Reading together: an ethnographic study of a reading group for visually-impaired people

Because reading groups historically have been under-researched (Long, 2003), the literature in this field is limited, presenting this as an interesting area for researchers. A need for further research is also explained by the fact that the traditional model of a reading group has been expanded through recent library policies leading to the development of specific group types such as groups for visually-impaired people (VIPs). To date, there have been no long-term empirical studies of these groups. This thesis, therefore, makes a significant contribution to the literature in this field by providing an in-depth exploration of a VIP reading group. The thesis is an ethnographic study which follows a library-run reading group for visually-impaired people from its formation in September 2007 and concentrates on five of the group members. The methodology for the study is influenced by participatory approaches to research involving disabled people by inviting the participants to participate in the co-creation of knowledge about themselves (French & Swain, 2000, p. 1). It is also influenced by new ethnography’s preference for multi-layered texts by exploring both the individual and collective experiences of the participants. While the participants are defined throughout as readers, visual-impairment plays a role in their experiences. I show that visually-impaired readers and reading groups sit within a complex web of factors which impact on their experiences both as individual readers and as a group. The study also shows that VIP reading groups challenge traditional definitions of reading as a visual activity. The study explores issues of power and concludes that, because ownership of the group lies with the library, this challenges the idea of reading groups empowering their members. Furthermore, offering discrete groups for visually-impaired readers means that the role these groups play in contributing to agendas for social inclusion is problematic. The study concludes by making suggestions as to how these groups might develop to be more inclusive and empowering.

Toward a view of complementarity trust and policy influence effects of corporate social responsibility and corporate political activity

The extant literature argues that nonmarket strategies can establish, sustain, or enhance a firm’s competitive advantage. Less clear is how and why effective nonmarket strategies influence a firm’s competitiveness. Moreover, the extant literature tends to examine the two building blocks of nonmarket strategy—corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activity (CPA)—separately. In this article, we extend trust to the nonmarket environment. We analyze how CSR and CPA complement each other to create strong trust between firms and the polity, and how they consequently influence government policy. We show the mediating role of trust in policy influence, and argue that CSR and CPA should be aligned for the successful influence of salient government policy.

Expert consensus document: the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics consensus statement on the scope and appropriate use of the term probiotic.

An expert panel was convened in October 2013 by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) to discuss the field of probiotics. It is now 13 years since the definition of probiotics and 12 years after guidelines were published for regulators, scientists and industry by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the WHO (FAO/WHO). The FAO/WHO definition of a probiotic—“live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host”—was reinforced as relevant and sufficiently accommodating for current and anticipated applications. However, inconsistencies between the FAO/WHO Expert Consultation Report and the FAO/WHO Guidelines were clarified to take into account advances in science and applications. A more precise use of the term 'probiotic' will be useful to guide clinicians and consumers in differentiating the diverse products on the market. This document represents the conclusions of the ISAPP consensus meeting on the appropriate use and scope of the term probiotic.

Morphological awareness and reading development in bilingual English-Chinese children in Singapore

Addressing two aspects of morphological awareness – derivational and compound, this study investigates the relationships between morphological awareness and vocabulary and reading comprehension in English-Chinese bilingual primary 3 children in Singapore (N = 76). Comparable tasks in Chinese and English were administered to examine the children’s morphological awareness, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The results show that morphological awareness is highly related to vocabulary and reading comprehension, with higher correlations between morphological awareness and reading comprehension than between morphological awareness and vocabulary. This indicates that morphological awareness may have direct influence on reading comprehension beyond the mediating effect of vocabulary. Furthermore, the results indicate that children displayed more compound than derivational morphological awareness for Chinese due to the dominance of compound morphology in Chinese. However the children also displayed similar levels of derivational and compound morphological awareness for English despite far more derivatives than compounds in English. The robust cross-linguistic correlations suggest that Chinese compound morphological knowledge plays a facilitating role not only in learning English compounds, but also in learning transparently derived words that do not involve phonological or orthographic shifts.

Love of reading: the evaluation of KidsREAD programme in Singapore

In Singapore about 20% of families are considered to be socio-economically disadvantaged. Children from these families have been identified as having reading difficulties when they enter primary school. Recognizing that children from these families have limited access to reading materials, the National Library Board, in partnership with local community clubs and family service centres, has established the KidsREAD literacy programme where volunteers, mostly university and college students, help children between 4 and 8 years of age overcome some of their reading problems. The KidsREAD clubs aim to “promote the love of reading and cultivate good reading habits among all young Singaporeans, in particular children from low-income families” (National Library Board, 2005). This paper presents an evaluation of the KidsREAD clubs with regard to children’s attitudes towards reading. It explores the differences in children’s reading attitudes at the beginning of the programme and half way through the programme. The study was carried out in three representative clubs. This paper evaluates the attitudes of 65 children towards the clubs and the activities conducted at the clubs. It outlines the children’s beliefs about reading and the extent to which they value reading. It further explores how much KidsREAD clubs have influenced their attitudes towards reading in general and their enjoyment of reading in particular.

Structural constraints on pronoun binding and coreference: evidence from eye movements during reading

A number of recent studies have investigated how syntactic and non-syntactic constraints combine to cue memory retrieval during anaphora resolution. In this paper we investigate how syntactic constraints and gender congruence interact to guide memory retrieval during the resolution of subject pronouns. Subject pronouns are always technically ambiguous, and the application of syntactic constraints on their interpretation depends on properties of the antecedent that is to be retrieved. While pronouns can freely corefer with non-quantified referential antecedents, linking a pronoun to a quantified antecedent is only possible in certain syntactic configurations via variable binding. We report the results from a judgment task and three online reading comprehension experiments investigating pronoun resolution with quantified and non-quantified antecedents. Results from both the judgment task and participants' eye movements during reading indicate that comprehenders freely allow pronouns to corefer with non-quantified antecedents, but that retrieval of quantified antecedents is restricted to specific syntactic environments. We interpret our findings as indicating that syntactic constraints constitute highly weighted cues to memory retrieval during anaphora resolution.

Assessing the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposures to chemical mixtures in the environment: the challenge ahead

Lifestyle factors are responsible for a considerable portion of cancer incidence worldwide, but credible estimates from the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) suggest that the fraction of cancers attributable to toxic environmental exposures is between 7% and 19%. To explore the hypothesis that low-dose exposures to mixtures of chemicals in the environment may be combining to contribute to environmental carcinogenesis, we reviewed 11 hallmark phenotypes of cancer, multiple priority target sites for disruption in each area and prototypical chemical disruptors for all targets, this included dose-response characterizations, evidence of low-dose effects and cross-hallmark effects for all targets and chemicals. In total, 85 examples of chemicals were reviewed for actions on key pathways/mechanisms related to carcinogenesis. Only 15% (13/85) were found to have evidence of a dose-response threshold, whereas 59% (50/85) exerted low-dose effects. No dose-response information was found for the remaining 26% (22/85). Our analysis suggests that the cumulative effects of individual (non-carcinogenic) chemicals acting on different pathways, and a variety of related systems, organs, tissues and cells could plausibly conspire to produce carcinogenic synergies. Additional basic research on carcinogenesis and research focused on low-dose effects of chemical mixtures needs to be rigorously pursued before the merits of this hypothesis can be further advanced. However, the structure of the World Health Organization International Programme on Chemical Safety 'Mode of Action' framework should be revisited as it has inherent weaknesses that are not fully aligned with our current understanding of cancer biology.

The polychaete worm Nereis diversicolor increases mercury lability and methylation in intertidal mudflats

The polychaete worm Nereis diversicolor engineers its environment by creating oxygenated burrows in anoxic intertidal sediments. The authors carried out a laboratory microcosm experiment to test the impact of polychaete burrowing and feeding activity on the lability and methylation of mercury in sediments from the Bay of Fundy, Canada. The concentration of labile inorganic mercury and methylmercury in burrow walls was elevated compared to worm-free sediments. Mucus secretions and organic detritus in worm burrows increased labile mercury concentrations. Worms decreased sulfide concentrations, which increased Hg bioavailability to sulfate-reducing bacteria and increased methylmercury concentrations in burrow linings. Because the walls of polychaete burrows have a greater interaction with organisms, and the overlying water, the concentrations of mercury and methylmercury they contain is more toxicologically relevant to the base of a coastal food web than bulk samples. The authors recommend that researchers examining Hg in marine environments account for sediment dwelling invertebrate activity to more fully assess mercury bioavailability.

Mercury and methylmercury bioaccumulation by polychaete worms is governed by both feeding ecology and mercury bioavailability in coastal mudflats

Polychaete worms are abundant in many mudflats but their importance to coastal food web Hg biomagnification is not known. We sampled sediments and polychaete worms from mudflats in the Bay of Fundy to investigate the bioaccumulation of mercury (Hg) and methylmercury (MeHg) in the coastal invertebrate food web. Hg concentrations in the sediments were low (<20 μg kg−1). Labile Hg (methanol/KOH sediment extraction) in surface sediments (0–1 cm) was positively correlated with Hg bioaccumulation by surface sediment-ingesting polychaetes but, surprisingly, there was a negative correlation between δ15N (i.e. trophic level) and THg bioaccumulation factors in polychaete worms. Worms feeding on deeper sediments contained the greatest MeHg concentrations (69.6 μg kg−1). Polychaetes are an important vector for Hg biomagnification to the coastal avian food web. This research demonstrates that feeding depth and method of feeding are more important than trophic position or sediment Hg concentrations for predicting Hg bioaccumulation.

The Operation of the Crichel Down Rules (Final Report to the DETR by The University of Reading and Gerald Eve)

Report for the DETR on the operation of the Crichel Down Rules (July 2000). The Crichel Down Rules are non-statutory rules relating to the offer back to the previous owners of surplus government land that was acquired from the previous owners by, or under the threat of, compulsory purchase.

Response of the North Atlantic wave climate to atmospheric modes of variability

This study investigates the relationship between the wind wave climate and the main climate modes of atmospheric variability in the North Atlantic Ocean. The modes considered are the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the East Atlantic (EA) pattern, the East Atlantic Western Russian (EA/WR) pattern and the Scandinavian (SCAN) pattern. The wave dataset consists of buoys records, remote sensing altimetry observations and a numerical hindcast providing significant wave height (SWH), mean wave period (MWP) and mean wave direction (MWD) for the period 1989–2009. After evaluating the reliability of the hindcast, we focus on the impact of each mode on seasonal wave parameters and on the relative importance of wind-sea and swell components. Results demonstrate that the NAO and EA patterns are the most relevant, whereas EA/WR and SCAN patterns have a weaker impact on the North Atlantic wave climate variability. During their positive phases, both NAO and EA patterns are related to winter SWH at a rate that reaches 1 m per unit index along the Scottish coast (NAO) and Iberian coast (EA) patterns. In terms of winter MWD, the two modes induce a counterclockwise shift of up to 65° per negative NAO (positive EA) unit over west European coasts. They also increase the winter MWP in the North Sea and in the Bay of Biscay (up to 1 s per unit NAO) and along the western coasts of Europe and North Africa (1 s per unit EA). The impact of winter EA pattern on all wave parameters is mostly caused through the swell wave component.