Migrants’ Social Integration and Its Relevance for National Identification: An Empirical Comparison Across Three Social Spheres

A key element of migrants’ well-being is their emotional integration, that is, the extent to which they perceive themselves as members of society and their identification with the country they are living in. To foster this sense of belonging, many integration programs aim to increase the migrants’ social integration, for example, by organizing events for migrants to meet natives in various settings. The validity of this strategy is supported by decades of international research. It remains unclear, however, which aspects of social integration are most relevant for national identification. Multiple theories concerned with contact and group identification support the assumption that contact to natives should foster a sense of belonging and national identification. However, for a contact situation to bear this potential, a certain set of criteria, including aspects like direct personal contact, a similar social status, and the presence of egalitarian norms, needs to be fulfilled. It is expected that these characteristics are more likely to be fulfilled within family and friendship settings than in contact situations within the employment context. Hence, I expect contact to natives within the network of friends and family to be more greatly associated with migrants’ national identification. I analyzed data from a 2013 cooperation between the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), that is, the IAB-SOEP Migration Sample, as well as the 2014 wave of the SOEP. The subsample used included 2,780 first- and second-generation migrants living in Germany. The results indicate that not all kinds of contact are equally linked to national identification. In contrast to expectations, in neither the cross-sectional models nor the lagged models was living together with native family members significantly linked to national identification. Similarly, the association between having predominantly native co-workers and national identification was insignificant when controlling for migrant-specific characteristics. Only the relation with having predominantly native friends was significant and positive across all models. This as well as a comparison of the associations lead to the conclusion that when it comes to migrants’ national identification native friends might be the most relevant form of contact to natives.

SPACE DISCOURSE IN A LANGUAGE CONTACT SITUATION: “US” VS. “THEM”

Multilingual practices inevitably lead to language contact phenomena. This phenomenon occurs in Estonia, where the Russian speaking minority, often defined as a Russian diaspora, differs from the socially and linguistically dominant Estonian group with respect to their language and language practices. We suggest that the analysis of one of the languages in contact, in this case Russian, allows for a deeper understanding of the role of the other, i.e. Estonian, in the multilingual practices of the Estonian population as a whole. In this paper, we will focus on “spatial indicators” (i.e. toponyms, ergonyms, linguistic landscape objects, etc.) in the discourse on space provided by participants from the Russian-speaking population living in Estonia. These sociolinguistic foci have been partially described in several existing works which underscore the influence of Estonian on the speech of the local Russian speakers. Previous research gives insights into the peculiarities that the influence of Estonian generates: in the use of toponyms, in the naming of different language landscape objects, in the everyday language practices, and in the description and evaluation of the surrounding space (i.e. in the “spatial awareness”) of the local Russian speaking population. However, little attention has been paid to the fact that the aforementioned phenomena represent a whole that reflects the development of the speakers’ apprehension of the surrounding physical, sociocultural and sociolinguistic space. This process is put into focus in this paper and is shown to be characterized by the (re)definition of space(s) as “ours” vs “theirs”. Such processes will be revealed here by giving an overview of the “spatial components” in the speech of the Russian speaking population of Estonia in several spheres of communication (newspapers, TV shows, advertisements, web forums, etc.) and by analysing interviews involving three Estonian residents, each with a different sociolinguistic background. We attempt to demonstrate how these “spatial components” reflect the interaction of Russian and Estonian speakers, with an emphasis on their affinities across certain language practices. In the analysis of the interviews, we focus in particular on the participants’ (re)definitions of “us” vs “them” in their discourse on space. Special attention is also given to the use of Estonian insertions as a tool for evaluation and the creation of the opposition between “us” and “them” in the internet communication of Russian speakers living in Estonia.

Dissociation of Early And Late Face-Related Processes In Autism Spectrum Disorder And Williams Syndrome

Background: Williams syndrome (WS) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are psychiatric conditions associated with atypical but opposite face-to-face interactions patterns: WS patients overly stare at others, ASD individuals escape eye contact. Whether these behaviors result from dissociable visual processes within the occipito-temporal pathways is unknown. Using high-density electroencephalography, multivariate signal processing algorithms and a protocol designed to identify and extract evoked activities sensitive to facial cues, we investigated how WS (N=14), ASD (N=14) and neurotypical subjects (N=14) decode the information content of a face stimulus. Results: We found two neural components in neurotypical participants, both strongest when the eye region was projected onto the subject's fovea, simulating a direct eye contact situation, and weakest over more distant regions, reaching a minimum when the focused region was outside the stimulus face. The first component peaks at 170ms, an early signal known to be implicated in low-level face features. The second is identified later, 260ms post-stimulus onset and is implicated in decoding salient face social cues.Remarkably, both components were found distinctly impaired and preserved in WS and ASD. In WS, we could weakly decode the 170ms signal based on our regressor relative to facial features, probably due to their relatively poor ability to process faces’ morphology, while the late 260ms component was highly significant. The reverse pattern was observed in ASD participants who showed neurotypical like early 170ms evoked activity but impaired late evoked 260ms signal. Conclusions: Our study reveals a dissociation between WS and ASD patients and point at different neural origins for their social impairments.

São Tomé and Príncipe’s toponymy

[email protected] ABSTRACT. This study describes the toponymic profile of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe (STP), a former Portuguese colony. Here, we consider (i) its linguistic contact situation, reflected in the toponyms of non-Portuguese etyma (mainly from national languages), and (ii) the structure of the toponymic syntagma in Portuguese. Toponyms are created according to a place's geographic, social, historical, and linguistic reality. Therefore, STP's toponyms are the locus of the Santomean linguistic ecology and memory. Due to its linguistic diversity, the study of Santomean toponymy is transdisciplinary. It contributes to understanding different languages that share São Tomé and Príncipe's ethnicity and linguistic heritage, including multilingual synchronic and/or diachronic conjunctures and the political importance of Portuguese. STP's toponymy expresses a multilingual conjuncture common to the country since the arrival of the Portuguese and (mainly) enslaved Africans from different regions of Africa. Although the Portuguese language and culture have influenced most local toponymy, the Santomean toponymic profile contains endemic linguistic and cultural specificities. Thus, natural phenomena, along with political and historical events, among others, play a role in forming toponyms and characterizing the local toponymy as unique.

Synthesis of sign and speech in a New Zealand Sign Language-target session: Oral channel variation of hearing bimodal bilingual children of Deaf parents

<p>This thesis investigates the uniquely “bimodal” bilingual language production of some of the New Zealand Deaf community’s youngest members—hearing and cochlear-implanted Deaf children who have Deaf signing parents. These bimodal bilinguals (aged 4-9 years old) are native users of two typologically different languages (New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) and English), and two modalities (visual-manual and auditory-oral). The primary focus of this study is the variation found in the oral channel produced by these bimodal bilingual children, during a sign-target session (i.e. a signed conversation with a Deaf interlocutor), involving a game designed to elicit location and motion descriptions alongside a sociolinguistic interview. The findings of this study are three-fold. Firstly, the variation of audible and visual volumes of the oral channel (the spoken modality) between and within participants’ language sessions is described. Notably, audible volume ranges from voiceless, whispered, and fully-voiced productions. Audible volume is found to have an inverse relationship with visual volume, in that reduced auditory cues reflect an increase in visual cues used for clarification. Additionally, a lowered audible volume (whispers or voiceless mouthings) is associated with reduced English, aligning with some NZSL grammatical structures, while full-voice is associated with intact English grammatical structures. Transfer in the opposite direction is also evident during descriptions of a motion event, in that English structures for encoding ‘path’ surface in the manual channel (the signed modality). Bidirectional transfer also occurs simultaneously, where structures of both languages surface in both linguistic channels. Secondly, the coordination of the oral and manual channels during descriptions of location and motion is described. Notably, the linguistic channels are tightly temporally synchronised in the coordination of meaning. The oral channel can function gesturally by modifying or emphasising meaning in the manual channel; a similar function to co-speech gesture used by hearing users of spoken languages. Thirdly, this thesis details the children’s attitudes towards their use of NZSL and English, highlighting their sensitivity to the uniqueness of their heritage language, the movement between Deaf and hearing worlds and associated languages, and their role in passing on their sign language to other hearing people. Their Deaf/Coda and hearing cultural identification is found to be entangled in use of both oral and manual channels. The oral channel is multifaceted in the ways it functions for both the bimodal bilingual child and their Deaf interlocutor, and thus operates at the intersection of language, cognition and culture. Bimodal bilinguals’ use of the oral channel is influenced by the contact situation that exists between Deaf and hearing communities, the cognitive cost of language suppression, and the interactional setting. This study contributes to growing global research conducted on the language production of bimodal bilinguals. It provides preliminary insight into oral channel features of young native NZSL users as a way of better understanding bimodal bilingual language development, the connections between audiological status and language, the interplay of codes across linguistic channels, and the role that modality plays in shaping meaning across all human languages.</p>

Synthesis of sign and speech in a New Zealand Sign Language-target session: Oral channel variation of hearing bimodal bilingual children of Deaf parents

<p>This thesis investigates the uniquely “bimodal” bilingual language production of some of the New Zealand Deaf community’s youngest members—hearing and cochlear-implanted Deaf children who have Deaf signing parents. These bimodal bilinguals (aged 4-9 years old) are native users of two typologically different languages (New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) and English), and two modalities (visual-manual and auditory-oral). The primary focus of this study is the variation found in the oral channel produced by these bimodal bilingual children, during a sign-target session (i.e. a signed conversation with a Deaf interlocutor), involving a game designed to elicit location and motion descriptions alongside a sociolinguistic interview. The findings of this study are three-fold. Firstly, the variation of audible and visual volumes of the oral channel (the spoken modality) between and within participants’ language sessions is described. Notably, audible volume ranges from voiceless, whispered, and fully-voiced productions. Audible volume is found to have an inverse relationship with visual volume, in that reduced auditory cues reflect an increase in visual cues used for clarification. Additionally, a lowered audible volume (whispers or voiceless mouthings) is associated with reduced English, aligning with some NZSL grammatical structures, while full-voice is associated with intact English grammatical structures. Transfer in the opposite direction is also evident during descriptions of a motion event, in that English structures for encoding ‘path’ surface in the manual channel (the signed modality). Bidirectional transfer also occurs simultaneously, where structures of both languages surface in both linguistic channels. Secondly, the coordination of the oral and manual channels during descriptions of location and motion is described. Notably, the linguistic channels are tightly temporally synchronised in the coordination of meaning. The oral channel can function gesturally by modifying or emphasising meaning in the manual channel; a similar function to co-speech gesture used by hearing users of spoken languages. Thirdly, this thesis details the children’s attitudes towards their use of NZSL and English, highlighting their sensitivity to the uniqueness of their heritage language, the movement between Deaf and hearing worlds and associated languages, and their role in passing on their sign language to other hearing people. Their Deaf/Coda and hearing cultural identification is found to be entangled in use of both oral and manual channels. The oral channel is multifaceted in the ways it functions for both the bimodal bilingual child and their Deaf interlocutor, and thus operates at the intersection of language, cognition and culture. Bimodal bilinguals’ use of the oral channel is influenced by the contact situation that exists between Deaf and hearing communities, the cognitive cost of language suppression, and the interactional setting. This study contributes to growing global research conducted on the language production of bimodal bilinguals. It provides preliminary insight into oral channel features of young native NZSL users as a way of better understanding bimodal bilingual language development, the connections between audiological status and language, the interplay of codes across linguistic channels, and the role that modality plays in shaping meaning across all human languages.</p>

An Improved Dynamic Model of the Mecanum Wheel for Multibody Simulations

Mobile robots and autonomous guided vehicles have become an indispensable part of modern industrial environments and are used for a wide range of handling operations. To fully use the potential of mobile platforms, omnidirectional platforms are a good choice. A prominent and widely used variant in the industry are Mecanum wheels, which allow arbitrary movement in any direction in the plane. In most applications only the kinematics is considered, however, dynamic models that take the geometry of the rollers into account are still missing. In this paper two models for Mecanum wheels with different degrees of detail are derived. The detailed model considers the rollers as single bodies undergoing contact and friction with the rolling plane. As the wheel consists of multiple rollers, a complex contact situation with temporal overlapping and additional vibrations occurs. The simplified model reproduces the overall kinematics of the rollers with orthotropic friction and only one rigid body for the wheel, thereby being computationally more efficient. Both models are well suited to reproduce essential dynamic effects of a mobile robotic platform, which can not be described by the conventional kinematics model. We implement and compare both models with experimental results, showing the good performance of both models.

A Flexible Multimodal Sole Sensor for Legged Robot Sensing Complex Ground Information during Locomotion

Recent achievements in the field of computer vision, reinforcement learning, and locomotion control have largely extended legged robots’ maneuverability in complex natural environments. However, little research focuses on sensing and analyzing the physical properties of the ground, which is crucial to robots’ locomotion during their interaction with highly irregular profiles, deformable terrains, and slippery surfaces. A biomimetic, flexible, multimodal sole sensor (FMSS) designed for legged robots to identify the ontological status and ground information, such as reaction force mapping, contact situation, terrain, and texture information, to achieve agile maneuvers was innovatively presented in this paper. The FMSS is flexible and large-loaded (20 Pa–800 kPa), designed by integrating a triboelectric sensing coat, embedded piezoelectric sensor, and piezoresistive sensor array. To evaluate the effectiveness and adaptability in different environments, the multimodal sensor was mounted on one of the quadruped robot’s feet and one of the human feet then traversed through different environments in real-world tests. The experiment’s results demonstrated that the FMSS could recognize terrain, texture, hardness, and contact conditions during locomotion effectively and retrain its sensitivity (0.66 kPa−1), robustness, and compliance. The presented work indicates the FMSS’s potential to extend the feasibility and dexterity of tactile perception for state estimation and complex scenario detection.

A Material Removal Model for Nonconstant-contact Flexible Grinding

Contact calculation is of great importance in predicting the material removal (MR) of flexible grinding process (FGP). The contact is mostly considered approximately constant in the existing MR models, while the situations that contact varies a lot after FGP are ignored. Therefore, a novel model is proposed in this paper to take those situations into consideration. Firstly, the nonconstant-contact situation is introduced. Then an equivalent method is developed to convert the nonconstant-contact grinding process into the accumulation of several quasi-constant-contact grinding processes. Based on the equivalent method, a MR model is established, and the procedure to obtain the model parameters by the finite element analysis (FEA) is introduced. In the end, the equivalent method and the MR model are tested by a series experiments of different process parameters. Results show that the proposed MR model can predict the material removal effectively for the nonconstant-contact situations.