Formal and informal translation and interpretation for immigrants and asylum seekers

As of 2011 there were over 50,000 migrants, who speak a language other than English or Irish at home, residing in Northern Ireland. Many of these individuals do not possess adequate levels of English language proficiency in order to access services. Research funded by the Northern Ireland Inclusion and Diversity Service was conducted to determine the home-school connections of culturally and linguistically diverse families in Northern Ireland. It revealed that there are a wide variety of ways that translation and interpretation services are offered for families not fluent in English within the school settings. Drawing upon the findings from the research in Northern Ireland, this presentation provides an overview of the types of translation and interpretation taking place in Northern Ireland; the advantages and disadvantages of each; and recommendations for agencies utilizing both formal and informal translation and interpretation. The presentation also includes references to work in this area in other contexts, as well as specific guidelines for agencies using both formal and informal translation and interpretation. These guidelines help ensure that the translations are conducted in a professional manner for all agencies providing services.

Forest tree species diversity: Assessment, analysis and interpretation in the presence of non-identification and non-observance

Abstract not available

Association of SNPs in LCP1 and CTIF with hearing in 11 year old children:findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort and the G-EAR consortium

BACKGROUND: The genetic basis of hearing loss in humans is relatively poorly understood. In recent years, experimental approaches including laboratory studies of early onset hearing loss in inbred mouse strains, or proteomic analyses of hair cells or hair bundles, have suggested new candidate molecules involved in hearing function. However, the relevance of these genes/gene products to hearing function in humans remains unknown. We investigated whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human orthologues of genes of interest arising from the above-mentioned studies correlate with hearing function in children. METHODS: 577 SNPs from 13 genes were each analysed by linear regression against averaged high (3, 4 and 8 kHz) or low frequency (0.5, 1 and 2 kHz) audiometry data from 4970 children in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth-cohort at age eleven years. Genes found to contain SNPs with low p-values were then investigated in 3417 adults in the G-EAR study of hearing. RESULTS: Genotypic data were available in ALSPAC for a total of 577 SNPs from 13 genes of interest. Two SNPs approached sample-wide significance (pre-specified at p = 0.00014): rs12959910 in CBP80/20-dependent translation initiation factor (CTIF) for averaged high frequency hearing (p = 0.00079, β = 0.61 dB per minor allele); and rs10492452 in L-plastin (LCP1) for averaged low frequency hearing (p = 0.00056, β = 0.45 dB). For low frequencies, rs9567638 in LCP1 also enhanced hearing in females (p = 0.0011, β = -1.76 dB; males p = 0.23, β = 0.61 dB, likelihood-ratio test p = 0.006). SNPs in LCP1 and CTIF were then examined against low and high frequency hearing data for adults in G-EAR. Although the ALSPAC results were not replicated, a SNP in LCP1, rs17601960, is in strong LD with rs9967638, and was associated with enhanced low frequency hearing in adult females in G-EAR (p = 0.00084). CONCLUSIONS: There was evidence to suggest that multiple SNPs in CTIF may contribute a small detrimental effect to hearing, and that a sex-specific locus in LCP1 is protective of hearing. No individual SNPs reached sample-wide significance in both ALSPAC and G-EAR. This is the first report of a possible association between LCP1 and hearing function.

Professor gender, age, and “hotness” in influencing college students’ generation and interpretation of professor ratings

Undergraduate psychology students rated expectations of a bogus professor (randomly designated a man or woman and hot versus not hot) based on an online rating and sample comments as found on RateMyProfessors.com (RMP). Five professor qualities were derived using principal components analysis (PCA): dedication, attractiveness, enhancement, fairness, and clarity. Participants rated current psychology professors on the same qualities. Current professors were divided based on gender (man or woman), age (under 35 or 35 and older), and attractiveness (at or below the median or above the median). Using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), students expected hot professors to be more attractive but lower in clarity. They rated current professors as lowest in clarity when a man and 35 or older. Current professors were rated significantly lower in dedication, enhancement, fairness, and clarity when rated at or below the median on attractiveness. Results, with previous research, suggest numerous factors, largely out of professors’ control, influencing how students interpret and create professor ratings. Caution is therefore warranted in using online ratings to select courses or make hiring and promotion decisions.

Methodologies for the analysis and interpretation of environmental datasets from areas interested by offshore activities

The exploitation of hydrocarbon reservoirs by the oil and gas industries represents one of the most relevant and concerning anthropic stressor in various marine areas worldwide and the presence of extractive structures can have severe consequences on the marine environment. Environmental monitoring surveys are carried out to monitor the effects and impacts of offshore energy facilities. Macrobenthic communities, inhabiting the soft-bottom, represent a key component of these surveys given their great responsiveness to natural and anthropic changes. A comprehensive collection of monitoring data from four Italian seas was used to investigate distributional pattern of macrozoobenthos assemblages confirming a high spatial variability in relation to the environmental variables analyzed. Since these datasets could represent a powerful tool for the industrial and scientific research, the steps and standardized procedures needed to obtain robust and comparable high-quality data were investigated and outlined. Over recent years, decommissioning of old platforms is a growing topic in this sector, involving many actors in the various decision-making processes. A Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, specific for the Adriatic Sea, was developed to investigate the impacts of decommissioning of a gas platform on environmental and socio-economic aspects, to select the best decommissioning scenario. From the scenarios studied, the most impacting one has resulted to be total removal, affecting all the faunal component considered in the study. Currently, the European nations are increasing the production of energy from offshore wind farms with an exponential expansion. A comparative study of methodologies used five countries of the North Sea countries was carried out to investigate the best approaches to monitor the effects of wind farms on the benthic communities. In the foreseeable future, collaboration between industry, scientific communities, national and international policies are needed to gain knowledge concerning the effects of these industrial activities on the ecological status of the ecosystems.

In Your Face! Investigating Facework, Criticism, and Humour with Corpora in Electoral Debates

In political debates, the media[tisation] can determine the use of language with the aim to increase their spectacularisation and polarisation, possibly by means of criticism and humour, respectively. These linguistic strategies are often used in order to shape what was defined by Goffman as one’s face. Politicians, in particular, can recur to facework in a double sense: shaping their own face positively and/or that of their opponents negatively. Starting from the sociologic theory of face by Goffman and Levinson, with the help of corpus analysis tools, this research investigated the ways in which various forms of criticism and forms of humour were conducted in 3 electoral debates on a national scale (Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand) and 1 debate for the municipal election in Rome. The transcripts were revised after automatic transcriptions were extracted or found online, of which the audio-visual content is available on the Internet. The CADS research aimed to investigate the role that criticism and humour played within each participant’s discourse, and to identify differences and similarities among the strategies used by political leaders and moderators in different countries, and in different cultural, political, and media contexts.

Joan Ramis i La nouvelle Héloïse de Rousseau : una lectura rousseauniana de l'obra dramàtica de Ramis

Aquest estudi es proposa estudiar els vincles que hi ha entre La nouvelle Héloïse (1761) de Jean-Jacques Rousseau i l'obra dramàtica de Joan Ramis i Ramis, especialment la seva Lucrècia (1769), tot i les dificultats que la recepció de Rousseau va tenir en la Menorca il·lustrada. En aquest sentit, el gruix del treball es dedica als elements que tenen en comú les obres de referència, pel que fa al tractament literari dels temes centrals, com ara el que vehicula la sensibilitat preromàntica que irromp en el panorama creatiu de l'Europa del moment, més enllà de les propostes estrictament formals i de contingut del neoclassicisme, i també quant als motius i la intencionalitat dels dos autors.

Una petita novel·la en prosa en l'àmbit del Renaixement català : Paràmetres teoricoliteraris renaixentistes que expliquen la paròdia de l'estil culte de Les estil·lades y amoroses lletres trameses per Berthomeu Sirlot a la sua senyora, y per ella a ell

Aquest treball pretén esbrinar fins a quin punt se segueixen els criteris teòrics establerts pels autors catalans del Renaixement en la literatura catalana de ficció del segle XVI. Per examinar l'adequació als models proposats pels humanistes he triat una obra anònima de caràcter paròdic escrita en forma d'epístoles entre dos llauradors de l'Horta de València, Les estil·lades y amoroses lletres trameses per Berthomeu Sirlot a la sua senyora, y per ella a ell. El procediment de treball consistirà a analitzar com els teòrics del Renaixement de l'àrea catalanoparlant van interpretar i assimilar en la seva obra alguns dels conceptes més importants de les poètiques i les retòriques dels clàssics grecs i llatins (els principis d'imitació, decòrum, harmonia i ordre), en aquest cas Aristòtil i Horaci, i si l'autor anònim de Les estil·lades y amoroses lletres els va tenir en compte a l'hora de compondre la seva obra. A la vegada, en tractar-se d'una paròdia satírica amb clara voluntat humorística, aquesta anàlisi també pot donar compte de quina opinió tenien els intel·lectuals catalans del Renaixement sobre la ficció i l'humor.

La passió per la pintura

Comentari de les obres del pintor gironí Quim Corominas que van ser exposades al Museu d’Història de la Ciutat de Girona sota el títol “Corominas: els anys pintats. Retrospectiva 1967-2000”

Retrat de Joella (de l’art objectual al mètode paranoicocrític)

És una traducció de l'article de Valeriano Bozal, es tracta de la història i comentari de l’obra Retrat de Joella ,de Salvador Dalí i Man Ray. Joella Bayer era, en aquell moment, esposa del galerista Julien Levy. Es tracta d’un bust fet per Man Ray i pintat per Salvador Dalí

Dalí o les paradoxes de la pintura

És una traducció de l'article d'Alessandra Fornasiero. Es tracta d'un breu repàs i comentari de l’obra de Dalí als seus inicis. Des de la seva estada a l’Acadèmia Real de San Fernando, a Madrid, a començament de la dècada dels anys 20 fins a la seva estada a París cap al final de la mateixa dècada

El foc que afina: homenatge d'Agustí Eura (s. XVIII) a Dalmau Moner (s. XIV)

Breu repàs de la vida i, sobretot, de l’obra d’Agustí Eura, home de lletres de formació barroca amb una obra àmplia en català, castellà i llatí

La Estrategia de elaboración de un superventas: El Código Da Vinci

Estudi de per què el llibre de Dan Brown “El Código da Vinci” és un èxit de vendes, i de les claus de la seva adaptació cinematogràfica

Introducció a l’obra de Bassam Kanaan (catàleg raonat 1960-1987)

Recull, identificació i documentació d'aproximadament 130 obres de l'artista sirià Bassam Kanaan entre 1960 i 1987. El treball inclou un apunt biogràfic de l'artista que, com diu la seva autora, va evitar conscientment formar part del sistema, cosa que ha complicat la tasca de rescatar de l'oblit informacions sobre Kanaan

Francesc Fontanella, le poète alchimiste baroque

Deux vers saisissants. Un homme qui s’arrête quelques instants à la croisée décisive des chemins. Voici en quelques mots le résumé d’un passé traumatisant qu’il faut abolir, d’un présent fugace et douloureux, d’un avenir inconnu et menaçant