You win some, you lose some: Comprehension and event-related potential evidence for L1 attrition

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 869-883 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Miller ◽  
Jason Rothman
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Online Data ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
L1 Attrition ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Online Methods ◽  
Over Time

AbstractWe examine first language (L1) attrition among 30 L1 Spanish – L2 English speakers living in the United Kingdom. We also tested 30 recently-arrived Spaniards to the UK as a baseline. We present several key findings: 1) attrition fluctuates over time and does not affect all individuals equally; 2) entropy can explain said fluctuation of attritional affects over time such that while length of residence and age of arrival may affect the depth of attrition, how often one is exposed to her native language, how often she uses it and for how long each day, who her friends are, and to which types of input she is regularly exposed, seemingly aid in the maintenance or loss of linguistic knowledge; 3) though offline scalar interpretations among bilinguals were predicted by canonical sociolinguistic variables, the online data revealed an overall insensitivity to pragmatic violations. Thus, offline and online methods combine to be more explanatory regarding the comprehension and processing of implicature generating quantifiers.

scholarly journals Resource and waste quantification scenarios for wind turbine decommissioning in the United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiran Tota-Maharaj ◽  
Alexander McMahon
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Rapid Rise ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Management Procedures ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Over Time

AbstractWind power produces more electricity than any other form of renewable energy in the United Kingdom (UK) and plays a key role in decarbonisation of the grid. Although wind energy is seen as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, there are still several environmental impacts associated with all stages of the lifecycle of a wind farm. This study determined the material composition for wind turbines for various sizes and designs and the prevalence of such turbines over time, to accurately quantify waste generation following wind turbine decommissioning in the UK. The end of life stage is becoming increasingly important as a rapid rise in installation rates suggests an equally rapid rise in decommissioning rates can be expected as wind turbines reach the end of their 20–25-year operational lifetime. Waste data analytics were applied in this study for the UK in 5-year intervals, stemming from 2000 to 2039. Current practices for end of life waste management procedures have been analysed to create baseline scenarios. These scenarios have been used to explore potential waste management mitigation options for various materials and components such as reuse, remanufacture, recycling, and heat recovery from incineration. Six scenarios were then developed based on these waste management options, which have demonstrated the significant environmental benefits of such practices through quantification of waste reduction and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions savings. For the 2015–2019 time period, over 35 kilotonnes of waste are expected to be generated annually. Overall waste is expected to increase over time to more than 1200 kilotonnes annually by 2039. Concrete is expected to account for the majority of waste associated with wind turbine decommissioning initially due to foundations for onshore turbines accounting for approximately 80% of their total weight. By 2035–2039, steel waste is expected to account for almost 50% of overall waste due to the emergence of offshore turbines, the foundations of which are predominantly made of steel.

The Stylised Facts of the UK Commercial Building Cycles

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
A J McGough ◽  
S Tsolacos
Keyword(s):  
Commercial Building ◽  
Property Market ◽  
Real Property ◽  
Business Fluctuations ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Modern Business ◽  
Retail Property ◽  
Market Variables ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Over Time

In the present study we undertake a statistical analysis of the cyclical properties of certain economic, financial, and real property-market variables and attempt to establish the stylised facts in relation to the office, industrial, and retail property cycle in the United Kingdom. We build upon the methodology which has been adopted in modern business-cycle research to confirm the cyclical regularities of aggregate variables and business fluctuations across countries and over time. The results of this study establish for certain variables the presence of relative cyclical movements over the phases of the property cycles which conform to theoretical intuition. They also identify cyclical irregularities across property sectors, which the existing property-cycle literature would need to address.

scholarly journals Non-Native English Teachers and Varieties of English: Ready, or Not?

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-341
Author(s):  
Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
British English ◽  
International Language ◽  
The World ◽  
L1 Influence ◽  
Over Time

Language is dynamic. And thus, for English as an international language, it keeps on changing and developing over time. Now there are more non-native English speakers compared to native speakers around the world. Thus, intelligibility becomes fundamental in the world of Englishes. Besides teaching in the English accent (i.e. American or British English) as part of the educational policy given by schools, respectively, non-native English teachers must also be prepared to inform their non-native students of the Englishes around the world. Moreover, research in identifying the varieties of English spoken in different areas around the world are rapidly progressing. Especially in the field of acoustic phonetics, in which the studies here assist researchers and teachers to identify vowel distinctions among different group of English speakers and the extent of the first language (L1) influence. Specifically, the analysis in phonological variations can help teachers deal with variation in varieties of English. Understanding the varieties of English that exist today and having mutual intelligibility can improve communication with different people from different countries around the world.

CROSSLINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES IN IMPLICIT LANGUAGE LEARNING

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 733-755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janny H. C. Leung ◽  
John N. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Word ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Language Knowledge ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Group ◽  
Chinese Group

We report three experiments that explore the effect of prior linguistic knowledge on implicit language learning. Native speakers of English from the United Kingdom and native speakers of Cantonese from Hong Kong participated in experiments that involved different learning materials. In Experiment 1, both participant groups showed evidence of learning a mapping between articles and noun animacy. In Experiment 2, neither group showed learning of a mapping between articles and a linguistically anomalous concept (the number of capital letters in an English word or that of strokes in a Chinese character). In Experiment 3, the Chinese group, but not the English group, showed evidence of learning a mapping between articles and a concept derived from the Chinese classifier system. It was concluded that first language knowledge affected implicit language learning and that implicit learning, at least when natural language learning is concerned, is subject to constraints and biases.

scholarly journals The Impact of Brexit on the Environment: Exploring the Dynamics of a Complex Relationship

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Hilson
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThe departure of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) (often referred to as ‘Brexit’) is likely to have a significant impact on the environment. In this article I argue against seeing the traffic as all one way. While there was a temptation for the advocates of staying in the EU, in the context of referendum campaigning, to portray the UK as a laggard pressured into positive environmental performance by the EU as leader, the reality is that the UK has also strengthened the EU’s environmental policy in some areas and seen its own weakened in others. Influence in both directions has also varied over time. The article goes on to consider core ‘Leave’ arguments around sovereignty and ‘taking back control’, exploring the implications of these in the specific context of environmental governance. In discussing subsidiarity, it concludes that leaving the EU will not remove the need for pooling some sovereignty over environmental matters at the international level and, in the context of devolution, at the UK level.

scholarly journals Access to exercise for people with visual impairments during the Coronavirus-19 pandemic

2022 ◽  
pp. 026461962110673
Author(s):  
Mike Richardson ◽  
Karin Petrini ◽  
Michael J Proulx
Keyword(s):  
Visual Impairments ◽  
Perceived Barriers ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Exercise Barriers ◽  
Daily Exercise ◽  
Barriers To Exercise ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Online Methods ◽  
Exercise Facilities ◽  
At Home

People with blindness and visual impairments have reduced access to exercise compared to the general population during typical societal functioning. The Coronavirus-19 pandemic completely disrupted daily life for most individuals worldwide, and in the United Kingdom, a stay-at-home order was enforced. One of the sole reasons an individual could leave their home was for the purpose of daily exercise. Here, we examined how the UK national lockdown impacted access to exercise for people with blindness and visual impairment. We used a mixed methods design, collecting quantitative data from two established measures (the Exercise Barriers and Benefits Scale and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire), and qualitative data from open-ended questions. We found that, during the initial stages of the lockdown, perceived barriers to exercise increased compared to pre-pandemic levels, driven by factors, such as the closure of exercise facilities and additional difficulties posed by social distancing. Interestingly, during the later stages of the UK Coronavirus-19 response, perceived barriers decreased to lower than pre-pandemic levels. Thematic analysis indicated that this may have been due to participants finding new online methods to exercise at home, in combination with the tentative reopening of facilities.

The United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
pp. 775-800
Author(s):  
Jack Blumenau ◽  
Roberta Damiani
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Setting ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Parliamentary Debate ◽  
The Commons ◽  
The Government ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Over Time

We describe the institutional setting of parliamentary debate in the UK House of Commons and assess the determinants of participation in Commons’ debates using data on more than two million speeches from 1979 to 2019. We show that the main determinant of participation in parliamentary debate in the UK is whether an MP holds an institutionally powerful position in either the government or opposition parties. In addition, we describe two patterns in the evolution of debate behavior in the Commons over time. First, although MPs in government and opposition leadership positions give more speeches than backbench MPs in all periods that we study, the speechmaking “bonus” these actors enjoy has decreased over time. Second, MPs have increasingly employed constituency-oriented language in their parliamentary speeches over the past forty years, a finding we link to theoretical accounts of legislative competition in personal-vote-seeking electoral systems.

Fracking the Future: The Temporal Portability of Frames in Political Contests

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Nyberg ◽  
Christopher Wright ◽  
Jacqueline Kirk
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Alternative Theory ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Short Termism ◽  
Over Time

Despite scientific consensus on the need to rapidly decarbonize economic systems to limit global warming, the exploitation of fossil fuels continues unabated. This begs the question, why do we continue down this path? We argue that one reason is the way in which fossil fuel expansion is temporally framed. In this article, we examine the disputed development of hydraulic fracturing of shale gas (‘fracking’) in the United Kingdom. Through analysis of a series of public inquiries conducted by the UK Government we show how industry, government and NGOs have engaged in a framing contest in debating the future of fracking. The findings show how the framing of fossil fuel development was solidified over time through processes of certainty, simplicity and familiarity. We contribute by: (a) showing how actors mobilize temporality in constructing persuasive and actionable frames; (b) developing a theory of how frames gain temporal portability – a chronology between a dominant past and a recognized future; and (c) providing an alternative theory of short-termism in explaining the path leading us to a dangerous climate changed future.

scholarly journals Patient experience of COPD care: outcomes from the British Lung Foundation Patient Passport

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. e000478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keir Philip ◽  
Stephen Gaduzo ◽  
Judith Rogers ◽  
Michael Laffan ◽  
Nicholas S Hopkinson
Keyword(s):  
Pulmonary Rehabilitation ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Care Quality ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Online Data ◽  
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Experience Of Care ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Over Time

IntroductionThe British Lung Foundation (BLF) COPD Patient Passport (www.blf.org.uk/passport) was developed as a resource to help people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and clinicians to consider the care received and identify essential omissions. We used the online data collected to evaluate the delivery of COPD care in the UK from a patient perspective.MethodsThe patient passport consists of 13 questions relating to key aspects of COPD care including: spirometry confirmation of diagnosis, understanding their diagnosis, support and a written management plan, vaccinations, smoking cessation, physical activity, exercise, eating well, pulmonary rehabilitation, exacerbations, medications and yearly reviews. Data were presented as proportions with an answer corresponding to good care, and plotted over time to identify trends.ResultsAfter removing identifiable duplicates, data from 41 769 entries, completed online between November 2014 and April 2019, remained (table 1). Twenty-four per cent reported getting support to manage their care and a written action plan; 53% could spot the signs of an acute exacerbation; 34% had discussed pulmonary rehabilitation and 41% stated they understood their COPD, and their doctor or nurse had explained where to find information, advice and emotional support. A quarter reported not receiving influenza vaccination and a third of those who smoke were not offered support to quit smoking. Even the strongest areas including spirometry-confirmed diagnosis, and knowing the importance of being active and eating well, achieved only around 80%. Response patterns remained stable or worsened over time.DiscussionResponses to the BLF COPD Patient Passport identify substantial gaps in patients’ experience of care, which did not appear to improve during the 5 years covered. These data provide a unique yet commonly overlooked perspective on care quality, and highlight that new approaches will be needed to meet the ambitions to improve respiratory care set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

scholarly journals Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in the United Kingdom: Analysis of the British Thoracic Society Electronic Registry between 2013 and 2019

2020 ◽  
pp. 00187-2020
Author(s):  
LG Spencer ◽  
M Loughenbury ◽  
C Chaudhuri ◽  
M Spiteri ◽  
H Parfrey
Keyword(s):  
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis ◽  
Pulmonary Fibrosis ◽  
Lung Biopsy ◽  
Clinical Characteristics ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
British Thoracic Society ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Over Time

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive and terminal interstitial lung disease (ILD) with a median survival of 3–5 years. The British Thoracic Society (BTS) established the UK IPF Registry in 2013 as a platform to collect data on clinical characteristics, treatments and outcomes for this cohort in the UK.Between 1st January 2013 and 31st October 2019, 2474 cases were registered. Most patients were male (79%) with a mean (sd) age of 74±8.3 and 66% were ex-smokers. Over time we observed an increase in the number of patients aged over 70. However, we have not seen a trend towards earlier presentation as symptoms of breathless and/or cough were present for more than 12 months in 63% of the cohort. At presentation, mean (sd) percent predicted FVC was 78.2±18.3, median 76.2 (IQR 65.888.2) and TLco 48.4±16.0, median 47.5 (IQR 37.3, 57.4). Most cases were discussed at an ILD multi-disciplinary meeting, with an increase over this time in the number of cases reported as having possible UIP pattern on HRCT thorax. We noted a reduction in the number of patients undergoing surgical lung biopsy or bronchoalveolar lavage. Although more patients were prescribed anti-fibrotic therapies from 2013 to 2019, 43% were ineligible for treatment based upon NICE prescribing criteria. Hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus and gastro-oesophageal reflux were the most common co-morbidities.In conclusion, we have presented baseline demographics as well as diagnostic and treatment strategies from the largest single-country IPF registry, reflecting changes in UK practices over this period.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document