Oropharyngeal Dysphagia: A Proposal for an Ecological Theoretical Model

Background: The exponential growth in epidemiological studies has been reflected in an increase in analytical studies. Thus, theoretical models are required to guide the definition of data analysis, although so far, they are seldom used in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Objective: To propose a multicausal model for oropharyngeal dysphagia using directed acyclic graphs showing mediating variables, confounding variables, and variables connected by direct causation. Design: This integrative literature review. Setting: This was carried out until January 4, 2021, and searches were performed with the MEDLINE, EMBASE,and other bases.

The Transitivity Index: Using Transitivity as a continuous measure to account for clitic case alternation in Spanish causative constructions

In Spanish causative constructions with dejar ‘let’ and hacer ‘make’ the subject of the embedded infinitive verb can appear in the accusative or the dative case. This case alternation has been accounted for by resorting to the notion of direct vs. indirect causation. Under this account, the accusative clitic with a transitive verb denotes direct causation while the dative clitic with an intransitive verb expresses indirect causation. The problem with this account is that we lack an independent definition of (in)direct causation in this context and so this approach suffers from circularity: the case of the clitic is used to determine causation type and causation type implies use of one or the other grammatical case. Therefore, a more objective way to account for clitic case alternation is needed. In this paper, I offer one possible solution in this direction by investigating clitic case alternation against Hopper and Thompson’s Transitivity parameters and a small number of other linguistic variables. The novelty of this approach is that I operationalise Transitivity as a weighted continuous measure (which I call the Transitivity Index) and use it to predict the case of the clitic. The results indicate that the transitivity of the infinitive verb, the animacy of the object and the agentivity of the subject are strong predictors of clitic case. Moreover, the Transitivity Index clearly shows that higher levels of Transitivity are associated with the dative clitic contrary to other contexts in which accusative is said to be more transitive. The findings in this paper allow us to arrive at a finer-grained characterization of the contexts in which each clitic case is more likely to occur and provide further evidence of the pervasiveness of Transitivity in natural language.

Causation

This chapter focuses on causation. Causation doctrines govern the connection between a person’s behaviour and the consequence elements, if any, of an offence. They articulate the paradigm route by which responsibility for those consequences can be ascribed to the person. The chapter provides an account of causation in the criminal law that points toward some natural-world property that it (in part) rests upon, and which shows how that property is capable of bearing the moral freight that causation doctrines must carry. The account seeks to reconcile the tension between pre- and post-legal notions of causation, finding a place for the law’s morally sensitive causation doctrines. In so doing, it helps to explain what criminal and tortious causation must have in common, and where space exists for their causal doctrines to diverge. Finally, the chapter sets out three major threads of causation: direct causation, indirect causation, and causation via omissions or other non-interventions.

Intentionality, scalar change, and non-culmination in Korean caused change-of-state predicates

This paper investigates the interpretations of caused change-of-state predicates in Korean, and in particular non-culmination readings in which the result state inherent to the meaning of the predicate fails to obtain either fully (zero result) or partially. We argue that zero result readings require that the subject intended the coming about of the result state, while readings in which some result obtains (partially or completely) lack this entailment. Yet zero result interpretations are not reducible to ‘try’-constructions since the former but not the latter require the direct causation. Furthermore, zero result readings arise only in active voice, a grammatical constraint not explicitly discussed for other languages. We argue that the full suite of possible readings arises from two factors: a sublexical modality over worlds conforming to the agent’s intentions for zero result readings that arises from a special active voice inflection in Korean and a scalar semantics for change-of-state verbs that derives partial result readings as a type of degree achievement interpretation. An interaction of these two factors produce the range of possible readings for Korean change-of-state predicates. Finally, we discuss our account in relation to the Agent Control Hypothesis of Demirdache and Martin (2015) that agentivity properties of the subject are necessary for certain non-culmination readings, and suggest that Korean exemplifies the ACH provided that what counts as “control” includes intentionality.

Direct versus indirect causation as a semantic linguistic universal: Using a computational model of English, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese and K’iche’ Mayan to predict grammaticality judgments in Balinese.

The aim of this study was to test the claim that languages universally employmorphosyntactic marking to differentiate events of more- versus less-direct causation,preferring to mark them with less- and more- overt marking respectively (e.g., Somebody broke the window vs Somebody MADE the window break; *Somebody cried the boy vs Somebody MADE the boy cry). To this end, we investigated whether a recent computational model which learns to predict speakers’ by-verb relative preference for the two causatives in English, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese and K’iche’ Mayan is able to generalize to a sixth language on which it has never been trained: Balinese. Judgments of the relative acceptability of the less- and more-transparent causative forms of 60 verbs were collected from 48 nativ speaking Balinese adults. The composite crosslinguistic computational model was able to predict these judgments, not only for verbs that it had seen, but also – in a split-half validation test – to verbs that it had never seen in any language. Clearly, this is only possible if Balinese conceptualizes directness of causation in a similar way to these unrelated languages. Thus, the present findings constitute support for the view that the distinction between more- versus less-distinct causation constitutes a morphosyntactic universal.

Abstract WP478: Microglia Knockdown Reduces Inflammation and Improves Post-Stroke Cognitive Impairment in Diabetic Animals

Unfortunately, over 40% of stroke victims have pre-existing diabetes which not only increases their risk of stroke up to 2-6 fold, but also worsens both functional recovery and the severity of cognitive impairment. Our lab has recently linked the chronic inflammation that persists in diabetic animals to their poor functional outcomes and exacerbated cognitive impairment, also known as post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI). Although we have shown that the development of PSCI in diabetes is associated with the upregulation and activation of pro-inflammatory microglia, we have not established a direct causation between the two. We tested the hypothesis that microglia depletion in the post-stroke recovery period prevents sustained inflammation and attenuates PSCI in diabetes. Methods: Diabetes was induced by a high fat diet (HFD) and low dose streptozotocin (STZ) combination. At 13 weeks of age, diabetic animals received bilateral intracerebroventricular (ICV) injections of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) lentiviral particles targeted at the colony stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R), a key factor for microglia survival. After 14 days, animals were subjected to 60 min middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) or sham surgery. Novel object recognition (NOR), and 2-trial Y-maze were utilized to evaluate cognitive function. Brains were analyzed by flow cytometry (B-D slice containing the prefrontal cortex through the hippocampus) and immunohistochemistry (B slice) 3 weeks post-MCAO. Results: CSF1R silencing resulted in a drastic 94% knockdown of residential microglia to relieve inflammation and decrease the macrophage infiltration by 74%. This also led to improved myelination of white matter in the brain and improved cognition in diabetic animals. Conclusion: Neuroinflammation, through microglial and macrophage polarization, is largely responsible for the development of PSCI in diabetes.

The syntax and semantics of helping: Sociative causation in Kinande

We investigate the syntax and semantics of the sociative causative in Kinande (D42), a Bantu language spoken in eastern DRC. We present our discovery that Kinande, apparently unique among Bantu languages, grammaticalizes this type of causation with a specialized morpheme. In sociative causatives, the causer causes through social interaction rather than physical manipulation (direct causation) or words (indirect causation). We propose sociative causation in Kinande more exactly means ‘y carries out a subevent of P to help x do P.’ Helping here is by doing and is not comitative: rather, it is partitive – each actor does part of the action. This accounts for the classes of verbs that can undergo sociative causation. We establish that the construction is mono-clausal and note that the sociative morpheme is closely related to the benefactive applied morpheme. A second extension that occurs in this construction marks transitivity. We observe that the transitive extension can co-occur with the passive extension which tells us there is more than one voice projection in Kinande. Finally, we look more closely at the partitive reading of the caused event and note that the partitivity can be morpho-syntactically manifested either through partitive marking of the object of the caused event or through partitive marking of the caused event itself.

THREAT OF DEATH OR THE OCCURRENCE OF OTHER SEVERE CONSEQUENCES AT PRODUCTION: A PRE-TRIAL INVESTIGATION, FORENSIC SCIENCE

The article is devoted to the development of forensic engineering in the field of labor protection while investigation of crimes against the industrial safety. Based on the analysis of specific forensic examinations and ordering of scientific literature proposes the creation of a unified methodological approach to problem solving forensic expertise with a real threat of death or the occurrence of other severe consequences in production to establish the causes and consequences of emergencies, cause-effect relationships in the system of “action / in action of a person - emergency”. Under the "real threat of death or the occurrence of other severe consequences, "it is necessary to understand such changes in the state of production objects as a result of which there is a real danger to the life or health of people or hurting a variety of benefits. Creation of the threat of death or other severe consequences must be real, indicative of the occurrence of a particular production process or as a result of such a dangerous state (threats), may occur when the consequences prescribed by law. Not occurrence of the consequences can be associated either with the timely suppression of the violation, or with a “stroke of luck”. Other serious consequences are grievous bodily harm to one or more persons, moderately bodily harms two or more persons, significant material damage to citizens and companies. While resolving examination issues, the following should be indicated: what is the real threat of death or the occurrence of other severe consequences; who and what deflections from the regulatory and legal acts on labor protection allowed in this production situation; who of the persons involved in the event had the technical ability to prevent the creation of a real threat of death or other severe consequences, what actions to do so they had to carry out and what their actions (inaction) from a technical point of view is in direct causation connection with the emergence of these hazardous working conditions.

Causatives

A causative is a linguistic expression referring to a situation consisting of a certain event and a force responsible for the realization of it, as seen in the following examples, where the addressee is understood as the cause of laughing of the addresser: English You make me laugh = Lithuanian Tu mane juok-in-i (2sg.nom1sg.acc laugh-caus-prs.2sg). These examples illustrate two major types of causative expressions, where make and -in- serve as markers of causative relations. English employs a free form, and the construction is termed periphrastic (or analytic, syntactic) causative, while Lithuanian uses an affix, and this type is referred to as morphological causative. There are other formal means beside affixation to form morphological causatives, such as reduplication, vowel, consonant, and tone alternations. The periphrastic causatives can be monoclausal or biclausal in their structure, and the monoclausal ones are sometimes specifically referred to as syntactic causatives. In addition to that, lexical causatives can be recognized if a predicate bearing no synchronically transparent relation to another predicate is interpreted as causative on semantic grounds. For example, in the English sentence You killed him, one may paraphrase kill as “cause to die” and argue that kill stands in causative relation with respect to die. Some authors also use the term “lexical causative” when talking about nonproductive and/or semitransparent formations, which typically disallow ambiguity of adverb scope. With regard to semantics, causatives can be factitive (as English make) or permissive (as English let), the causing force may operate directly or indirectly (by certain intermediate actions), and a number of other parameters can be shown to be relevant. It has been argued that these semantic parameters also bear a relation to the formal means of expression of causatives, such as direct causation expressed by morphological causatives and indirect one by periphrastic constructions. Within a larger context, causatives are interpreted as valency-changing operations, which add a causer as an agent (“you” in the previous examples) and demote the subject of the base predicate, which becomes the causee and can be marked as a certain object (“me” in the previous examples). The principles governing the marking of the causee, such as “the paradigm case” and “the semantic role approach,” have been one of the main topics in the study of causatives. The syntax of causative constructions is usually also discussed in the studies dealing with transitivity and voice (see further references in the separate Oxford Bibliographies article in Linguistics “Transitivity and Voice”).

The Book I

This chapter argues that medieval and early modern ontological descriptions made use of a new material technology of inscription with the same tensional regime: the book. Without assuming any direct causation, the following two chapters show a clear similarity of kinetic structure in both theological description and its technology of inscription during this time. The new kind of kinography that rose to dominance in the West around the fourth and fifth centuries was called “bibliography”. The rise of bibliography, or book writing, functioned according to two major kinographic operations: the binding of the book, and the comprehension (or kinetic tension between author and the reader) of the book. Between the fifth and eighteenth centuries, two major book technologies were used in theological descriptions: the manuscript codex, from the fifth to fifteenth centuries, and the printed codex, from the fifteenth up to the eighteenth century.