Purpose: This study examined the effects of conceptual scoring on vocabulary performance of bilingual children with and without language impairment and the classification accuracy of an expressive vocabulary test across four scoring methods, single language and conceptual scoring, for bilingual (English-Spanish) children with and without language impairment. Method: Participants included English speaking monolingual children (n=14) and Spanish-English bilingual children (n=116) ages 5-11. Children completed the English and bilingual versions of the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test. Four different scores were derived representing monolingual scores in English and Spanish, and three conceptual scores. Within-test conceptual scores credited children’s other language responses during the test; and across-test conceptual scores compiled a conceptual score across Spanish and English administrations of the test. Results: Across-test conceptual scoring resulted in better overall classification, sensitivity, and specificity than within-test conceptual scoring, which resulted in better overall classification, sensitivity, and specificity than monolingual scoring; however, neither method achieved minimum standards of 80% accuracy in sensitivity and specificity. Conclusions: Results suggest that bilingual children are not always able to readily access their second language in confrontation naming tasks. Priming or inhibition may play a role in test performance. Cross-test conceptual scoring yielded the highest classification accuracy and is the recommended method for clinical practice. / text

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

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In unstimulated cells, the transcription factor NF-κB is held in the cytoplasm in an inactive state by IκB inhibitor proteins. Activation of NF--KB is mediated by signal induced degradation of IκBα via the ubiquitin proteasome-dependent pathway. Targeting the proteins for ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis is an irrevocable decision, and as such, the process needs to be highly specific and tightly regulated. This task is achieved by conjugation and deconjugation enzymes that act in a dynamic and coordinated mechanism. In a yeast two hybrid screen designed to identify proteins involved in IκBα signalling Ubch9 was found to interact with the N-terminal regulatory region of IκBα. Although Ubch9 is an enzyme homologous to E2 ubiquitin conjugating enzymes we have shown that is unable to form a thioester with ubiquitin but it is capable to form a thioester with the small ubiquitin-like protein SUMO- 1. To fully characterise the SUMO-1 modification reaction we have purified the proteins and cloned the genes encoding the SUMO-1 activating enzyme (SAEl/SAE2) and shown that it is homologous to enzymes involved in the activation of ubiquitin, Smt3p, the yeast SUMO-1 homologue, and Rublp/Nedd8, another ubiquitin-like protein. SUMO-1 is conjugated to target proteins by a pathway that is distinct from, but analogous to, ubiquitin conjugation. SUMO-1 was efficiently conjugated, both in vivo and in vitro, to IκBα on lysine 21, which is also utilised for ubiquitin modification. Thus, by blocking ubiquitination SUMO-1 modification acts antagonistically to generate a pool of IκBα resistant to proteasome-mediated degradation which consequently inhibits NF-κB dependent transcription activation. In view of several lines of similarity between NF-kB and p53, the involvement of SUMO-1 modification in the metabolism of the tumour supressor p53 was investigated. We have shown that p53 is modified by SUMO-1 at a single site, lysine 386 in the C-terminus of p53. Although p53 is regulated by ubiquitination, SUMO-1 and ubiquitin modification do not compete for the same lysine in p53. However, overexpression of SUMO-1 activates the transcriptional activity of wild type p53, but not K386R p53 where the SUMO-1 acceptor site has been mutated. A consensus sequence was obtained by comparison of the sequences surrounding the SUMO-1 acceptor lysine in proteins that have been shown to be modified by SUMO-1 and revealed a possible recognition site for SUMO-1 conjugation machinery. Tagging of proteins with SUMO-1 regulates transcriptional activation, either by interfering with subcellular location or with the ubiquitination pathway. The pathway may represent a novel target for drug development.

The Test and Training Enabling Architecture (TENA) is implemented within the TENA Software Decommutation System (TSDS) in order to bring TENA as close as possible to the sensor interface. Key attributes of TSDS include: • TSDS is a software-based approach to telemetry stream decommutation implemented within Java. This offers technical advantages such as platform independence and portability. • TSDS uses auto code generation technologies to further reduce the effort associated with updating decommutation systems to support new telemetry stream definitions. Users of TSDS within the range are not required to have detailed knowledge of proprietary protocols, nor are they required to have an understanding of how to implement decommutation within software. The use of code generation in software decommutation offers potential cost savings throughout the entire T&E community. • TSDA offers a native TENA interface so that telemetry data can be published directly into TENA object models.

It cannot be argued that according to the recent Omani law the accused has the right of access to a lawyer at any stage of the criminal proceedings. Nevertheless, it could be argued that the accused at some points may access a lawyer if he has one, otherwise the state is not obliged to offer him one under any circumstances and in any kind of crimes. There is no single rule stating that the accused must be represented by a lawyer even if he is facing capital punishment. Although the Omani law gives the accused the right to have the lawyer that he hired present with him during the investigation in general terms, there are no provisions to ensure that mechanisms are put in place which guarantee the effectiveness of such right. The Omani legislator has followed the approach upon which the presence of the lawyer is permissible, although this does not necessarily apply during the pre-trial stages in all cases. This research argues that, having no right of free access to a lawyer privileges those who are wealthier because such accused have the means to appoint a lawyer from the outset, a capacity that often evades the poorer accused. If the accused cannot afford a lawyer, the state should appoint one for him, grounded in the motivations of the state being concerned with achieving justice. The research addressed the question whether the Omani Law and particularly the Penal Procedures Code succeed in guaranteeing the accused right of access to a lawyer. Moreover, it considered whether the Omani law set the required procedures and safeguards to make all officials in charge of investigations and trials commit to respecting this right at all circumstances. These issues are considered by critically analysing the relevant Omani law and case law as well as looking at other legal frameworks, with special reference to the Egyptian System. This comparison has been provided in order to give a contextual base upon which the practicing of this right within the Omani Procedures Code can be critically analysed. This study found that there is a great deal of reform for the Omani legislator to urgently do in regard to the right of access to a lawyer during all criminal proceedings stages.

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Este trabajo presenta los resultados de una investigación sobre el uso del inglés (la lengua materna de los estudiantes) por los profesores en la clase de segundo semestre de español a nivel de universidad. Los resultados mostraron que las profesoras escogían conscientemente la lengua que utilizaban así como cuándo y cómo la empleaban en clase. Parece que la experiencia de las profesoras como instructoras hacía que el inglés fuera menos usado por las que tenían más práctica como instructoras o un mejor domino de su L2, ya fuera ésta el inglés o el español. Sin embargo, los usos más discutidos y esperados del inglés en clase (logístico y pedagógico) no fueron en ningún caso el más común. La razón principal por la que las profesoras usaban el inglés era por cuestiones de relación de comunicación con sus estudiantes, es decir, el uso social de la lengua. This paper presents the results of a study centered on the use of English (L1 of the students) by teachers in the second-semester college level Spanish class. The results show that instructors consciously choose when and how they use English or Spanish and that the more experienced teachers, as well as those that have a better dominance of their L2, use less English in class. My research adds to that from previous investigations through the analysis of the social, logistical and pedagogical use of the students’ L1. My study shows that educators use English socially in order to establish rapport with their students far more often than for logistical or pedagogical reasons. / text

Automating test design can increase test suit accuracy and produce more reliable software. In this report we present a prototype tool that can aid developers in unit testing Java code. It automates test path construction based on two existing graph-based criteria. It uses basis path coverage and prime path coverage to produce test paths. Our main contribution in this report is to design and implement a tool that goes beyond the commonly used coverage tools today. Common graph based coverage tools support statement coverage and sometimes branch coverage. Our tool support prime path coverage which subsumes a number of other graph based coverage criteria, including statement and branch coverage. Our tool is a Java based Eclipse plug-in that operates at the class level. It processes each method in a given class to produce a CFG, cyclomatic complexity, a set of basis paths, a set of prime paths, and a set of test paths based on prime path coverage. / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy