Facebook style: The use of non-standard features in virtual speech conditioned by the medium Facebook

Over the last few years Facebook has become a widespread and continuously expanding medium of communication. Being a new medium of social interaction, Facebook produces its own communication style. My focus of analysis is how Facebook users from the city of Malaga create this style by means of phonic features typical of the Andalusian variety and how the users reflect on the use of these phonic features. This project is based on a theoretical framework which combines variationist sociolinguistics with CMC to study the emergence of a style peculiar of the online social networks. In a corpus of Facebook users from three zones of Malaga, I have analysed the use of non-standard phonic features and then compared them with the same features in a reference corpus collected on three beaches of Malaga. From this comparison it can be deduced that the analysed social and linguistic factors work differently in real and virtual speech. Due to these different uses we can consider the peculiar electronic communication of Facebook as a style constrained by the electronic medium. It is a style which serves the users to create social meaning and to express their linguistic identities.

Is mental practice an effective adjunct therapeutic strategy for upper limb motor restoration after stroke?

Stroke is one of the most common conditions requiring rehabilitation, and its motor impairments are a major cause of permanent disability. Hemiparesis is observed by 80% of the patients after acute stroke. Neuroimaging studies showed that real and imagined movements have similarities regarding brain activation, supplying evidence that those similarities are based on the same process. Within this context, the combination of MP with physical and occupational therapy appears to be a natural complement based on neurorehabilitation concepts. Our study seeks to investigate if MP for stroke rehabilitation of upper limbs is an effective adjunct therapy. PubMed (Medline), ISI knowledge (Institute for Scientific Information) and SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library) were terminated on 20 February 2015. Data were collected on variables as follows: sample size, type of supervision, configuration of mental practice, setting the physical practice (intensity, number of sets and repetitions, duration of contractions, rest interval between sets, weekly and total duration), measures of sensorimotor deficits used in the main studies and significant results. Random effects models were used that take into account the variance within and between studies. Seven articles were selected. As there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (MP vs Control), showed a – 0.6 (95% CI: –1.27 to 0.04), for upper limb motor restoration after stroke. The present meta-analysis concluded that MP is not effective as adjunct therapeutic strategy for upper limb motor restoration after stroke.

Islamophobia as Reactive Co-Radicalization

Since 9/11, 2001, a new form of religious extremism has arguably emerged, one which paradoxically portrays itself as a counter to another perceived extremism regarded as a real and imminent threat. Within North America and Western Europe, as elsewhere, there is an upsurge of various forms of reactionary rhetoric and opposition expressed towards Islam and Muslims. An increase in extremist behaviour, even violence, is appearing from quarters opposed to, or varyingly fearful of, Islamic extremism if not Islam or Muslims. Islamophobia, as a manifestation of fear of an exclusionary Islam, manifests as exclusionary or negatively reactive behaviours with Muslims and Islam as the target. This article explores the idea that Islamophobia can be regarded as a manifestation of religious extremism and, further, that such extremism is construable as “reactive co-radicalization.” It focuses on two European cases – the 2009 Swiss ban on the building of minarets and the 2011 Norwegian massacre carried out by Anders Breivik – as examples of this “reactive co-radicalization.” This term, I suggest, is an apt denominator for the exclusionary reaction to the rising presence of Islam within otherwise secular, albeit nominally Christian, Western European and North American societies, among others.

Internet-mediated Phonetics

Facebook is a medium of social interaction producing its own style. The present study analyses how users from Malaga create this style through phonetic features of the local Spanish variety and how they reflect on the use of these features. Moreover, the use of non-standard variants by users from Malaga is examined and compared to an oral corpus. Results demonstrate that social factors work differently in real and virtual speech. Thus, the electronic medium constrains the phonetics of the local variety employed on Facebook. Facebook communication is seen as a style serving to create social meaning and to express linguistic identity.

Developing an alternative response format for the script concordance test

Introduction: Clinical reasoning is essential for the practice of medicine. In theory of development of medical expertise it is stated, that clinical reasoning starts from analytical processes namely the storage of isolated facts and the logical application of the ‘rules’ of diagnosis. Then the learners successively develop so called semantic networks and illness-scripts which finally are used in an intuitive non-analytic fashion [1], [2]. The script concordance test (SCT) is an example for assessing clinical reasoning [3]. However the aggregate scoring [3] of the SCT is recognized as problematic [4]. The SCT`s scoring leads to logical inconsistencies and is likely to reflect construct-irrelevant differences in examinees’ response styles [4]. Also the expert panel judgments might lead to an unintended error of measurement [4]. In this PhD project the following research questions will be addressed: 1. How does a format look like to assess clinical reasoning (similar to the SCT but) with multiple true-false questions or other formats with unambiguous correct answers, and by this address the above mentioned pitfalls in traditional scoring of the SCT? 2. How well does this format fulfill the Ottawa criteria for good assessment, with special regards to educational and catalytic effects [5]? Methods: 1. In a first study it shall be assessed whether designing a new format using multiple true-false items to assess clinical reasoning similar to the SCT-format is arguable in a theoretically and practically sound fashion. For this study focus groups or interviews with assessment experts and students will be undertaken. 2. In an study using focus groups and psychometric data Norcini`s and colleagues Criteria for Good Assessment [5] shall be determined for the new format in a real assessment. Furthermore the scoring method for this new format shall be optimized using real and simulated data.