Texting behavior and language skills in children and adults

This chapter provides an overview of the current research on the use of text messaging and its relation to specific academic abilities, including spelling, reading, phonology, grammar, and general literacy skills. It discusses adult and child cohorts separately because of the striking differences that have been found between the two groups, and some suggestions are provided as to why these differences might exist. “Textese” is a term used to describe the abbreviated or slang format that many people use while texting. In methodological terms, the researchers who have studied the use of texting and textisms have used a variety of task types. These include self-report, translation studies, scenario studies, and naturalistic studies. Given that textism use is related to spelling, and spelling contributes to general writing ability, future researchers could consider the links between texting and general writing skill in more detail. Publisher statement: © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The full book is available from http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118772024.html

The development of path integration: combining estimations of distance and heading

Efficient daily navigation is underpinned by path integration, the mechanism by which we use self-movement information to update our position in space. This process is well-understood in adulthood, but there has been relatively little study of path integration in childhood, leading to an underrepresentation in accounts of navigational development. Previous research has shown that calculation of distance and heading both tend to be less accurate in children as they are in adults, although there have been no studies of the combined calculation of distance and heading that typifies naturalistic path integration. In the present study 5-year-olds and 7-year-olds took part in a triangle-completion task, where they were required to return to the startpoint of a multi-element path using only idiothetic information. Performance was compared to a sample of adult participants, who were found to be more accurate than children on measures of landing error, heading error, and distance error. 7-year-olds were significantly more accurate than 5-year-olds on measures of landing error and heading error, although the difference between groups was much smaller for distance error. All measures were reliably correlated with age, demonstrating a clear development of path integration abilities within the age range tested. Taken together, these data make a strong case for the inclusion of path integration within developmental models of spatial navigational processing

“It only hurts when I laugh”: Tolerating bullying humour in order to belong at work

Our study examines the impacts on workers when organisational humour is repeated, sustained, dominating, and potentially harmful, and thus can be considered to be bullying. In an ethnographic study of an idiosyncratic New Zealand IT company, we observed humour that was sexualised, dominating, and perpetrated by the most powerful organizational members. We argue that the compelling need for belonging in this extreme organizational culture influenced workers to accept bullying humour as just a joke and therefore acceptable and harmless even when it contravened societal workplace norms. Our contribution is in identifying and extending the significant theoretical relationship between workplace humour and bullying that, to date, is not well-explored in organizational researc

The genetics of cholesteatoma. A systematic review using narrative synthesis

Objective: A cholesteatoma is a mass of keratinising epithelium in the middle ear. It is a rare disorder that is associated with significant morbidity, and its causative risk factors are poorly understood; on a global scale up to a million people are affected by this each year. We have conducted a systematic literature review to identify reports about the heritability of cholesteatoma or any constitutional genetic factors that may be associated with its aetiology. Data Sources: A systematic search of MEDLINE (EBSCO) and 2 databases of curated genetic research (OMIM and Phenopedia) was conducted. Study Selection: The participants and populations of interest for this review were people treated for cholesteatoma and their family members. The studies of interest reported evidence of heritability for the trait, or any association with congenital syndromes and particular genetic variants. Data Extraction: The searches identified 449 unique studies, of which 35 were included in the final narrative synthesis. Data Synthesis: A narrative synthesis was conducted and data were tabulated to record characteristics, including study design; genetic data; and author conclusions. Most of the studies identified in the literature search, and described here, are case reports and so represent the lowest level of evidence. In a few case-reports, congenital and acquired cholesteatoma have been shown to segregate within families in the pattern typical of a monogenic or oligogenic disorder with incomplete penetrance. Evidence from syndromic cases could suggest that genes controlling ear morphology may be risk factors for cholesteatoma formation. Conclusions: This is the first systematic review about the genetics of cholesteatoma; and we have identified a small body of relevant literature that provides evidence of a heritable component for its aetiology. Cholesteatoma is a complex and heterogeneous clinical phenotype, it is often associated with chronic otitis media and with some rare congenital syndromes known to affect ear morphology and related pathologies

En las profundidades

Para la finalización del Proyecto de tesis tomo, como elemento de partida, la vida marina a través de la mirada de un buzo que se sumerge en las profundidades del océano, con la finalidad de capturar momentos únicos en un mundo desconocido por gran parte de la humanidad. Esta idea surge con el objetivo de lograr trasmitir y mostrar, a partir del uso de elementos plásticos, la diversidad de ecosistemas submarinos, en los cuales habitan una gran cantidad de flora y fauna, con el fin último de dar a conocer, tanto la importancia que poseen los océanos en el ciclo de la vida, como la necesidad de contribuir, por medio de esta obra, en la concientización, el respeto y protección de la vida marina, así como fomentar la conservación de los mencionados ecosistemas. Para lograr el efecto marino, tomé como herramienta plástica la técnica del paper cut y pop up, puesto que permiten trabajar el espacio al generar la ilusión de profundidad, superposición de elementos y volumen.Facultad de Arte

Changes in nutritional status associated with unresectable pancreatic cancer

Weight loss is common in patients with pancreatic cancer; however, the nature and progress of their nutritional depletion are not well documented. In this study, pre-illness weight and duration of weight loss were recorded in 20 patients with histologically confirmed unresectable cancer of the pancreas. Patients then underwent nutritional analysis at monthly intervals until death. The median period of assessment was 27 weeks (interquartile range 22.5-38.0 weeks). At the time of diagnosis, all patients had lost weight [median 14.2% (10.0-20.0%) of pre-illness stable weight], and this weight loss was progressive, increasing to a median of 24.5% by the time of the last assessment (P =0.0004). Body mass index was significantly reduced from a pre-illness median value of 24.9 kg m-2 (22.4-27.4 kg m-2) to 20.7 kg m-2 (19.5-23.6 kg m-2) at the time of diagnosis and further to 17.7 kg m-2 (16.6-23.1 kg m-2) just before death (P =0.0003). Further evidence of tissue depletion was evident from the significant reductions in lean body mass [43.4 kg (36.9-53.0 kg) to 40.1 kg (33.5-50.7 kg) P =0.008] and fat mass [12.5 kg (8.9-17.8 kg) to 9.6 kg (6.3-15.1 kg) P =0.03). This study confirms that the majority of patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer have already undergone significant weight loss by the time of diagnosis and that the natural history of this process is one of inexorable progression. These results highlight the need for selective non-toxic therapeutic intervention to attenuate cachexia and indicate that such interventions should be instituted early in the course of the disease

Txt msg n school literacy: Does texting and knowledge of text abbreviations adversely affect children‟s literacy attainment?

Abstract This paper reports on two studies which investigated the relationship between children's texting behaviour, their knowledge of text abbreviations and their school attainment in written language skills. In Study One, 11-12-year-old children provided information on their texting behaviour. They were also asked to translate a standard English sentence into a text message and vice versa. The children's standardised verbal and nonverbal reasoning scores were also obtained. Children who used their mobiles to send three or more text messages a day had significantly lower scores than children who sent none. However, the children who, when asked to write a text message, showed greater use of text abbreviations ('textisms') tended to have better performance on a measure of verbal reasoning ability, which is highly associated with Key Stage 2 (KS2) and 3 English scores. In Study Two, children's performance on writing measures was examined more specifically. Ten to eleven-year-old children were asked to complete another English to text message translation exercise. Spelling proficiency was also assessed, and KS2 Writing scores were obtained. Positive correlations between spelling ability and performance on the translation exercise were found, and group-based comparisons based on the children's writing scores also showed that good writing attainment was associated with greater use of textisms, although the direction of this association is nor clear. Overall, these findings suggest that children's knowledge of textisms is not associated with poor written language outcomes for children in this age range