Brúnkahk Tek: An Extinct Language

En Costa Rica hay seis lenguas indígenas reconocidas oficialmente. Cada una de ellas disfruta de una condición diferente en cuanto a sus tradiciones y números de hablantes, entre otras. A pesar de los esfuerzos del gobierno de Costa Rica y otros investigadores desde 1995, las lenguas han enfrentado dificultades a nivel interno y externo, las cuales han resultado en el debilitamiento o inclusive pérdida de las mismas. Esto nos lleva al caso de boruca, una de las lenguas de Costa Rica que puede ahora ser considerada una lengua extinta. Este artículo presenta una descripción general del pueblo boruca, sus tradiciones y sus principales características, y a la vez ofrece al lector una descripción tipológica general de la lengua en la cual se discuten brevemente los rasgos generales de su gramática.In Costa Rica there are six officially recognized indigenous languages. Each enjoys a different condition in terms of its traditions and number of speakers, among others. Despite efforts of the Costa Rican government and other researchers since 1995, the languages have met endogenous and exogenous difficulties that have resulted in the weakening and even loss of the languages. This leads us to what happened to Boruca, one of the indigenous languages of Costa Rica which can now be considered an extinct language. This article presents a general description of the Boruca people, their traditions and main characteristics, and it also introduces the reader to a general typological description of the language where the main features of its grammar are briefly discussed.

Digital literacy matters. Increasing workforce productivity through blended English language programmes

Current workplace demands newer forms of literacies that go beyond the ability to decode print. These involve not only competence to operate digital tools, but also the ability to create, represent, and share meaning in different modes and formats; ability to interact, collaborate and communicate effectively using digital tools, and engage critically with technology for developing one’s knowledge, skills, and full participation in civic, economic, and personal matters. This essay examines the application of the ecology of resources (EoR) model for delivering language learning outcomes (in this case, English) through blended classroom environments that use contextually available resources. The author proposes the implementation of the EoR model in blended learning environments to create authentic and sustainable learning environments for skilling courses. Applying the EoR model to Indian skilling instruction contexts, the article discusses how English language and technology literacy can be delivered using contextually available resources through a blended classroom environment. This would facilitate not only acquisition of language and digital literacy outcomes, but also consequent content literacy gain to a certain extent. This would ensure satisfactory achievement of not only communication/language literacy and technological literacy, but also active social participation, lifelong learning, and learner autonomy.

The Weight of Language and Action: Epistemic Stance, Methodological Action,and Theoretical Perspective in Knowledge Organization

Knowledge organization (KO) research is a field of scholarship concerned with the design, study and critique of the processes of organizing and representing documents that societies see as worthy of preserving (Tennis, 2008). In this context we are concerned with the relationship between language and action.On the one hand, we are concerned with what language can and does do for our knowledge organization systems (KOS). For example, how do the words NEGRO or INDIAN work in historical and contemporary indexing languages? In relation to this, we are also concerned with how we know about knowledge organization (KO) and its languages. On the other hand, we are concerned with how to act given this knowledge. That is, how do we carry out research and how do we design, implement, and evaluate KO systems?It is important to consider these questions in the context of our work because we are delegated by society to disseminate cultural memory. We are endowed with a perspective, prepared by an education, and granted positions whereby society asks us to ensure that documentary material is accessible to future generations. There is a social value in our work, and as such there is a social imperative to our work. We must act with good conscience, and use language judiciously, for the memory of the world is a heavy burden.In this paper, I explore these two weights of language and action that bear down on KO researchers. I first summarize what extant literature says about the knowledge claims we make with regard to KO practices and systems. To make it clear what it is that I think we know, I create a schematic that will link claims (language) to actions in advising, implementing, or evaluating information practices and systems.I will then contrast this with what we do not know, that is, what the unanswered questions might be (Gnoli, 2008 ; Dahlberg, 2011), and I will discuss them in relation to the two weights in our field of KO.Further, I will try to provide a systematic overview of possible ways to address these open questions in KO research. I will draw on the concept of elenchus - the forms of epistemology, theory, and methodology in KO (Tennis, 2008), and framework analysis which are structures, work practice, and discourses of KO systems (Tennis, 2006). In so doing, I will argue for a Neopragmatic stance on the weight of language and action in KO (Rorty, 1982 ; 2000). I will close by addressing the lacuna left in Neopragmatic thought – the ethical imperative to use language and action in a particular good and moral way. That is, I will address the ethical imperative of KO given its weights, epistemologies, theories, and methods. To do this, I will review a sample of relevant work on deontology in both western and eastern philosophical schools (e.g., Harvey, 1995).The perspective I want to communicate in this section is that the good in carrying out KO research may begin with epistemic stances (cf., language), but ultimately stands on ethical actions. I will present an analysis describing the micro and the macro ethical concerns in relation to KO research and its advice on practice. I hope this demonstrates that the direction of epistemology, theory, and methodology in KO, while burdened with the dual weights of language and action, is clear when provided an ethical sounding board. We know how to proceed when we understand how our work can benefit the world.KO is an important, if not always understood, division of labor in a society that values its documentary heritage and memory institutions. Being able to do good requires us to understand how to balance the weights of language and action. We must understand where we stand and be able to chart a path forward, one that does not cause harm, but adds value to the world and those that want to access recorded knowledge.

“Constructive Paranoia” Applied to Education (The Case of English Language Teaching)

This paper analyzes the concept of constructive paranoia stated by journalist and author Andrés Oppenheimer to promote development in Latin America. Based on that concept, this paper discusses the effectiveness of current English Language Teaching, particularly, as well as what should be done in order to obtain better results. As a conclusion, a re-structure of approach, curriculum and methodology in teaching the language is proposed.

Training and Updating of Education Boards in Indigenous Schools of Rural Areas: Strengthening Local Education Management

Education management in the schools of indigenous rural areas faces a number of difficulties to implement and comply with the guidelines and requirements of the laws related to budgetary management of resources allocated to Education or Administrative Boards. In addition to being located in scattered rural areas, far from the municipal heads and regional offices of the Ministry of Public Education, one of the main obstacles is that all regulations, laws and guidelines are written in Spanish, and there is people, in this indigenous rural communities, who do not speak, write, read or understand this language. This puts them at an enormous disadvantage, which has a direct impact on the indigenous children’s right to education.

Language, action, and sensoriality: a multimodal analysis of interactions in inclusive sport climbing with visually impaired athletes

In sport climbing, athletes with vision impairments are constantly accompanied by their guides – usually trainers – both during the preparatory inspection of the routes and whilst climbing. Trainers are, so to speak, the climbers’ eyes, in the sense that they systematically put their vision in the service of the climbers’ mobility and sporting performance. The synergy between trainers and athletes is based on peculiar, strictly multimodal interactive practices that are focused on the body and on its constantly evolving sensory engagement with the materiality of routes. In this context, sensory perception and embodied actions required to plan and execute the climb are configured as genuinely interactive accomplishments. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Embodied and Situated Cognition and on the methodology of Conversation Analysis, this thesis engages in the multimodal analysis of trainer-athlete interactions in paraclimbing. The analysis is based on a corpus of video recorded climbing sessions. The major findings of the study can be summarized as follows. 1) Intercorporeality is key to interactions between trainers and athletes with visual impairments. The participants orient to perceiving the climbing space and acting in it as a ‘We’. 2) The grammar, lexicon, prosody, and timing of the trainers’ instructions are finely tuned to the ongoing corporeal experience of the climbers. 3) Climbers with visual impairments build their actions by using sensory resources that are provided by their trainers. This result is of particular importance as it shows that resources and constraints for action are in a fundamental way constituted in interaction with Others and with specific socio-material ecologies, rather than being defined a priori by the organs and functions of individuals’ body and mind. Individual capabilities are thus enhanced and extended in interaction, which encourages a more ecological view of (dis)ability.

Towards Unstructured Knowledge Integration in Natural Language Processing

In the last decades, Artificial Intelligence has witnessed multiple breakthroughs in deep learning. In particular, purely data-driven approaches have opened to a wide variety of successful applications due to the large availability of data. Nonetheless, the integration of prior knowledge is still required to compensate for specific issues like lack of generalization from limited data, fairness, robustness, and biases. In this thesis, we analyze the methodology of integrating knowledge into deep learning models in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP). We start by remarking on the importance of knowledge integration. We highlight the possible shortcomings of these approaches and investigate the implications of integrating unstructured textual knowledge. We introduce Unstructured Knowledge Integration (UKI) as the process of integrating unstructured knowledge into machine learning models. We discuss UKI in the field of NLP, where knowledge is represented in a natural language format. We identify UKI as a complex process comprised of multiple sub-processes, different knowledge types, and knowledge integration properties to guarantee. We remark on the challenges of integrating unstructured textual knowledge and bridge connections with well-known research areas in NLP. We provide a unified vision of structured knowledge extraction (KE) and UKI by identifying KE as a sub-process of UKI. We investigate some challenging scenarios where structured knowledge is not a feasible prior assumption and formulate each task from the point of view of UKI. We adopt simple yet effective neural architectures and discuss the challenges of such an approach. Finally, we identify KE as a form of symbolic representation. From this perspective, we remark on the need of defining sophisticated UKI processes to verify the validity of knowledge integration. To this end, we foresee frameworks capable of combining symbolic and sub-symbolic representations for learning as a solution.

Electrochemical Oxidation Of Landfill Leachate In A Flow Reactor: Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology.

Response surface methodology based on Box-Behnken (BBD) design was successfully applied to the optimization in the operating conditions of the electrochemical oxidation of sanitary landfill leachate aimed for making this method feasible for scale up. Landfill leachate was treated in continuous batch-recirculation system, where a dimensional stable anode (DSA(©)) coated with Ti/TiO2 and RuO2 film oxide were used. The effects of three variables, current density (milliampere per square centimeter), time of treatment (minutes), and supporting electrolyte dosage (moles per liter) upon the total organic carbon removal were evaluated. Optimized conditions were obtained for the highest desirability at 244.11 mA/cm(2), 41.78 min, and 0.07 mol/L of NaCl and 242.84 mA/cm(2), 37.07 min, and 0.07 mol/L of Na2SO4. Under the optimal conditions, 54.99 % of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 71.07 ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) removal was achieved with NaCl and 45.50 of COD and 62.13 NH3-N with Na2SO4. A new kinetic model predicted obtained from the relation between BBD and the kinetic model was suggested.

Didanosine-loaded Chitosan Microspheres Optimized By Surface-response Methodology: A Modified Maximum Likelihood Classification" Approach Formulation For Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors."

Didanosine-loaded chitosan microspheres were developed applying a surface-response methodology and using a modified Maximum Likelihood Classification. The operational conditions were optimized with the aim of maintaining the active form of didanosine (ddI), which is sensitive to acid pH, and to develop a modified and mucoadhesive formulation. The loading of the drug within the chitosan microspheres was carried out by ionotropic gelation technique with sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) as cross-linking agent and magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) to assure the stability of ddI. The optimization conditions were set using a surface-response methodology and applying the Maximum Likelihood Classification, where the initial chitosan concentration, TPP and ddI concentration were set as the independent variables. The maximum ddI-loaded in microspheres (i.e. 1433mg of ddI/g chitosan), was obtained with 2% (w/v) chitosan and 10% TPP. The microspheres depicted an average diameter of 11.42μm and ddI was gradually released during 2h in simulated enteric fluid.

Resonancias discursivas y cortesía en prácticas de lecto-escritura

In this paper we present a study of reading comprehension based on a contrastive argumentative-discursive approach. We examine the relationship between linguistic materiality and discursive processes, observing the connection between reading in a foreign language, writing production and textual memories in the mother tongue. In addition to an interest in practical language teaching and learning processes (in this case of Spanish and Portuguese), we investigate the question of politeness and the theoretical relationship between subjectivity, language, and textuality. The latter, being understood as the result of discourse regularities, is unique for each and every production, yet is also conditioned by plural discursive memories resulting from contradictory social relationships in a specific historical context (Foucault, 1986; Pêcheux, 1990). In the experiment presented here, we follow some of the procedures of the methodology applied in the European Galatea Project developed for the study of reading strategies in the inter-comprehension between Romance languages (Dabène, 1996). We use the procedure of simulation and the subjective projection of participants as well as the notion of discursive resonance in the analysis. The results, having to do with directness and indirectness in speech and the question of politeness in two typologically close languages, lead to the conclusion that the concept of politeness goes beyond a pragmatic strategy used to avoid conflicts to be approached as a marker of cultural identity constitution. The relevance of discursive awareness and its theoretical and practical consequences are then emphasized.

Tradução & aprendizado de língua estrangeira: o ponto de vista do aluno

This paper reports some exemplary data related to a research project on the role of translation in foreign language teaching-learning. The data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 47 Brazilian ESL learners. Specifically, the points of the analysis are: how the translation process is conceived by the students; why and when the translation is used by the learners in classroom situations; mother tongue/foreign language relationships in this specific context, among other aspects. The findings reveal that translation, when used a mediating resource for foreign language teaching-learning, can promote target language management.

Influence of English language in the number of citations of articles published in Brazilian journals of Ophthalmology

PURPOSE: To determine the association between language and number of citations of ophthalmology articles published in Brazilian journals. METHODS: This study was a systematic review. Original articles were identified by review of documents published at the two Brazilian ophthalmology journals indexed at Science Citation Index Expanded - SCIE [Arquivos Brasileiros de Oftalmologia (ABO) and Revista Brasileira de Oftalmologia (RBO)]. All document types (articles and reviews) listed at SCIE in English (English Group) or in Portuguese (Portuguese Group) from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2009 were included, except: editorial materials; corrections; letters; and biographical items. The primary outcome was the number of citations through the end of second year after publication date. Subgroup analysis included likelihood of citation (cited at least once versus no citation), journal, and year of publication. RESULTS: The search at the web of science revealed 382 articles [107 (28%) in the English Group and 275 (72%) in the Portuguese Group]. Of those, 297 (77.7%) were published at the ABO and 85 (23.3%) at the RBO. The citation counts were statistically significantly higher (P<0.001) in the English Group (1.51 - SD 1.98 - range 0 to 11) compared with the Portuguese Group (0.57 - SD 1.06 - range 0 to 7). The likelihood citation was statistically significant higher (P<0.001) in the English Group (70/107 - 65.4%) compared with the Portuguese Group (89/275 - 32.7%). There were more articles published in English at the ABO (98/297 - 32.9%) than at the RBO (9/85 - 10.6%) [P<0.001]. There were no significant difference (P=0.967) at the proportion of articles published in English at the years 2008 (48/172 - 27.9%) and 2009 (59/210 - 28.1%). CONCLUSION: The number of citations of articles published in Portuguese at Brazilian ophthalmology journals is lower than the published in English. The results of this study suggest that the editorial boards should strongly encourage the authors to adopt English as the main language in their future articles.

Pes no chão e a dança no coração : um olhar fenomenologico da linguagem do movimento

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Adaptação e validação da escla ASKAS - Aging Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes Scale em idosos brasileiros

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

O corpo que dança : os jovens e suas tribos urbanas

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física