Role of Glucagon Analogues in Cardiovascular disease

Role of Glucagon Analogues in Cardiovascular disease The Potential Role of Glucagon – Like Peptide – 1 (GLP-1) Analogues in Cardiovascular disease Introduction People who have a diagnosis of diabetes have a triple chance of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and unfortunately poorer clinical outcomes following myocardial infarction, angioplasty and bypass surgeries (Hausenloy and Yellon 2008). It is estimated that CVD is responsible for 65% of deaths in people with type 2 diabetes (Burge 2012). Management of diabetes includes identifying, preventing and managing CVD risk factors such as dyslipidaemia and hypertension (NICE 2014). Other risk factors for CVD include poor or inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables, smoking, central obesity, psychosocial factors, altered lipids, inactivity and unsafe alcohol consumption (World Heart Federation 2014; Yusuf et al 2004). GLP-1 analogues indicated to treat diabetes have been shown to have cardiovascular benefits (Hausenloy and Yellon 2008). GLP – 1 GLP – 1 is an incretin naturally occurring in the body and is secreted due to the presence of food in the ileum, increasing endogenous insulin, inhibiting glucagon, thereby reducing post – prandial hyperglycaemia and is also responsible for controlling appetite and satiety (Hausenloy and Yellon 2008; Sheikh 2013). GLP -1 does not cause hypoglycaemia because its actions are inhibited when blood glucose is ≠¤ fasting levels (Hausenloy and Yellon 2008). GLP- 1 receptors are extensively distributed throughout the body: in the brain, lungs, intestines, stomach, pancreas, and heart. GLP-1 itself has a half – life of 1 – 2 minutes after secretion (Burge 2012; Zhao 2013). The presence of the receptors in the heart has been the focus of new research. Cardiovascular effects In animal studies GLP – 1 was seen to cause vasodilation (Brown 2012). An increase in heart rate and blood pressure were both observed in rats that were either conscious or sedated, but there is some controversy with the mechanism (Zhao 2013). When GLP-1 has been infused dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy showed improved cardiac performance after GLP – 1 infusion (Zhao 2013). Left ventricular systolic and diastolic functions were improved after GLP – 1 infusion in decompensated heart failure (Zhao 2013). Ban et al (2008) work on mouse heart as cited in Brown (2012) has shown that there are GLP – 1 receptors in the endothelium and cardiac myocytes. When GLP – 1 was administered during reperfusion studies cardiac damage was less likely (Brown 2012). Apart from the animal studies, there have been some phase 2 trials in humans with CVD (Zhao 2013). The first investigators to prove that infusing GLP – 1 for 3 days improved â€Å"global and regional left ventricular wall motion scores† in patients with dysfunction of the left ventricle after myocardial infraction was Shannon’s group (Zhao 2013). They also concluded that there was reduced hospital stay and mortality as an in – patient. Several weeks post discharge these effects remained. An experimental study of 14 people with coronary artery disease who were treated with GLP – 1 at a rate of 1.2pmol/kg/min resulted in improvement of left ventricular function (Zhao 2013). This was corroborated by another study of 172 patients who were treated with exenatide at a rate of 0.12 µg/min for 6 hours post elevation of ST – segment MI. A retrospective study of 420,493 people found that individuals who received treatment with exenatide were less likely to experience cardiovascular event, hospitalization due to CVD or all cause hospitalization when compared to non – exenatide treated people even though they were more likely to be obese, have prior CVD, high cholesterol and other co – morbidities at baseline (Best et al 2011; Brown 2012). The use of exenatide in patients with type 2 diabetes did not show an increase in cardiovascular disease and similarly liraglutide was not associated with any major adverse cardiac event in an analysis of phase 2 and 3 trials (Sheikh 2013). Hypertension Animal studies utilizing GLP – 1 have concluded a decrease in hypertension development in Dahl salt – sensitive rats (Zhao 2013). This decrease in blood pressure was also observed in human trials with the GLP – 1 agonists exenatide and liraglutide. A meta – analysis of 16 randomized controlled trials of 5860 people of which 3443 were randomized to a GLP – 1 agonist concluded that exenatide and liraglutide caused a fall in systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 1 – 5 mmHg when compared to other hypoglycaemic medication and placebo in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) (Wang et al 2013). The LEAD trial concluded that liraglutide caused a reduction of systolic blood pressure ranging 3.6 – 6.7mmHg within 2 weeks of starting therapy (Burge 2012). This effect was seen for the full 26 weeks of the trial. The DURATION trial also reported reduction in systolic blood pressure (Burge 2012). Data from 6 trial concluded that subjects with T2DM who were treated for 6 months with exenatide saw a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure (Zhao 2013). There is also promising data from phase 3 trials of liraglutide which concluded that there may be reduction in systolic blood pressure when liraglutide is used with other agents such as metformin (Zhao 2013). Exenatide use reportedly cause a fall in systolic blood pressure in obese patients with T2DM who were also treated with insulin (Sheikh 2013). This decrease in systolic blood pressure was confirmed by an analysis of 2171 patients (Sheikh 2013). Liraglutide was also reported to cause a reduction in systolic blood pressure in Asian patients (Sheikh 2013). Conclusion The data from the use of GLP-1 in both animal and human studies show consistent reduction in systolic blood pressure a known risk factor for both cardiac disease and cerebrovascular accident (CVA). There have also been promising signs that there may be a GLP – 1 cardio protective effect post cardiac damage and improvement in left ventricular function. It is not clear whether the doses used to treat diabetes will provide the same level of reduction in systolic blood pressure and cardiovascular protection in the longer term. More clinical studies are required focusing the benefits of GLP-1 analogues on the cardiovascular system as the data will not only provide benefits to patients with T2DM but also patients who are at risk or suffer a CVD. References Best, J. H., Byron J. Hoogwerf, B. J. and Hussein, M. A. (2011) ‘Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Events in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Prescribed the Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 (GLP-1) Receptor Agonist Exenatide Twice Daily or Other Glucose-Lowering Therapies’, Diabetes Care, 34(1), pp. 90 – 95. American Diabetes Association. [Online]. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3005487/?report=reader (Accessed: 22 September 2014). Brown, N. (2012) ‘Cardiovascular Effects of Anti-Diabetic Agents: Focus on Blood Pressure Effects of Incretin-Based Therapies’, Journal of American Society of Hypertension, 6(3), pp. 163 – 168. [Online]. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3422131/ (Accessed: 22 September 2014). Burge, T. (2012) The Effects of GLP-1 on Cardiovascular Health. Available at: http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/articles/54-feature/13201-the-effects-of-glp-1-on-cardiovascular-health (Accessed: 11 September 2014). Hausenloy, D. J. and Yellon, D. M. (2008) ‘GLP-1 Therapy: Beyond Glucose Control’, Circulation: Heartfailure, 1, pp. 147 – 149. [Online]. Available at: http://circheartfailure.ahajournals.org/content/1/3/147.full (Accessed: 11 September 2014). NICE (2014) Managing type 2 diabetes. Available at: http://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/diabetes#path=view%3A/pathways/diabetes/managing-type-2-diabetes.xmlcontent=view-index (Accessed: 17 September 2014). Sheikh, A. (2013) ‘Direct cardiovascular effects of glucagon like peptide-1’, Diabetology Metabolic Syndrome, pp. 5 – 47. [Online]. Available at: http://www.dmsjournal.com/content/5/1/47 (Accessed: 11 September 2014). Wang, B., Zhong, J., Lin, H., Zhao, Z., Yan, Z., He, H., Ni, Y., Liu, D. and Zhu, Z. (2013) ‘Blood pressure-lowering effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists exenatide and liraglutide: a meta-analysis of clinical trials’, Diabetes, Obesity Metabolism, 15(8), pp. 737 – 749. [Online]. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23433305 (Accessed: 23 September 2014). World Heart Federation (2014) Cardiovascular disease risk factors. Available at: http://www.world-heart-federation.org/cardiovascular-health/cardiovascular-disease-risk-factors/ (Accessed: 17 September 2014). Yusuf, S., Hawken, S., Ounpuu, S., Dans T, Avezum, A., Lanas, F., McQueen, M., Budaj, A., Pais, P., Varigos, J., Lisheng, L. and INTERHEART Study Investigators (2004) ‘Effect of potentially modifiable risk factors associated with myocardial infarction in 52 countries (the INTERHEART study): case-control study’, Lancet, 364(9438), pp. 937-52. [Online]. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15364185 (Accessed: 17 September 2014). Zhao, T. (2013) ‘Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and protective effects in cardiovascular disease: a new therapeutic approach for myocardial protection’, Cardiovascular Diabetology, pp. 12 – 90. [Online]. Available at: http://www.cardiab.com/content/12/1/90 (Accessed: 11 September 2014).

Human Resource Armor

IntroductionEdelman and Suchman points out that labor lawsuit judgment identify how a legal environment—which embodies legal, social and cultural norms—can diffuse liabilities brought upon by management instances (Biggert, 1997).   The constitution has provided several laws that state the rights of employees in any form of organization.   Private or government-owned, all companies must adhere to these laws and see to it that these rights are well exercised by any member of staff.  Ã‚   From the top executive down to the mechanical worker, every individual are entitled to these rights inasmuch as they are expected to follow the laws that comes along with their job description.   In such way, the law provides immunity both to the employer and employee in collaboration with creating a harmonious environment within the agency.Hence, apart from these laws stated in the constitution, there are also regulations crafted by the organization which is agreed upon by the bo dy as a whole and neither one shall defeat the purpose of such.   In the light, labor management suggests the importance of social justice and thereby encompasses disparity (Mezias, 2002).Interpretation of laborA legal regulation in contracts divulged to in the context of labor is a central part in any organization or firm’s policy configuration.    The scope and focal purpose of a legal regulation may or may not be detrimental to labor—either that of mass disruption approach or perspective with party control.   Such theories are analyzed in both anti-labor and pro-labor laws, thus the results came up favorable with the latter given that the policies were found inconclusive with the small sample sizes of the studies conducted.   Conceivably, the said laws are weighed and strategically investigated in consideration with several variables—economic, class, society—to come up with more feasible outputs which will later be used beneficial to the concer n of the general masses when it comes to the interpretation of labor (Biggert, 1997).Analysis on unemployment lawsAs mentioned earlier, unemployment laws hold only very few scrutiny since that there has only been a number of studies that have been conducted in aide of bringing up the best forms of ruling that will inhibit the importance of such in a state.   More specifically, the challenges that are bound in unemployment laws are rarely deliberated by administrations for the reason that most hardships in managerial activities appear during the verge of employment compared to that on pre-employment matters.Basically, the laws that appear to be most challenging are those that extend or restrict the rights of labor in and around the workplace and those regulations that abide on the level of contract involved (Mezias, 2002). Unemployment compensation is apparently the main issue in laborers that fall inside the aforementioned bracket.   In essence, it relates to wages and hours sta ndards, union rights, collective bargaining, health and safety, prevailing wages and discrimination. All these are perceivably retained to render security to these individuals and in the long run help them in building up a new foundation of their new course in life.Challenges in labor management among the unemployedOrganizational behavior emphasizes the importance of labor-ness and the principal beneficiaries of the concerned laborer.   In stereotypical analysis on unemployment laws over the past few decades, it has been sought that the so-called â€Å"basic† benefits are already considered as a part of every contract and that the other unprecedented features that other firms offer—gradually dependent to the contract—are beyond the scope of the unemployment laws which are designed by the government alone.The dilemma then flows on the application of these â€Å"extended benefits†Ã¢â‚¬â€such as the social welfare security, union passages, beneficiaries, pensions and other related pro-labor regulations provided by the management concerned.   But that does not just end there, the possibility of shifts in party or breach in contracts also come at hand.Trends that mark importance of â€Å"democracy† are also a part of this domain of â€Å"challengers,† needless to say that the result of these coalitions though union groups are still considered as polity members, however, the contract may be considered violated and therefore nullify the benefits (Mezias, 2002).Court decisions on labor-related casesLegal proceedings concerning labor lawsuit judgments are referenced in contemporary hearings.   In the case of foreign direct investments, foreign subsidiaries find face disadvantages and unparalleled liabilities among domestic firms due to information asymmetries and transaction costs.   The Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are examples of laws that build up the foundation of these rights of laborers and somehow seem to exert strong influence on employee to employer relations (Mezias, 2002).Conclusions and further remarksHuman resource practices help organizations in achieving social justice among its participating parties and build a sturdy foundation of law-abiding citizens.   It helps in eradicating the rise of ambiguous laws and hones organizations to create a normative environment that will work in a systematic order and balance the biases of humanistic egoisms.ReferencesBiggert, R. (1997). Why Labor Wins, Why Labor Loses: A Test of Two Theories. The Sociological Quarterly, 38(1).Mezias, J. M. (2002). Identifying Liabilities of Foreignness and Strategies to Minimize Their Effects: The Case of Labor Lawsuit Judgments in the United States. Strategic Management Journal, 23(3).

Origin and Development of Applied Linguistics Essay

â€Å"Applied linguistics is not a discipline which exists on its own. It is influenced by other disciplines and influences them as well. It is a two-way process. For this reason, applied linguistics examines theories from all sorts of different areas (semantics, syntax, pragmatics, sociolinguistics,†¦) and from all sorts of perspectives so that it help find out effective solutions for language -related issues such as teaching methodology (including foreign language and mother tongue teaching), translation, aphasia,†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Applied linguistics originated in close relation with foreign language teaching and has developed to cover a wide range of knowledge, but its core has always been language teaching and learning. Applied linguistics draws its sources from sociology, psychology, anthropology and information theory as well as from linguistics to solve practical problems in practical areas such as language teaching. So applied linguistics is not linguistics that is applied, though it applies, first of all, linguistics. In fact, what it applies depends on what the theories are applied to. Applied linguistics, unlike pure science, aims to solve problems. Thus between theories of linguistics and related fields and the practical areas such as language teaching, it plays the role of a mediator, which bridges theories and practice together. In this way, applied linguistics not only provides principles and methodology for language teaching, etc. , but also gives feedbacks to the theoretical study by summing up the experience from practice. As applied linguistics makes language teaching and learning its core, it provides language teacher with good language theories, principles and methodology. By learning applied linguistics, language teacher can possess an overall understanding of updated theories of language teaching & learning as well as a better perspective of the various factors affecting language teaching &learning. So it is very necessary for a language teacher to learn applied linguistics in order to teach more effectively. As for language learners, it is also very helpful to have some knowledge about applied linguistics. For one thing, by knowing the currently used teaching approaches and methods, which are covered by applied linguistics, language learners can learn to adjust themselves to the teacher’s teaching by adopting a more proper learning method because â€Å"a theory of teaching always implies a theory of learning â€Å"(Applied Linguistics, Yue Meiyun) and language learning is a two – way process, which needs efforts and adaptation from bath the teacher’s side and the learner’s side. For another, applied linguistics covers a wide scope of knowledge. It helps to enhance learner’s insights and depth of knowledge in language learning. Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, computer science, anthropology, and sociology. The goal of this writing is to make some personal comment on the viewpoint: â€Å"Applied linguistics is not a discipline which exists on its own. It is influenced by other disciplines and influences them as well. It is a two-way process. For this reason, applied linguistics examines theories from all sorts of different areas (semantics, syntax, pragmatics, sociolinguistics,†¦) and from all sorts of perspectives so that it help find out effective solutions for language -related issues such as teaching methodology (including foreign language and mother tongue teaching), translation, aphasia,†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Many linguistic students like me find linguistics useful because it broadens and deepens their understanding of related fields such as languages and literature (English and foreign), social sciences (especially anthropology, sociology, and psychology), education, philosophy, communication†¦ The question is whether applied linguistics and linguistics applied is the same. Needless to say, the answer is â€Å"no†. Phillip Shaw, Stockholm University Strictly looking at the model above by Philip Shaw, a professor from Stockholm University, we can see a basic coherence between applied linguistics and other sciences. According to the professor, studying linguistics means studying language’s sounds, grammar, words, meanings, uses, and connected contexts – that is phonetics, syntax, lexis, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse respectively. Of these, phonetics focuses on the physical sounds of speech. It covers speech perception (how the brain discerns sounds), acoustics (the physical qualities of sounds as movement through air), and articulation (voice production through the movements of the lungs, tongue, lips, and other articulators). This area investigates, for instance, the physical realization of speech and how individual sounds differ across languages and dialects. This research plays a large part in computer speech recognition and synthesis. Syntax is the study of how units including words and phrases combine into sentences. Syntacticians investigate what orders of words make legitimate sentences, how to succinctly account for patterns found across sentences. Semantics within linguistics refers to the study of how language conveys meaning. Pragmatics is the study of how utterances relate to the context they are spoken in. By areas studied, he distinguishes different kinds of linguistics. Sociolinguistics is the study where linguistics looks at how language functions in different social contexts. In other words, it is the study of how language varies according to cultural context, the speaker’s background, and the situation in which it is used. Meanwhile, historical linguistics studies how languages are historically related. This involves finding universal properties of language and accounting for a language’s development and origins. Psycholinguistics is the study of language to find out about how the mind works. Pr. Phillip Shaw emphasizes that we can applied all knowledge of the above-mentioned sciences. It is understandable, therefore, whereas theoretical linguistics is concerned with finding and describing generalities both within particular languages and among all languages, applied linguistics takes these results and applies them to other areas. He defines applied linguistics as an engineering of linguistics, taking what the sciences of linguistics have discovered and applied to solve real practical problems. Kamil Wisniewski, in his work ‘Applied Linguistics’ 2007, he presents the term applied linguistics as an umbrella term that covers a wide set of numerous areas of study connected by the focus on the language that is actually used. He puts the emphasis in applied linguistics on language users and the ways in which they use languages, contrary to theoretical linguistics which studies the language in the  abstract not referring it to any particular context, or language, like Chomskyan generative grammar for example. Interestingly even among applied linguists there is a difference of opinion as to the scope, the domains and limits of applied linguistics. There are many issues investigated by applied linguists such as discourse analysis, sign language, stylistics and rhetoric as well as language learning by children and adults, both as mother tongue and second or foreign language. Correlation of language and gender, as well as the transfer of information in media and interpersonal communication are analyzed by applied linguists. Also forensic linguistics, interpretation and translation, together with foreign language teaching methodology and language change are developed by applied linguistics. Shortly after the introduction of the term applied linguistics it was associated mainly with first, second and foreign language teaching, however nowadays it is seen as more interdisciplinary branch of science. Although in certain parts of the world language teaching remains the major concern of applied linguists, issues such as speech pathologies and determining the levels of literacy of societies, or language processing along with differences in communication between various cultural groups – all gain interest elsewhere. There is a consensus among linguists that is applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, computer science, anthropology, and sociology. Major branches of applied linguistics include bilingualism and multilingualism, computer-mediated communication, conversation analysis, contrastive linguistics, sign linguistics, language assessment, literacy, discourse analysis, language pedagogy, second language acquisition, lexicography, language planning and policies, stylistics, pragmatics, forensic linguistics, and translation. For all of what I have presented above, I want to restate that applied linguistics does not exist on its own, it makes a great influence on other disciplines and also is influenced by them. The findings of linguistics, like the findings of any other theoretical study, can be applied to the solution of practical problems, as well as to innovations in everyday areas involving language. This is the mandate of applied linguistics. Applied linguists draw from theories of language acquisition to develop first and second language teaching methodologies and to implement successful literacy programs. Applied linguists may also engage in language planning by developing alphabets and grammars for unwritten languages and by writing dictionaries. In short, applied linguistics applies the theories and tools of formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics in a wide variety of socially useful ways In his own work – â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics† (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Michael McCarthy presents applied linguistics as problem – solving concept. According to him, it is the belief that linguistics can offer insights and ways forward in the resolution of problems related to language in a wide variety of contexts that underlines the very existence of applied linguistics. Applied linguists try to offer solutions to real-world problems in which language is a central issue. People often think that applied linguistics refers to the use of linguistic research in language teaching, but this is just one sub-discipline. McCarthy lists out the domains of typical applied linguistic problems which, as he says, seems certainly be wide – ranging and potential endless, but might include 14 problems as following: 1- A speech therapist sets out to investigate why s four-year-old child has failed to develop normal linguistics skills for a child of that age. 2- A teacher of English as a foreign language wonders why groups of learners sharing the same first language regularly make a particular grammatical mistake that learners from other language backgrounds do not. 3- An expert witness in a criminal case tries to solve the problem of who exactly investigated a crime, working only with statements made to the police 4- A advertising copy writer searches for what would be the most effective use of language to target a particular social group in order to sell a product. 5- A mother-tongue teacher needs to know what potential employers consider important in terms of a school-leaver’s ability to write reports or other business documents. 6- A historian wishes to understand the meanings of place-names in a particular geographical area and how they have changed over time. 7- A person constructing a language test foe non-native speakers for entry into further education needs to know what the key linguistic or psycholinguistic indicators are of reading ability in a second of foreign language. 8- A literary scholar suspects that an anonymous work was in fact written by a very famous writer and looks for methods of investigating the hypothesis. 9- A dictionary writer ponders over possible alternatives to an alphabetically organized dictionary. 10- A computer programmer wrestles with the goal of trying to get a computer to process human speech or to get it to translate from one language into another. 11- A group of civil servants are tasked with standardizing language usage in their country, or deciding major aspects of language planning policy that will affect millions of people. 12- A body is set up to produce an international, agreed language for use by air-traffic controllers and pilots, or by marine pilots and ships’ captains. 13- A zoologist investigates the question whether monkeys have language similar to or quite distinct from human language and how it works. 14- A medical sociologist sets out to understand better the changes that occur in people’s use of language as they move into old age. (Michael McCarthy, â€Å"Issues in Applied Linguistics†, Cambridge University Press 2001, page 1-2) In a work called â€Å"Understanding applied linguistics† by Professor V. B Owhotu (2007), the author emphasizes the importance and growing diversity of applied linguistics. In his view applied linguistics is driven first by real world problems rather than theoretical explorations. In other words, the applied linguists should be preoccupied by the following problems: language learning problem (emergence, awareness, rules, use, context, automaticity, attitudes and expertise); language teaching problems (resources, training, practice, interaction, understanding, use, context, inequalities, motivation, outcomes); literacy problems (language and culture); language inequality problems such as ethnicity, class, gender and age; language policy and planning problems (status planning, corpus planning, and ecology of language); Language assessment problems (validity, reliability, usability, responsibility); language use problems (dialects, register, discourse communities, gate-keeping situations, limited access to services); language and technology problems (learning, assessment, access and use); translation and interpretation problem (on-line, off-line, technology assisted); and language pathology problems (aphasia, dyslexia, physical disabilities). Needless to say, it is far beyond my capacity to present an insight to all of these above-mentioned problems. However, in this part of the writing, I would like to take problems of language learning and teaching, translation  and interpretation, and speech-language pathology as examples to demonstrate the point that applied linguistics helps us to find out effective solutions to our practical problems. Researches in language teaching today show that applied linguistics is sometimes used to refer to â€Å"second language acquisitions†, but these are distinct fields, in that second language acquisition involves more theoretical study of the system of language, whereas applied linguistics concerns itself more with teaching and learning. In their approach to the study of learning, applied linguists have increasingly devised their own theories and methodologies, such as the shift towards studying the learner rather than the system of language itself, in contrast to the emphasis within second language acquisition. I shall continue by considering what avenues within linguists suggest themselves for approaching two of the problems relevant to languages teaching. Let us consider problem of teacher trying to understand why learners from the same language background are having difficulty with a particular grammatical structure in English. Potential linguistic questions for the solution of a grammatical problem, as McCarthy shows in â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics†, are: â€Å"What is known about the learner’s first language or any other language they know which might be interfering with their learning of the foreign language? What do grammarians say about this structure? What psychological barriers might be preventing the learning of the structure? Are some structure difficult to learn if they are tackled too early on? Is there an order in which structures are best presented? † (Michael McCarthy, â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics†, page 8). Can linguistics offer an approach or solution to the problem? If so, which branch(es) of linguistic study and by what methods? The answer lies in such linguistics’ components as pragmatics, semantics, syntax. In terms of pragmatics, students sometimes make mistakes in the use of unsuitable sentences in certain contexts that makes listeners misunderstand. Therefore, when teaching English, teachers need not only teach grammar and vocabulary but also teach how to use sentences in suitable contexts; e. g.  teaching students how and when to say thank you or apologize. In terms of syntax, the most popular mistakes students make are: when making sentences students often translate word by word as the result of their habit of mother tongue (e. g. I have a cat black); combining words incorrectly to produce phrases (e. g. â€Å"a high man† instead of â€Å"a tall man†); the agreement between words in a sentence (e. g. S and V, tenses). In these cases, possibly effective solutions for teachers are: teachers need to teach students how to combine words correctly according to English grammatical rules; they should teach words in contexts. Teachers might also apply semantic knowledge to deal with learners’ mistakes. That is when teaching students a word which has many different meanings, they should teach the meanings related to the context, situation; wishing to talk about a meaning of the word, we may use different synonyms or antonyms; when teaching students how to translate the sentences or the texts into learners’ mother tongue, we should teach students to combine the meaning of English words and the meaning of their mother tongue to have a good translation. It could be confirmed that any problems in language learning and teaching might be solved with application of linguistics, and knowledge about language plays or could play a major role in language teaching and learning. In translation and interpretation area, applied linguistics can also be shown with effective applications in solving problems. In an article titled â€Å"Linguistics and Applied Linguistics† posted in the website of University of Melbourne, Australia, the author emphasizes an important role of linguistics and applied linguistics in different areas of our life, specially in translation and interpretation area. The article provides clear reasons why linguistic and applied linguistics should be studied by those specializing in translation and interpretation. One of the given reasons is that the skills in need for solving problems are central to the study of linguistics. An evidence for this assumption is clearly shown in the article. That is, â€Å"In a period when Australian culture is coming to term with the need to relate the worldwide mosaic of non-English speaking cultures, and when information and communication are moving to technological centre stage, there is a growing demand for people equipped to analyze language. In fact, an increasing number of employers, ranging from language teachers to engineers of knowledge systems and speech synthesis, from translators to managers to designers of natural-language interfaces for computers, from lexicographers to lawyers to bilingual schools in Aboriginal communities, realize the value of a sound training in Linguistics†. As cited in the article, knowledge in Applied Linguistics will provide us a head start in understanding and orienting us to the area and will give us relevant knowledge and analytical skills. People with a background in Applied linguistics also gain an enhanced understanding of how people learn first, second and foreign languages and of how language is used in the community. These skills will be relevant to those interested in preparing for careers as language teachers, language education and assessment experts, speech pathologists, interpreters and translators, and a variety of jobs in industry where language and communication are issues are of concern. Linguistics and Applied Linguistics provide unique skills in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication that are helpful in solving problems in translation and interpretation. Speaking of applied computational linguistic, people often mention machine translation, computer – assisted translation, and natural language processing as fruitful areas which have also come to the forefront in recent years. I am going to pick up machine translation as a typical example of applying linguistic knowledge. Machine translation is a form of translation where a computer program analyses the text in one language – the â€Å"source text† – and then attempts to produce another, equivalent text in another language – the target text – without human intervention. Currently the state of machine translation is such that it involves some human intervention, as it requires a pre-editing and a post-editing phase. Note that in machine translation, the translator supports the machine and not the other way around. Nowadays most machine translation systems produce what is called a â€Å"gisting translation† – a rough translation that gives the â€Å"gist† of the source text, but is not otherwise usable. However, in fields with highly limited ranges of vocabulary and simple sentence structure, for example weather reports, machine translation can deliver useful results. It is often argued that the success of machine translation requires the problem of natural language understanding to be solved first. However, a number of heuristic methods of machine translation are also used, including: lexical lookup methods, grammar based methods, semantics based methods (knowledge-based machine translation), statistical methods, example based methods, dictionary-entry based methods, linguistic rule based methods. Generally, rule-based methods parse a text, usually creating an intermediary, symbolic representation, from which the text in the target language is generated. These methods require extensive lexicons with morphologic, syntactic, and semantic information, and large sets of rules. Statistical-based and example-based methods avoid manual lexicon building and rule-writing and instead try to generate translations based on bilingual text corpora, such as the Canadian Hansard corpus, the English-French record of the Canadian parliament. Where such corpora are available, impressive results can be achieved translating texts of a similar kind, but such corpora are still very rare. Given enough data, most machine translation programs work well enough for a native speaker of one language to get the approximate meaning of what is written by the other native speaker. The difficulty is getting enough data of the right kind to support the particular method. The large multilingual corpus of data needed for statistical methods to work is not necessary for the grammar based methods, for example. But then, the grammar methods need a skilled linguist to carefully design the grammar that they use. Generally speaking, application of knowledge from linguistics and applied linguistics benefits the practice of language teaching and learning, translation and interpretation. Linguistic theory has also provided a rich knowledge base for application in speech language pathology. First of all, linguistic approaches to aphasia are aimed at providing well-motivated descriptions for patterns of dissociation in aphasia; unifying diverse phenomena in normal and abnormal language under a single account; constraining competing accounts within linguistic theory. As cited by Roman Jakobson on the role of linguistics in research on aphasia (1971, p.39-40), â€Å"the application of purely linguistic criteria to the interpretation and classification of aphasia facts can contribute substantially to the science of language and language disturbances, provided that linguists remain as careful and cautious when dealing with psychological and neurological data as they have been in their traditional field†. He provides some linguistic approaches to aphasia such as: first of all, pathologists or clinicians should be familiar with the technical terms and devices of the medical disciplines dealing with aphasia; then, they must submit the clinical case reports to thorough linguistic analysis; and further, they should themselves work with aphasic patients in order to approach the cases directly and not only through prepared records which are quite differently conceived and elaborated. As we know, phonological theories have also provided frameworks for the description of the speech of unintelligible children in terms of coherent phonological systems, thus facilitating logical goal-setting for intervention. In this part, I might give an example of clinical application. Clinical linguistics entails the application of linguistics to speech-language pathology. This involves treating individuals whose linguistic development is atypical or impaired. This branch of applied linguistics may also involve treatment of specific language impairment, where one aspect of language develops exceptionally. Phonological disorder is a typical problem of people with speech-language pathology. Some children learning a language have difficulties at the phonological level of language acquisition, including problems with knowledge of phonetic segments and phonological constraint, and how that knowledge is implemented in speech production. These problems result in impaired intelligibility and most often difficulty in other language domains such as lexical and syntactic development. In addition, they may lead to later problems in developing literacy. Research in speech production disorders had little concern with the nature of phonology. Rather, children who used few speech sounds or used them incorrectly were studied to determine if they had problems with sensory, cognitive, motor, or perceptual tasks. A speech sound production problem was presumed to be a peripheral motor problem. After all, speech pathology and linguistics have, as sciences, experienced a parallel development over the past years. Although these disciplines have traditionally been separated, they have common areas of concern, and there are indications of a growing interest on the part of speech pathologists in such linguistic subfields as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics. Speech and hearing publications are paying attention to theoretical and methodological linguistic models, and descriptions of communication disorders are using linguistic paradigms as a basis. Given the interest of speech pathology in linguistics, there is both an obligation and an opportunity for linguists to define new roles for themselves within speech pathology. This requires the identification of common areas and methods by which the linguist can adapt linguistic concerns so that they are meaningful to the speech pathologist. Areas of common interest include communication disorders, phonetics, language acquisition, and language variation. Linguists may have to expand their data base to include the particular interests of speech pathology; they may need background information in areas not traditionally stressed in linguistics; and they must understand the goals of speech pathology as a professional field. Needless to say, what have been mentioned above may not enough to get an insight in application of linguistic and applied linguistic knowledge in solving practical problems. The writing, as being said in the very beginning part, just provides my personal comment on the given statement; therefore, in order to get insight in the statement, there should be further studies on it. There should be other different approaches in analyzing or understanding it, too. I myself believe that possible findings of potential studies on this viewpoint will be very meaningful and surely benefit the practice of applied linguistics in solving practical problems. REFERENCE 1) Alan Davies (2007), An Introduction to Applied Linguistics: From Practice to Theory, Edinburgh University Press. 2) Alan Davies and Catherine Elder (2004), The Handbook of Applied Linguistics, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing 3) Roman Jakobson (1968), Child Language, Aphasia and Phonological Universals, Mouton Publishers. 4) Roman Jakobson (1959), On Linguistic Aspects of Translation, essay retrieved from http://www. scribd. com/doc/23687802/Linguistic-Aspects-of-Translation-Jakobson 5) Michael McCarthy (2001), Issues in Applied Linguistics, Cambridge University Press. 6) V. B. Owhotu (2007), Understanding Applied Linguistics, University of Lagos Press. 7) Phillip Shaw, An Overview of Applied Linguistics, video retrieved from www. sportballa. com/video-gallery/Applied-linguistics 8) Kamil Wisniewski (2007), Applied linguistics, article retrieved from http://www. tlumaczenia-angielski. info/linguistics/applied-linguistics. htm. ———————– Linguistics By components of language Phonetics (sounds) Syn j C tax (grammar) Lexis (words) Semantics (meanings) Pragmatics (uses) Discourse (connected texts) By areas studied Comparative linguistics Psycholinguistics Sociolinguistics Historical linguistics Theoretical linguistics Applied Linguistics.

Prompts That Support Instruction and Independence

Independence, completing a task or exhibiting a behavior without prompts or cues, is the gold standard of special education. The kind of support we give students to help them succeed in special education is called prompting. The level of support falls on a continuum, with the most invasive and furthest from independence, to the least invasive, or the closest to independence. The prompts at the least invasive end is also the easiest to fade, or slowly withdraw, until the child is accomplishing the task independently. The most severely cognitively, multiply or developmentally disabled students may need very high levels of what is called â€Å"hand over hand† support. Still, kids with specific learning disabilities who may have attention deficit disorder with some reading and math difficulties may need prompting to stay on task and complete tasks. They are just as prone to become â€Å"prompt dependent,† which may leave them incapable of achieving the gold standard: independence. Because of â€Å"prompt dependence† it’s important that a special educator understands how to work across the continuum, from hand over hand, the most invasive, to gestural prompts, the least invasive. As the teacher moves across the continuum, the teacher is â€Å"fading† prompts toward independence. We review the continuum here: Hand over Hand This is the most invasive of the prompts, and is often only required for the most physically disabled students. The teacher or coach may actually place his or her hand over the students hand. It isn’t necessarily just for the most physically disabled student: it works well with young students on the autism spectrum, older autistic students with unfamiliar tasks like sweeping, and even younger students with immature and undeveloped fine motor skills. Hand over hand can be faded by lightening your touch to a simple touch on the back of a hand or arm to guide the student though the task. Physical Prompts Hand over hand is a physical prompt, but physical prompts can include tapping the back of a hand, holding an elbow, or even pointing. Physical prompts may be accompanied by verbal prompts. As the verbal prompts stay in place, the teacher fades the physical prompt. Verbal Prompts These are most familiar. We tell the student what to do: sometimes step by step, sometimes with more detail. Of course, if we talk all the time, our prompts get ignored. You can also design verbal prompts to fade from most complete to least complete. Example: â€Å"Bradley, pick up the pencil. Bradley, put the point on the paper. Circle the correct answer. Good job, Bradley: Now, let’s do number 2. Find the correct answer, etc. . . .† Faded to: â€Å"Bradley, you have your pencil, your paper and we have done these before. Please circle each answer and put your pencil down when you are done.† Gestural These prompts should begin with a verbal prompt: they are easy to fade and are the least invasive. Be sure you don’t become so used to your verbal prompts that all you’re doing is running your mouth. Shorten those prompts and trust the gesture, whether it’s pointing, tapping or even winking. Be sure the student knows what you are requesting with the prompt. Gestural prompts are especially successful with kids with developmental or behavioral problems. Alex, who is featured in the article on making your own social narrative, sometimes forgot and would drool. I taught my wife, his teacher, to touch her chin with her forefinger to remind him: Soon all she had to do was move her hand a certain way, and he remembered. Visual Prompts These prompts can be paired with other prompts initially, and as they are faded, the simple visual prompt can remain.   Typical (children without disabilities in general education programs) also benefit from visual prompts.   Teachers have noted that children will reference the place on the wall where a graphic organizer for a specific skill used to be, noting that the mere act of remembering where the visual prompt was on the wall helps them remember the CONTENT of the prompt! Independence: The goal. The continuum: Hand over Hand -- Physical—Verbal—Gestural—Independence.