Informal Written Language Analysis Methods: Case Examples of Adults With Traumatic Brain Injury

Purpose: Written expression challenges following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in adults have received little clinical attention but can substantially affect quality of life and the success of reintegration efforts. Assessment tools and procedures are lacking despite the likelihood of post-TBI problems with microstructure (e.g., productivity, spelling accuracy) and macrostructure (e.g., topic adherence, organization) aspects of written language. The lack of standardized procedures forces reliance on informal methods to determine writing strengths and challenges. Method: A combination of assessment procedures allowed for evaluation of the productivity and efficiency, adherence to writing conventions (e.g., spelling, sentence structure, punctuation), and macrostructure organization (e.g., story grammar, topic adherence) of written narratives collected from five adults with TBI. Results: Use of multiple assessment methods revealed disparate writing challenges across the five case examples. The differing writing profiles underscore the necessity of evaluating multiple aspects of written narratives. Conclusions: The described analysis methods can help clinicians determine areas of strength and challenge in written work generated by adults with TBI. Examination of multiple aspects of writing is key to garnering a comprehensive appraisal of post-TBI writing.

Applicability of Wordnet Architecture in Lexical Borrowing Studies

The aim of the paper is to present a new, wordnet-based method of studying lexical borrowing. In contrast to the two-dimensional (micro- and macrostructure) organization of traditional dictionaries, describing each unit in isolation, wordnets introduce an additional dimension of inter-word relations in the entire lexicon. The ability to connect wordnets cross-linguistically allows in turn for juxtaposing, comparing, and visualizing a broad spectrum of lexical relations between loanwords within the recipient language and their cognates in the source language for which the term cross-linguistic mapping has been used. The method was applied to a wordnet-based, yet differently structured network of Polish loanwords in Yiddish. This allowed to supplement the traditional typology of transferred words by introducing the notion of ‘rootedness’, that is the degree of their interconnectedness in the source and recipient systems. This in turn has provided a promising means for distinguishing inherited from acquired vocabulary.

The Karyotype of Salvator merianae (Squamata, Teiidae): Analyses by Classical and Molecular Cytogenetic Techniques

In this study, we analyzed the karyotype of Salvator merianae (Teiidae) from the Brazilian semiarid region using different cytogenetic markers. Chromosomes were examined by classical (Giemsa and AgNOR staining) and molecular (FISH with ribosomal, telomeric, and microsatellite probes) cytogenetic approaches. S. merianae showed a diploid chromosome number of 2n = 38 (10 biarmed macrochromosomes + 28 microchromosomes). No sex-linked chromosome heteromorphisms were observed. Clusters of 18S/28S rDNA were localized in the terminal region of the long arm of pair 2. In addition to the typical telomeric signals, (TTAGGG)n repeats were detected in the pericentromeric region of some macrochromosome pairs, which might indicate the occurrence of chromosomal rearrangements via chromosome fusions. Hybridization signals of the microsatellite probes (GA)n, (GAA)n, and (GAG)n were uniformly distributed across all chromosomes, while (CA)n, (CAA)n, and (CAC)n produced brighter signals in the telomeric and pericentromeric regions of specific chromosome pairs. The comparison with previous studies demonstrates that, despite the wide distribution of S. merianae, the macrostructure organization of the karyotype remained unchanged, showing stability in diploid number and chromosome morphology.