Comprehending Comprehensible Input (CI): Some Observations

Most people who use the word ‘Latin’ as the name of a language in antiquity (not Medieval or Neo-Latin therefore) seem unaware that Latin was a continuum made up of many different varieties, Classical Latin (which they identify with Latin) being only one of them. So when they talk of spoken Latin they mean spoken Classical Latin, no other variety from antiquity being available that is suitable to be spoken. This is ironic on two counts. First, the overwhelming majority of native Latin speakers did not speak Classical Latin at all. Secondly, the small minority of people who did speak it did not do so routinely as a language of everyday conversation, but only on certain formal occasions and in certain public situations. They spoke routinely the appropriate form of their first language, the form that was used by a social, cultural and educational elite. This was not Classical Latin, which was not an acquired form of Latin but one that was learned as if it were a second language. What the language they did speak routinely was like we do not know, and no doubt it comprised several different registers, as languages do. Whether they realise it or not, people who engage in informal conversations in formal Classical Latin today are not re-enacting any authentic experience that was to be had in the ancient world.

A role for CD4 helper cells in HIV control and progression

It remains unclear why HIV persists in most untreated individuals, and why a small minority of individuals can control the virus, either spontaneously or after an early treatment. The present work motivated by the striking differences in the functional avidity of CD4 T cells discovered between patient cohorts in a recent study [1] offers an experimentally–testable mathematical model that explains the diverse outcome of infection. The model predicts an arms race between viral dissemination and the proliferation of HIV-specific CD4 helper cells leading to one of two states: a low-viremia state or a high-viremia state. Helper CD4 cells with a higher avidity favor virus control. The parameter segregating spontaneous and post-treatment controllers is the infectivity asymmetry between activated and resting CD4 T cells. The predictions are found to be consistent with the data from [1] and with data on the avidity CD8 T cells [2]. I also analyze the alternative explanation of T cell exhaustion previously proposed to explain the diverse patient cohorts and demonstrate that it does not explain these and some other experimental data.

As the Druze Go, So Goes the Middle East

The Druze, despite being a small minority faith group, have long survived in a challenging region, thanks in part to a doctrine of deference to whatever state they live in. In the past few years, however, the three largest Druze populations—in Israel, Lebanon, and Syria—have each faced some of their most difficult challenges yet, from a downgrading of their citizenship status to economic collapse and civil war. An increasingly active diaspora has emerged as an important advocate for Druze interests worldwide.

Credentialed Contrarians: The Misrepresentation of Climate Change Expertise in Congress

Does partisan politics distort the representation of climate change expertise in U.S. policymaking? To examine this question, we classify each Congressional witness who testified on climate change between 1997 and 2016 in terms of both their expert credentials and their climate change beliefs. In contrast to prevailing wisdom, we find that Republicans are slightly more likely to call credentialed experts than Democrats. However, this pattern is largely driven by the presence of credentialed contrarians, i.e., experts who have contradicted widely accepted conclusions of their own community. Although these individuals represent less than one percent of climate change experts outside of Congress, they account for over a quarter of expert testimonies in Congress. More generally, these findings illustrate how politicians at odds with the expert community can strategically and repeatedly select the small minority of individuals who both lend credibility to their political views and meet shared standards of professionalized expertise.

Pathogens co-transported with invasive non-native aquatic species: implications for risk analysis and legislation

Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) can co-transport externally and internally other organisms including viruses, bacteria and other eukaryotes (including metazoan parasites), collectively referred to as the symbiome. These symbiotic organisms include pathogens, a small minority of which are subject to surveillance and regulatory control, but most of which are currently unscrutinized and/or unknown. These putatively pathogenetic symbionts can potentially pose diverse risks to other species, with implications for increased epidemiological risk to agriculture and aquaculture, wildlife/ecosystems, and human health (zoonotic diseases). The risks and impacts arising from co-transported known pathogens and other symbionts of unknown pathogenic virulence, remain largely unexplored, unlegislated, and difficult to identify and quantify. Here, we propose a workflow using PubMed and Google Scholar to systematically search existing literature to determine any known and potential pathogens of aquatic INNS. This workflow acts as a prerequisite for assessing the nature and risk posed by co-transported pathogens of INNS; of which a better understanding is necessary to inform policy and INNS risk assessments. Addressing this evidence gap will be instrumental to devise an appropriate set of statutory responsibilities with respect to these symbionts, and to underpin new and more effective legislative processes relating to the disease screening and risk assessment of INNS.

THEORY OF «MINOR» LITERATURE AND INTERPRETATION OF EPISTOLARY TEXT: CASE OF P. KULISH

The article is devoted to the consideration of P. Kulish's epistolary in the context of «minority» literature. The authors of this theory are J. Deleuze and F. Guattari. Rethinking the key categories of «minor» writing in modern interdisciplinary studies produces a differentiation and refinement of the definitions of «minor»/«small»/«minority» via interpreting various in-between phenomena of literature. Given that in the Ukrainian humanities this theory has not been carefully considered and as a methodological tool has not been updated, the analysis of these works revealed the feasibility of distinguishing concepts derived from the concept of «minor». The main purpose of the study is to reveal the features of Kulish's correspondence through the criteria of minor literature, in particular de(re)territorialization, formation, political semantics. The choice of material is determined by the ambiguity, «encryption» (V. Petrov) of the creative manner, the bilingual nature of the writer's epistolary. The process of self-determination within the Russian epistolary canon affects the nature of language codes. Linguistic transformations in this correspondence, in particular, the mixing of different linguistic elements, have a comedic, parodic character. There is a peripheralization of the dominant n language in terms of social and territorial affiliation. The transmission of Ukrainian pronunciation can be seen not only through the transformation of the Russian epistolary canon, but also as its subversive approach to the creation of a new quality of language in the future.

INFLUENCER CULTURE & ALGORITHMIC APARTHEID ON GAY INSTAGRAM

Research on social media influencers has concluded that influencers’ status is always contingent upon meeting followers’ demand for specific “performances-of-self,” as well as making themselves and their content available and visible. However, few scholars have addressed the role that algorithms play in determining which influencers might be made visible, and therefore the manner by which platform design predetermines who may attain influencer status. This project seeks to address this gap in this research by providing critical ethnographic insights into what is colloquially referred to as “gay Instagram.” Throughout a three-year period, I maintained an Instagram account through which I observed trends in the production and consumption of homoerotic content utilizing a variety of methods. Of these, “algorithmic audits” provided the most insight into the manner by which algorithmic and social biases compound one another to hyper-visibilize a small minority of homoerotic content creators. Once Instagram has determined that a user is interested in homoerotic content, that user can expect the overrepresentation of white, mostly American Instagays on their “explore” page, in the promoted content featured on their feed, and so on. In effect, determinations of the most desirable homoerotic content are made through a variety of selection biases that make access to visibility an unequal enterprise on Instagram. Through these biases, white elites in Western metropolises are made more visible to Instagram users, even when others could conceivably fulfill their same representational function, troubling the notion that influencer status can be attained through an individual’s “labor” without algorithmic assistance.

Understanding the "Micro" in Political Micro-Targeting: An Analysis of Facebook Digital Advertising in the 2019 Federal Canadian Election

Background: There is a vigorous international debate on the effects of political micro-targeting on campaigning practices and on the integrity of democracy. It arguably encourages a more fragmented and transactional politics where localised claims and promises remain unchallenged. Analysis: If political micro-targeting requires a precisely segmented audience, a specific location and, most importantly a focussed policy message, then how much political micro-targeting actually occurs in Canadian elections? We analysed a sample of ads (from Facebook’s public archive) on two critical dates during the 2019 federal elections. Conclusions and Implications: Only a small minority of ads (7%) met these criteria; most critically lacked precision on one, or two, of these variables. Our findings suggest the need for a more nuanced understanding of the practice, and greater transparency. Contexte: Il y a un débat international vigoureux sur les effets du micro-ciblage politique sur les pratiques de campagne et sur l'intégrité de la démocratie. Il sert sans doute à une politique fragmentée et transactionnelle où les revendications et les promesses localisées restent incontestées. Analyse: Si le micro-ciblage politique nécessite un auditoire segmenté avec précision, un lieu spécifique et surtout, un message stratégique ciblé, combien de micro-ciblage politique y a-t-il réellement lors des élections canadiennes? Nous avons analysé un échantillon d'annonces (provenant des archives publiques de Facebook) à deux dates critiques lors des élections fédérales de 2019. Conclusions et implications: Seule une petite minorité des annonces (7%) répondait à ces critères: la plupart des publicités manquait de précision sur une ou deux de ces variables. Nos résultats suggèrent un recours à une compréhension plus nuancée de la pratique, et une plus grande transparence. Mots-clés: La vie privée, communication politique, médias sociaux, analyse de contenu.

THE ATTITUDE OF MOTHERS IN REVITALIZING PUNJABI LANGUAGE: A CASE STUDY OF THE PUNJABI COMMUNITY IN MANJUNG DISTRICT, PERAK

Punjabi is a small minority community in Malaysia among the approximately two million Indians in Malaysia. Punjabi people remain distinct from other people of Indian origins because of their religious beliefs and a strong sense of community. In the context of Malaysia, studies about the Punjabi community have not been encouraging and very minimal. As the Punjabi in Malaysia becomes more educated, the Punjabi community, which has long been undergoing a gradual shift into modern Malaysian society, and less emphasis is being placed on the ability to read and write Punjabi. The aim of this study is to obtain an overview of the language use patterns and language attitudes of Malaysian Punjabi mothers with the presence of their children. Specifically, the objective is to shed light on the importance of promoting Punjabi in the home domain by investigating whether the education and attitude of the mothers bring on the value of speaking the Punjabi language to their children in the home domain. A total of 11 respondents aged between 25 and 44 with children at or within the age of 6 were interviewed. One of the most significant findings of this study is the mismatch between language attitudes and actual language use by mothers with their children. The awareness exists in the mothers that Punjabi is important to their children to communicate with old age people and the Punjabi language is being used to do their prayers and to read their holy book. However, this positive attitude towards the language is not reflected in their language use and choice regardless of their education level. English dominated in most instances and most of the mothers claimed to be more comfortable speaking to their children in English.

Polarising Frantz Tumors – Benign And Malignant Solid Pseudopapillary Epithelial Neoplasm Of Pancreas – Twin Case Reports

Solid pseudo-papillary epithelial neoplasm (SPEN), also known Hamoudi tumors or Franz tumors, are rare pancreatic neoplasm which are almost always seen in young women predominately of non-Caucasian descent with only a small minority of cases diagnosed in men [1]. The first published description of an SPN was by Frantz in 1959[2]. . It is a rare tumor comprising of less than 3 percent of all pancreatic tumor. It is seen most often in the region of tail of pancreas. This tumor is mostly asymptomatic and usually detected when it reaches large size. These are tumors with low malignant potential and rarely vascular invasion and metastatic disease can be seen in aggressive cases. Here we report two cases, one each of benign SPEN and malignant SPEN with contrasting imaging findings and polar outcomes.