99 research outputs found
'She's a F**king ticket':the pragmatics of f**k in Irish English - an age and gender perspective
No full textIn this paper, I examine the pragmatics of FUCK in terms of age and gender inan Irish English context. The paper aims to explore sociolinguistic variationin the use of this taboo form by using quantitative and qualitative corpusbasedtools and methodologies, which include relative frequency lists andconcordances, as well as details of formulaic strings, including significantclusters. I show that FUCK is a high-frequency item in everyday talk. Iillustrate that, in terms of age and gender, FUCK occurs most frequentlyamong male speakers in their twenties. I also focus on fucking as anextremely emotionally charged form that is a high frequency item in theinteractions of both the males in their twenties and the males in theirforties. I note that the use of this form brings a certain dramatic intensityor dynamism to their discourse. I attribute this intensity to being a feature ofhow males interact. I conclude by discussing other variables at play in thedata
Smac/Diablo antagonizes ubiquitin ligase activity of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins
No full textInhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) can block apoptosis through binding to active caspases and antagonizing their function. IAP function can be neutralized by Smac/Diablo, an IAP-binding protein that is released from mitochondria during apoptosis. In addition to their ability to interact with caspases, certain IAPs also display ubiquitin-protein isopeptide ligase activity because of the presence of a RING domain. However, it is not known whether the ubiquitin-protein isopeptide ligase activities of human IAPs contribute to their apoptosis inhibitory activity or whether this IAP property can be modulated through association with Smac/Diablo. Here we demonstrate that the ubiquitin ligase activities of XIAP, and to a lesser extent c-IAP-1 and c-IAP2, are potently repressed through binding to Smac/Diablo. We also show that mutation of the XIAP RING domain rendered this IAP a less effective inhibitor of apoptosis, suggesting that the ubiquitin ligase activity of XIAP contributes to its anti-apoptotic function. These data suggest that Smac/Diablo potentiates apoptosis by simultaneously antagonizing caspase-IAP interactions and repressing IAP ubiquitin ligase activitie
Religious references in contemporary Irish-English:'for the love of God almighty....I'm a holy terror for turf'
No full textThis article examines the nature and use of religious references across a range of contexts, and also age and gender groups to establish their patterning and functioning in contemporary English, with particular reference to Irish English. The examination is carried out by using quantitative and qualitative corpus-based tools and methodologies, such as relative frequency lists and concordances, as well as details of formulaic strings, including significant clusters. The paper highlights that religious references are high frequency items in informal spoken discourse and that they are predominantly used in non-religious contexts. In terms of age, their use seems to be characteristic of the discourse of the older speakers, while a gender-based analysis underlines their elevated use by male speakers. The analyses conclude that religious references are so commonplace in Irish English that their use, as a means of emotional expression, now seems almost ubiquitously acceptable among the represented groups, and when used, these items do not seem to cause offense
Exploring Gothic Fiction: A Corpus-Based Analysis
No full textGothic Fiction as a literary genre began in the late 1700s and remains popular today (Bottig 1996). While it has been analysed through qualitative analysis involving close textual readings and interpretation (Tinkler-Villani 1995), this dissertation aims to further explore the genre using the tools of corpus linguistics. A corpus of one million words from eleven 19th century Gothic texts will be compiled. The texts will be randomly selected to be representative of the genre within the century from 1800 to 1900. The research questions are: 1) How can Gothic Fiction be described through its language, using keyword analysis, word frequencies and concordance exploration? a) What are the key and most frequently used words? b) How do these words behave in terms of lexico-grammatical patterning to reveal insights about the genre of Gothic Fiction? 2) How does corpus analysis compare with traditional analysis? a) What categories are suggested as being important using keyword analysis? b) What themes have emerged through traditional analyses? c) How do the results from the two methodologies relate? By using a corpus linguistics approach, this dissertation will offer insights into the genre, and provide quantitative and qualitative evidence for support
Investigations on apoptosis-associated caspase activation cascades
No full textTHESIS 7441Apoptosis is an important process in a wide variety of different biological systems such as the immune system, normal cell turnover and embryonic development (Stennicke et al., 2002). Apoptosis is characterized by a series of distinct
morphological and biochemical alterations such as DNA fragmentation, chromatin condensation, cell shrinkage and membrane blebbing (Adrain and Martin, 2001). In
mammalian systems, the core component of the death machinery responsible for these stereotypic changes is a family of proteases known as caspases (Earnshaw et al.,
1999). The mammalian caspases may be divided into two broad subfamilies, the caspase-1 subfamily and the CED-3 subfamily. The CED-3 subfamily includes caspases -2, -3, -6, -7, -8, -9 and -10. These caspases are directly involved in apoptosis (Earnshaw et al., 1999; Lamkanfi et al., 2002). The research outlined in this thesis addresses these apoptotic caspases and in particular, the mechanisms governing the activation and regulation of these key proteases
Exploring Response Tokens in Irish English - A Multidisciplinary Approach:Integrating Variational Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics and Corpus Linguistics?
No full textSchneider & Barron (2008) discuss the effect of macro-social factors such as region, ethnic background, age, social status and gender on intra-lingual pragmatic conventions, and state that, to date, they have received comparatively little attention in the study of pragmatics. This paper chooses two macro-social factors, age and gender, and focuses on how they impact on the use of response tokens in Irish English. Not only does the paper shed light on the use of variational pragmatics as a framework for corpus-based studies but it also brings together research on sociolinguistics and corpus linguistics, which has, to-date, been scarce (Baker 2010). The paper reveals the importance of avoiding the exploration of sociolinguistic variables in isolation and concludes by highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary research and the merits of fine-grained sociolinguistic investigations using small corpora
Teachers’ lives: a life history narrative inquiry into Chinese college English teachers’ professional development in the context of Chinese culture
No full textAlthough each of the life stories and cases of teachers are personal and specific, and
although they have already become subjects of attention for anthropologists,
educationalists, sociologists and psychologists, there is still a lack of in-depth
research examining the actual processes and dynamics of teaching careers as
experienced by individuals. This is especially true of China. The actual situation of
teachers’ professional development in China remains a mystery.
Since biography, the changes in society and their impact on education are intimately
connected, this study intends to uncover and explore these connections in relation to
Chinese College English teachers. It discusses and studies eight Chinese College
English teachers’ professional development stories in the specific context of one
university. The main aim of the study is to reveal how those teachers in a Chinese
context and at different stages of their careers, construct, maintain and develop their
professional identities. The study explores, in particular, how far China’s educational
changes over the past sixty years (1949-2009) have impacted on these three groups
of Chinese College English teachers’ professional identities. The focus on teachers’
lives in this study will enable the teachers’ voice to be heard.
The study draws data from three groups of Chinese College English teachers: early-career,
mid-career and late-career, reflecting the footprints of China’s educational
changes over the past sixty years. It hypothesises that the professional identity
construction of these teachers may be influenced by the Chinese historical
background that their professional development may be a microcosm of Chinese
history of education and that the career of each group may be in stark contrast with
the others.
To fully understand their professional development, a life history narrative was
adopted. During eight-week’s fieldwork, a series of in-depth interviews combining
topical interview with narrative interview were carried out with eight College
English teachers at Sun Yat-sen University. A voice-centred approach combining (i)
a voice-centred relational method of data analysis with four steps of reading and (ii)
thematic narrative analysis was undertaken.
Drawing on stories identified from Reading 1 and combining it with thematic
narrative analysis method, I looked for what I think to be ‘critical events’. In Chapter
4, teachers’ stories are told in ‘I’ poems generated from Reading 2, which combines
longer summaries of the content of the transcript and direct quotes to illustrate
diverse and sometimes conflicting factors which influenced the development of
teacher identity along with the participants’ professional teaching journeys. The
narratives of each individual are guided by the processes they went through in their
professional development (becoming a teacher - being a teacher - future development)
and therefore were able to illustrate any general patterns that could be found in other
interviews. Participating teachers’ stories illustrate the complexity of the experiences
of Chinese College English teachers. Their experiences have shown the dynamic
nature of teachers’ professional identity construction in times of educational changes.
Their stories illustrate how the broader sociocultural and political context shapes
teachers’ professional identity and how teachers play out their agency throughout the
process of their professional identity construction.
Based on roles emerging from Reading 2 which focuses on how the teachers speak
about themselves and combining it with thematic narrative analysis, teachers’
professional identity construction is examined through the lens of what they do (their
professional role identities) in Chapter 5. The findings show that no matter which
career stages they were at, they are all capable of taking on the roles of manager,
professional, acculturator and researcher. The construction of role identities is a self-internalised
process, which needs continuous negotiation through interactions in
specific social settings.
In Chapter 6 teachers’ professional identity construction of the relational context of
teaching was explored by combining thematic narrative analysis with Reading 3
which focuses on how teachers talked about themselves in relation to others. From
the difference between teachers at different career stages, the findings reveal the
teachers’ professional identity construction is a process of self-mirroring based on
their understanding of how others (especially students and colleagues) perceive them.
Moreover, there are two steps of the self-mirroring process: the individual recognises
who she or he is and the individual identifies her or his uniqueness. Since the second
step only showed in the mid and late-career teachers’ stories, the first and second
step appears to be in a sequence.
The connection between the teachers’ professional identity construction and the
context was investigated in Chapter 7. In this chapter thematic narrative analysis is
combined with Reading 4 which sets the context by placing the teachers within the
cultural context and social structure. Analysis showed the teachers’ sense of
professional identity appears to be largely characterised by their personal histories
and experiences and it is constantly reshaped by the new relationships developed
within the professional context where the initial conception of teaching and teachers
confronts changes. Throughout the participating teachers’ life stories, even though
they were unique, they were not disengaged from society and context. On more than
one occasion, they made reference to different social and contextual issues that were
shaping their selves either consciously or unconsciously. Additionally, when the
narratives of all participating teachers are brought together they reveal important
aspects of how the broader community - society and context - behaves and evolves.
The contextual influences in teachers’ professional identity construction in this study
could be classified in three main categories: micro-social, meso-social and macrosocial,
which are interwoven with each other. Furthermore, the study provides the
evidence to show that teachers’ career stages, employment status and life stage/age
all contribute to their perceptions of their professional identity construction.
Through each teacher’s stories, we are able to get to know each teacher as a whole
person with complex lived realities. Those individual voices can be put together to
show the collective voices from each group and those groups can be put together to
show the collective voices from the cohort of eight College English teachers. The
research is significant in collecting individual voices from Chinese College English
teachers, and building their collective voice through exemplification, orchestration
and amplification. Individual stories are examples which show how teachers live and
struggle in their meso context with cultural uniqueness and the macro context of
reforms. The hypothesis (see page iii) was not fully upheld – i.e., personal/individual
and meso context seemed much more significant than macro. Teachers’ experiences
and interpretations are orchestrated through comparing, contrasting and building
theory/theories from the ground stories as an attempt to produce a new but coherent
narrative at an intellectual level. The orchestration of teachers’ voices can be
amplified in terms of its scope of impact and to inform the public of the subjective
reality experienced by teachers. This small-scale, in-depth research project attempts
to begin that process. It is anticipated that it will resonate with teachers who lived
under the same context, and illuminate their perspectives for those who did not
Corpus-based study of the use of English general extenders spoken by Japanese users of English across speaking proficiency levels and task types
No full textThere is a pronounced shift in English language teaching policy in Japan with
the recognition not only of the importance of spoken English and interactional
competence in a globalised world, but also the need to emphasise it within English
language pedagogy. Given this imperative to improve the oral communication skills
of Japanese users of English (JUEs), it is vital for teachers of English to understand
the cultural complexities surrounding the language, one of which is the use of vague
language, which has been shown to serve both interpersonal and interactional
functions in communications.
One element of English vague language is the general extender (for example,
or something). The use of general extenders by users of English as a second language
(L2) has been studied extensively. However, there is a lack of research into the use of
general extenders by JUEs, and their functional differences across speaking
proficiency levels and contexts. This study sought to address the knowledge gap,
critically exploring the use of general extenders spoken by JUEs across speaking
proficiency levels and task types.
The study drew on quantitative and qualitative corpus-based tools and
methodologies using the National Institute of Information and Communications
Technology Japanese Learner English Corpus (Izumi, Uchimoto, & Isahara, 2004),
which contains transcriptions of a speaking test. An in-depth analysis of individual
frequently-occurring general extenders was carried out across speaking proficiency
levels and test tasks (description, narrative, interview and role-play) in order to
reveal the frequency, and the textual and functional complexity of general extenders
used by JUEs. In order to ensure the relevance of the application of the findings to
the context of language education, the study also sought language teachers’ beliefs
on the use of general extenders by JUEs.
Three general extenders (or something (like that), and stuff, and and so on)
were explored due to their high frequency within the corpus. The study showed that
the use of these forms differed widely across the JUEs’ speaking proficiency levels
and task types undertaken: or something (like that) is typically used in description
tasks at the higher level and in interview and description tasks at the intermediate
level; and stuff is typical of the interview at the higher level; and so on of the
interview at the lower-intermediate level. The study also revealed that a greater
proportion of the higher level JUEs use general extenders than do those at lower
levels, while those with lower speaking proficiency level who do use general
extenders, do so at an high density. A qualitative exploration of concordance lines
and extracts revealed a number of interpersonal and discourse-oriented functions
across speaking proficiency levels: or something (like that) functions to show
uncertainty about information or linguistic choice and helps the JUEs to hold their
turn; and stuff serves to make the JUEs’ expression emphatic; and so on appears to
show the JUEs’ lack of confidence in their language use, and signals the desire to
give up their turn. The findings suggest that the use of general extenders by JUEs is
multifunctional, and that this multi-functionality is linked to various elements, such
as the level of language proficiency, the nature of the task, the real time processing of
their speech and the power asymmetry where the time and floor are mainly managed
by the examiners.
The study contributes to extending understanding of how JUEs use general
extenders to convey interpersonal and discourse-oriented functions in the context of
language education, in speaking tests and possibly also in classrooms, and provides
new insights into the dynamics of L2 users’ use of general extenders. It brings into
questions the generally-held view that the use of general extenders by L2 users as a
group is homogenous. The findings from this study could assist teachers to
understand JUEs’ intentions in their speech and to aid their speech production. More
importantly, it may raise language educators’ awareness of how the use of general
extenders by JUEs varies across speaking proficiency levels and task types. These
findings should have pedagogical implications in the context of language education,
and assist teachers in improving interactional competence, in line with emerging
English language teaching policy in Japan
Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors in brain cancer: current state and future directions
No full textCyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are important regulatory enzymes in the normal physiological processes that drive cell-cycle transitions and regulate transcription. Virtually all cancers harbour genomic alterations that lead to the constitutive activation of CDKs, resulting in the proliferation of cancer cells. CDK inhibitors (CKIs) are currently in clinical use for the treatment of breast cancer, combined with endocrine therapy. In this review, we describe the potential of CKIs for the treatment of cancer with specific focus on glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and aggressive primary brain tumour in adults. Despite intense effort to combat GBM with surgery, radiation and temozolomide chemotherapy, the median survival for patients is 15 months and the majority of patients experience disease recurrence within 6-8 months of treatment onset. Novel therapeutic approaches are urgently needed for both newly diagnosed and recurrent GBM patients. In this review, we summarise the current preclinical and clinical findings emphasising that CKIs could represent an exciting novel approach for GBM treatment
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