Oxford University Press (United Kingdom)

To carry out his investigations, Bruner went to clutter of life at home, the child's own setting for learning, rather than observing children in a contrived video laboratory. For Bruner, language is learned by using An central to its use are he calls formats, scriptlike interactions between mother and child in short, play and games. What goes on in games as rudimentary as peekaboo or hide-and-seek can tell us much about language acquisition.But aids the aspirant speaker in his attempt to use language? To answer this, the author postulates the existence of a Language Acquisition Support System that frames the interactions between adult and child in such a way as to allow the child to proceed from learning to refer to objects to learning to make a request of another human being. And, according to Bruner, the Language Acquisition Support System not only helps the child learn how to say but also helps him to learn what is canonical, obligatory, and valued among those to whom he says it. In short, it is a vehicle for the transmission of our culture.

BACKGROUND: Lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol with statin therapy results in substantial reductions in cardiovascular events, and larger reductions in cholesterol may produce larger benefits. In rare cases, myopathy occurs in association with statin therapy, especially when the statins are administered at higher doses and with certain other medications. METHODS: We carried out a genomewide association study using approximately 300,000 markers (and additional fine-mapping) in 85 subjects with definite or incipient myopathy and 90 controls, all of whom were taking 80 mg of simvastatin daily as part of a trial involving 12,000 participants. Replication was tested in a trial of 40 mg of simvastatin daily involving 20,000 participants. RESULTS: The genomewide scan yielded a single strong association of myopathy with the rs4363657 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) located within SLCO1B1 on chromosome 12 (P=4x10(-9)). SLCO1B1 encodes the organic anion-transporting polypeptide OATP1B1, which has been shown to regulate the hepatic uptake of statins. The noncoding rs4363657 SNP was in nearly complete linkage disequilibrium with the nonsynonymous rs4149056 SNP (r(2)=0.97), which has been linked to statin metabolism. The prevalence of the rs4149056 C allele in the population was 15%. The odds ratio for myopathy was 4.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.6 to 7.7) per copy of the C allele, and 16.9 (95% CI, 4.7 to 61.1) in CC as compared with TT homozygotes. More than 60% of these myopathy cases could be attributed to the C variant. The association of rs4149056 with myopathy was replicated in the trial of 40 mg of simvastatin daily, which also showed an association between rs4149056 and the cholesterol-lowering effects of simvastatin. No SNPs in any other region were clearly associated with myopathy. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified common variants in SLCO1B1 that are strongly associated with an increased risk of statin-induced myopathy. Genotyping these variants may help to achieve the benefits of statin therapy more safely and effectively. (Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN74348595.)

Abstract A rising share of employees now regularly engage in working from home (WFH), but there are concerns this can lead to “shirking from home.” We report the results of a WFH experiment at Ctrip, a 16,000-employee, NASDAQ-listed Chinese travel agency. Call center employees who volunteered to WFH were randomly assigned either to work from home or in the office for nine months. Home working led to a 13% performance increase, of which 9% was from working more minutes per shift (fewer breaks and sick days) and 4% from more calls per minute (attributed to a quieter and more convenient working environment). Home workers also reported improved work satisfaction, and their attrition rate halved, but their promotion rate conditional on performance fell. Due to the success of the experiment, Ctrip rolled out the option to WFH to the whole firm and allowed the experimental employees to reselect between the home and office. Interestingly, over half of them switched, which led to the gains from WFH almost doubling to 22%. This highlights the benefits of learning and selection effects when adopting modern management practices like WFH.

In Understanding English as a Lingua Franca, Barbara Seidlhofer deals with the linguistic implications of globalization in the Expanding Circle (Kachru 1992) viewed from a transformationalist perspective, as opposed to one that is hyperglobalist. As such, globalization is taken as the driving force behind social, economic, and political changes in the local setting, often to the benefit of its inhabitants. It need not be seen as the imposition of the global on to the local, leading to linguistic imperialism and cultural homogenization in the way hyperglobalists tend to view it (for example Phillipson 1992). From a transformationalist viewpoint, English is perceived as an international medium of interconnectedness (Dewey 2007) between the global and the local (or the centre and the periphery), leading to plurality in norms and approaches. In its new, unique, and unprecedented role, English, according to Seidlhofer, has thus become ‘both a result and a reinforcement’ of globalization and ‘naturally gets transformed accordingly’ (p. 83). It follows that a new sociolinguistic conceptualization of the language is warranted, one which should strip it of its native ‘ownership’ (Widdowson 1994) and of the control such ownership exercises (both explicitly and implicitly) on its international development. Such control is ironic, if not paradoxical, in view of the world’s NNS to NS ratio being approximately three to one according to conservative estimates. After all, as Jenkins (2003: 44) indicates, if, as a global language, English has become the language of ‘others’, it is natural that the ‘others’ should have the right to innovate. Their innovations cannot be automatically labelled ‘wrong’ by NSs.

Abstract In this article we present a simple new Keynesian–style model of debt-driven slumps—that is, situations in which an overhang of debt on the part of some agents, who are forced into rapid deleveraging, is depressing aggregate demand. Making some agents debt-constrained is a surprisingly powerful assumption. Fisherian debt deflation, the possibility of a liquidity trap, the paradox of thrift and toil, a Keynesian-type multiplier, and a rationale for expansionary fiscal policy all emerge naturally from the model. We argue that this approach sheds considerable light both on current economic difficulties and on historical episodes, including Japan’s lost decade (now in its 18th year) and the Great Depression itself.

Abstract We examine causes and consequences of relative income within households. We show that the distribution of the share of income earned by the wife exhibits a sharp drop to the right of 12 , where the wife’s income exceeds the husband’s income. We argue that this pattern is best explained by gender identity norms, which induce an aversion to a situation where the wife earns more than her husband. We present evidence that this aversion also impacts marriage formation, the wife’s labor force participation, the wife’s income conditional on working, marriage satisfaction, likelihood of divorce, and the division of home production. Within marriage markets, when a randomly chosen woman becomes more likely to earn more than a randomly chosen man, marriage rates decline. In couples where the wife’s potential income is likely to exceed the husband’s, the wife is less likely to be in the labor force and earns less than her potential if she does work. In couples where the wife earns more than the husband, the wife spends more time on household chores; moreover, those couples are less satisfied with their marriage and are more likely to divorce. These patterns hold both cross-sectionally and within couples over time.

OBJECTIVE: The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is the most widely used screening tool for postpartum depression (PPD). We systematically reviewed the published evidence on its validity in detecting PPD and antepartum depression (APD) up to July 2008. METHOD: Systematic review of validation studies of the EPDS included 1987-2008. Cut-off points of 9/10 for possible PPD, 12/13 for probable PPD and 14/15 for APD were used. RESULTS: Thirty-seven studies met the inclusion criteria. Sensitivity and specificity of cut-off points showed marked heterogeneity between different studies. Sensitivity results ranged from 34 to 100% and specificity from 44 to 100%. Positive likelihood ratios ranged from 1.61 to 78. CONCLUSION: Heterogeneity among study findings may be due to differences in study methodology, language and diagnostic interview/criteria used. Therefore, the results of different studies may not be directly comparable and the EPDS may not be an equally valid screening tool across all settings and contexts.

In Dear Science and Other Stories Katherine McKittrick presents a creative and rigorous study of black and anticolonial methodologies. Drawing on black studies, studies of race, cultural geography, and black feminism as well as a mix of methods, citational practices, and theoretical frameworks, she positions black storytelling and stories as strategies of invention and collaboration. She analyzes a number of texts from intellectuals and artists ranging from Sylvia Wynter to the electronica band Drexciya to explore how narratives of imprecision and relationality interrupt knowledge systems that seek to observe, index, know, and discipline blackness. Throughout, McKittrick offers curiosity, wonder, citations, numbers, playlists, friendship, poetry, inquiry, song, grooves, and anticolonial chronologies as interdisciplinary codes that entwine with the academic form. Suggesting that black life and black livingness are, in themselves, rebellious methodologies, McKittrick imagines without totally disclosing the ways in which black intellectuals invent ways of living outside prevailing knowledge systems.

O ne of the most exciting developments in research on reading over the last two decades is the emerging consensus about the importance of phonological processing abilities in the acquisition of early reading skills (Shankweiler & Liberman, 1989; Stanovich, 1988; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). As the term is used by those who study early reading development, phonological processing refers to an individual's mental operations that make use of the phonological or sound structure of oral language when he or she is learning how to decode written language. The last 20 years of research have produced a broad variety of converging evidence that at least three kinds of phonological processing skills are positively related to individual differences in the rate at which beginning reading skills are acquired (see Adams, 1990; Brady & Shankweiler, 1991; Crowder & Wagner, 1991; and Torgesen, 1993, for recent reviews of this work). The kinds of phonological processing skills and knowledge that have been most frequently studied include phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rate of access for phonological information. Types of Reading-Related Phonological Skill

Driven by the profit motive of global high-technology companies, in collusion with the trend towards city governance being wedded to a competitive form of ‘urban entrepreneurialism’, has left little room for ordinary people to participate in the smart city. The article seeks to make a two-fold critical intervention into the dominance of this corporate smart city model. It does this by first looking at how we currently understand the smart city and critiques the growing trend towards corporate and entrepreneurial governance versions. A second form of intervention concerns considering smartness from different perspectives emanating from small-scale and fledgling examples of participatory and citizen-based types of smart initiatives.

2013 Book Award Winner from the International Research Society in Children's Literature2012 Outstanding Book Award Winner from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education 2012 Winner of the Lois P. Rudnick Book Prize presented by the New England American Studies Association 2012 Runner-Up, John Hope Franklin Publication Prize presented by the American Studies Association2012 Honorable Mention, Distinguished Book Award presented by the Society for the Study of American Women WritersPart of the American Literatures Initiative Series Beginning in the mid nineteenth century in America, childhood became synonymous with innocence—a reversal of the previously-dominant Calvinist belief that children were depraved, sinful creatures. As the idea of childhood innocence took hold, it became racialized: popular culture constructed white children as innocent and vulnerable while excluding black youth from these qualities.

Lectures on Geophysical Fluid Dynamics offers an introduction to several topics in geophysical fluid dynamics, including the theory of large-scale ocean circulation, geostrophic turbulence, and Hamiltonian fluid dynamics. Since each chapter is a self-contained introduction to its particular topic, the book will be useful to students and researchers in diverse scientific fields.

Differences in the ways that men and women use language have long been of interest in the study of discourse. Despite extensive theorizing, actual empirical investigations have yet to converge on a coherent picture of gender differences in language. A significant reason is the lack of agreement over the best way to analyze language. In this research, gender differences in language use were examined using standardized categories to analyze a database of over 14,000 text files from 70 separate studies. Women used more words related to psychological and social processes. Men referred more to object properties and impersonal topics. Although these effects were largely consistent across different contexts, the pattern of variation suggests that gender differences are larger on tasks that place fewer constraints on language use.

This article establishes six stylized facts about firms' export prices using detailed customs data on the universe of Chinese trade flows. First, across firms selling a given product, exporters that charge higher prices earn greater revenues in each destination, have bigger worldwide sales, and enter more markets. Second, firms that export more, enter more markets, and charge higher export prices import more expensive inputs. Third, across destinations within a firm-product, firms set higher prices in richer, larger, bilaterally more distant and overall less remote countries. Fourth, across destinations within a firm-product, firms earn bigger revenues in markets where they set higher prices. Fifth, across firms within a product, exporters with more destinations offer a wider range of export prices. Finally, firms that export more, enter more markets, and offer a wider range of export prices pay a wider range of input prices and source inputs from more origin countries. We propose that trade models should incorporate two features to rationalize these patterns in the data: more successful exporters use higher quality inputs to produce higher quality goods (stylized facts 1 and 2), and firms vary the quality of their products across destinations by using inputs of different quality levels (stylized facts 3, 4, 5, and 6). Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.

As strategies for achieving sustainable growth in developing countries are re-examined in light of the financial crisis, it is critical to take into account structural change and its corollary, industrial upgrading. Economic literature has devoted a great deal of attention to the analysis of technological innovation, but not enough to these equally important issues. The new structural economics outlined in this paper suggests a framework to complement previous approaches in the search for sustainable growth strategies. It takes the following into consideration.

This paper analyses the strengths and weaknesses of product, process, and genre approaches to writing in terms of their view of writing and how they see the development of writing. It argues that the three approaches are complementary, and identifies an approach which is informed by each of them.

The measurement and estimation of human-related senses has become an established technique in sensor research, as well as in the practical design of measurement and control systems. The electronic nose concept is widely used as an analytical tool in industry today. The commercialization of the electronic nose began in 1993 as the concept became widely accepted as an effective instrument for detection and estimation of olfaction. The book describes the general set-up of an electronic nose: it consists of an array of chemical sensors; an air flow system, which switches the reference air and the tested air; a signal analysis technique; and a presentation unit. The main sensor principles presented in the book are also the most frequently used techniques for gas sensors. These are based on two main types of gas sensor: metal-oxide semiconductors and conducting polymer resistive materials. An overview of other gas sensor principles is also given, for example, gas sensors based on the effect of sorbed molecules on the propagation of acoustic waves; field effect semiconductors; electrochemical oxidation and reduction principles; and a catalytic gas sensor. Pellistors are described as well as fibre-optic gas sensors. To increase the complexity of the odour system, an array of mixed sensing principles is often designed, consisting of different types of sensor, in order to create differences in operating temperatures, flow conditions and sensor response times. The analysis technique used, in most cases, is a supervised artificial neural network used in a relative based measurement approach, although other techniques are also mentioned in the book.

.2. Drugs with unproven efficacy or no longer recommended . . 8.1.6.2.1. Digoxin . . . . . . . 8.1.6.2.2. Procainamide . . . . 8.1.6.2.3. Quinidine . . . . . . 8.1.6.2.4. Verapamil and diltiazem . . . . . . 8.1.7. Out-of-hospital initiation of antiarrhythmic drugs in patients with atrial fibrillation . . . . . .

Extended provisioning of offspring and long postmenopausal life spans are characteristic of all modern humans but no other primates. These traits may have evolved in tandem. Analysis of relationships between women's time allocation and children's nutritional welfare among the Hadza of northern Tanzania yields results consistent with this proposition. Implications for current thought about the evolution of hominid food sharing, life history, and social organization are discussed.

Corrigendum to: ‘ACC/AHA/ESC 2006 guidelines for the management of patients with atrial fibrillation–executive summary. A report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on practice guidelines and the European …