimension, with the result that this discussion is necessarily highly schematic. I consider how work is opening out beyond the National and the European, and examine the increasing interest in agents of standardization and standardization “from below”. Also growing in importance is research on restandardization and destandardization, viewed as symptomatic of the increasingly anti-authoritarian, individualistic and democratic ideology of late modernity.
L’extensió del castellà a la Catalunya contemporània
Authors: Bernat Francesc , Galindo Mireia , de Rosselló Carles
Published: January 2023

Traditionally, the historical spread of Castilian in Catalonia has been studied from formal and elite contexts, but little is known about the effect of Spain’s language policies on the middle or lower-income classes, i.e. the majority of the Catalan population. This study presents an analysis of the life stories of Catalan-speaking people who are over 90 years of age. It aims to describe in a qualitative manner how the use of Castilian in Catalonia spread throughout the 20th century. Specifically, this study aims to answer two research questions. Firstly, how the bilingualization process of the Catalan population in the first half of the 20th century occurred. Secondly, when and how most of the Catalan population chose to converge to Castilian in intergroup encounters.
Towards an account of historical new-dialect formation in northern Africa
Authors: Benkato Adam
Published: January 2023

The two “waves” which are held to have brought Arabic to northern Africa are typically assumed to have been homogenous entities which subsequently developed in situ into the numerous dialects of the modern period. This paper argues that the complex distribution of phonological variants seen in the modern dialects can be better accounted for by assuming multiple input dialects and a sociolinguistic process of new-dialect formation leading to new output dialects. It uses the example of sibilant merging, attested in a number of dialects, wherein the Arabic non-emphatic sibilants s/š and z/ž merge their places of articulation. Sibilant merging in these dialects is argued to be an internal development preceding the spread of Arabic into northern Africa rather than solely the result of language contact.
Are Arabic listeners “stress deaf” to their own L2 pronunciation?
Authors: Albadar Iman , Vogel Irene
Published: January 2023

This study investigates to what extent Arabic speakers, whose L1 has predictable lexical stress, are “stress deaf” and whether their L1 prosodic properties influence their L2 stress perception. Arabic L2 English speakers and L1 English speakers performed an identification task with English nonce words produced by English and Arabic speakers. The results reveal that the Arabic speakers had more difficulty than the English speakers in identifying stress regardless of whether the words were produced by Arabic or English speakers, confirming their stress deafness in general. The Arabic speakers, nevertheless, exhibited greater sensitivity to stress produced by other Arabic speakers, especially in the position expected for Arabic, indicating further the effect of L1 prosodic properties on their perception of L2 stress.
Arabic and English plural formation in typically developing heritage speakers of Arabic
Authors: Khamis-Dakwar Reem , Salam Iman , Nagler Amanda , Froud Karen
Published: January 2023

The study of language development in Arabic heritage speaking children is scarce, and mostly constrained by cross-sectional designs (see Visonà & Plonsky, 2020), making it difficult to determine the course of language development or maintenance through the different stages of language exposure in Heritage Language Learners (HLLs). We present a longitudinal investigation of plural production in two Palestinian siblings sharing a parental background and home language exposure, starting one month after they immigrated to the United States. Real and Pseudoword Arabic plural, dual, and English plural productions were examined using child-friendly, interactive sentence completion task Effects of child’s age, immigration age, levels of language exposure and use, and assessed languages and structures were found, emphasizing the value of process versus outcome-oriented approaches to language development in HLLs.
Structural and functional connectivity of the inferior temporal numeral area
Authors: Conrad Benjamin N , Pollack Courtney , Yeo Darren J , Price Gavin R
Published: January 2023

A growing body of evidence suggests that in adults, there is a spatially consistent “inferior temporal numeral area” (ITNA) in the occipitotemporal cortex that appears to preferentially process Arabic digits relative to non-numerical symbols and objects. However, very little is known about why the ITNA is spatially segregated from regions that process other orthographic stimuli such as letters, and why it is spatially consistent across individuals. In the present study, we used diffusion-weighted imaging and functional magnetic resonance imaging to contrast structural and functional connectivity between left and right hemisphere ITNAs and a left hemisphere letter-preferring region. We found that the left ITNA had stronger structural and functional connectivity than the letter region to inferior parietal regions involved in numerical magnitude representation and arithmetic. Between hemispheres, the left ITNA showed stronger structural connectivity with the left inferior frontal gyrus (Broca’s area), while the right ITNA showed stronger structural connectivity to the ipsilateral inferior parietal cortex and stronger functional coupling with the bilateral IPS. Based on their relative connectivity, our results suggest that the left ITNA may be more readily involved in mapping digits to verbal number representations, while the right ITNA may support the mapping of digits to quantity representations.
Brain functional activity-based classification of autism spectrum disorder using an attention-based graph neural network combined with gene expression
Authors: Wang Zhengning , Xu Yuhang , Peng Dawei , Gao Jingjing , Lu Fengmei
Published: January 2023

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex brain neurodevelopmental disorder related to brain activity and genetics. Most of the ASD diagnostic models perform feature selection at the group level without considering individualized information. Evidence has shown the unique topology of the individual brain has a fundamental impact on brain diseases. Thus, a data-constructing method fusing individual topological information and a corresponding classification model is crucial in ASD diagnosis and biomarker discovery. In this work, we trained an attention-based graph neural network (GNN) to perform the ASD diagnosis with the fusion of graph data. The results achieved an accuracy of 79.78%. Moreover, we found the model paid high attention to brain regions mainly involved in the social-brain circuit, default-mode network, and sensory perception network. Furthermore, by analyzing the covariation between functional magnetic resonance imaging data and gene expression, current studies detected several ASD-related genes (i.e. MUTYH, AADAT, and MAP2), and further revealed their links to image biomarkers. Our work demonstrated that the ASD diagnostic framework based on graph data and attention-based GNN could be an effective tool for ASD diagnosis. The identified functional features with high attention values may serve as imaging biomarkers for ASD.
Common and distinct neural representations of imagined and perceived speech
Authors: Lu Lingxi , Han Meizhen , Zou Guangyuan , Zheng Li , Gao Jia-Hong
Published: January 2023

Humans excel at constructing mental representations of speech streams in the absence of external auditory input: the internal experience of speech imagery. Elucidating the neural processes underlying speech imagery is critical to understanding this higher-order brain function in humans. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the shared and distinct neural correlates of imagined and perceived speech by asking participants to listen to poems articulated by a male voice (perception condition) and to imagine hearing poems spoken by that same voice (imagery condition). We found that compared to baseline, speech imagery and perception activated overlapping brain regions, including the bilateral superior temporal gyri and supplementary motor areas. The left inferior frontal gyrus was more strongly activated by speech imagery than by speech perception, suggesting functional specialization for generating speech imagery. Although more research with a larger sample size and a direct behavioral indicator is needed to clarify the neural systems underlying the construction of complex speech imagery, this study provides valuable insights into the neural mechanisms of the closely associated but functionally distinct processes of speech imagery and perception.
Unique Profile of Inflammation and Immune Activation in Pregnant People With HIV in the United States
Authors: Shiau Stephanie , Jacobson Denise L , Huo Yanling , Kacanek Deborah , Yee Lynn M , Williams David B , Haddad Lisa B , Serghides Lena , Powis Kathleen , Sperling Rhoda S , Williams Paige L , Jao Jennifer ,   for the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study, Chadwick Ellen , Sanders Margaret Ann , Malee Kathleen , Paul Mary , Eser-Jose Ruth , McMullen-Jackson Chivon , Harris Lynnette , Purswani Murli , Baig Mahoobullah Mirza , Villegas Alma , Alvarado Marvin , Robinson Lisa-Gaye , Cooley Jawara Dia , Blood James , Garvie Patricia , Borkowsky William , Deygoo Nagamah Sandra , Lewis Jennifer , Dieudonne Arry , Bettica Linda , Johnson Juliette , Surowiec Karen , Knapp Katherine , Russell-Bell Jamie , Wilkins Megan , Love Stephanie , Rosario Nicolas , Angeli-Nieves Lourdes , Olivera Vivian , Kohlhoff Stephan , Dennie Ava , Kaye Jean , Wallier Jenny , Craig Karen , Silio Margarita , Sirois Patricia , Hutto Cecelia , Hickman Paige , Huldtquist Julie , Marullo Dan , Spector Stephen A , Figueroa Veronica , Loughran Megan , Nichols Sharon , McFarland Elizabeth , Kwon Christine , Glenny Carrie , Englund Jennifer , Rathore Mobeen , Mahmoudi Saniyyah , El-Hassan Sarah , Tejan Jamilah , Hayani Karen , Richardson Lourdes , Smith Renee , Miller Alina , Scott Gwendolyn , Garcia Gustavo Gil , Fernandez Gabriel , Cuadra Anai , Frederick Toni , Davtyan Mariam , Morales-Avendano Guadalupe , Rodriguez Zoe M , Torres Lizmarie , Scalley Nydia
Published: January 2023

Background

Little is known about inflammation/immune activation during pregnancy in people with HIV (PWH) and growth in their children who are HIV-exposed and uninfected (CHEU).

Methods

Using data from the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study and an HIV-seronegative comparison group, we assessed associations of (1) HIV status, mode of HIV acquisition (perinatally vs nonperinatally acquired), and type of antiretroviral therapy (ART) with inflammation/immune activation in pregnancy; and (2) inflammation/immune activation in pregnancy with growth of CHEU at 12 months. Interleukin 6 (IL-6), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), soluble(s) TNF-α receptor 1 and 2 (sTNFR1, sTNFR2), sCD14, and sCD163 were measured between 13 and 27 weeks' gestation. Linear regression models were fit to estimate differences between groups for each log-transformed biomarker, adjusted for confounders.

Results

Pregnant PWH (188 total, 39 perinatally acquired, 149 nonperinatally acquired) and 76 HIV-seronegative persons were included. PWH had higher IL-6, sTNFR1, sCD14, and sCD163 and lower sTNFR2 compared to HIV-seronegative persons in adjusted models. Among PWH, sCD163 was higher in those with perinatally versus nonperinatally acquired HIV and on PI-based versus INSTI-based ART. Higher maternal concentrations of IL-6, sTNFR2, and hs-CRP were associated with poorer growth at 12 months.

Conclusions

Maternal HIV status is associated with a distinct profile of inflammation/immune activation during pregnancy, which may influence child growth.