Background: Task shifting provision of basic health care services to lay health workers (LHWs) is increasingly employed to combat the global shortage of skilled health workers, particularly in low and middle income countries, where the shortage is greatest. Despite evidence for the effectiveness of LHWs in improving access to basic health services and positively impacting a variety of health outcomes, questions remain as to how recognized weaknesses in training and supervision are best addressed. This thesis employed a sequential-concurrent mixed-methods design and is composed of 3 studies with the objective of designing and rigorously evaluating a knowledge translation (KT) intervention tailored to address identified barriers to LHWs ability to function optimally as TB adherence supporters in Zomba district, Malawi. Methods & Findings: The first study utilized the qualitative methods of focus groups and interviews conducted with LHWs routinely involved in provision of care to TB patients. Lack of TB knowledge and job-specific training were identified as the key barriers to LHWs in their role as TB adherence supporters. Based on these findings, a KT intervention was developed and tailored to the identified training gaps. The second study, evaluated the effectiveness of the intervention in improving TB treatment adherence in a cluster randomized controlled trial, which showed no evidence for effectiveness of the intervention. The third study, conducted concurrently with the cluster trial, employed qualitative interviews to explore LHWs experiences with the intervention to identify ii aspects of the intervention found to be helpful and areas in need of improvement. Study 3 found that the intervention was well received and valued, with reported benefits to LHWs through improved knowledge and skills, and increased confidence. Suggestions for improvement varied considerably, with an anticipated concern with the lack of stipends and conduct of training on-site, raised as an issue by a minority of participants. Conclusion: This thesis suggests that a multi-component KT strategy tailored to address local barriers, was well received and valued by LHWs, and may represent a cost-effective approach to LHW training. However, given the trend for effectiveness did not reach significance in this underpowered study, further research is needed.

Translational control is an important means of regulating gene expression. Development of the Drosophila germ line relies on translational regulation to differentially express maternal mRNAs, allowing it to develop distinctly from the soma. One of the critical factors required for germ cell development and function is the conserved DEAD-box RNA helicase Vasa (Vas). The research presented in this thesis examines the role of Vas in translational regulation during Drosophila germ line development. A two-hybrid screen conducted with Vas identified a translation initiation factor eIF5B (dIF2), as a direct interactor. Mutations were created in eIF5B and were found to enhance the vas mutant phenotypes of reduced germ cell numbers, and posterior segmentation defects, suggesting a functional interaction between these factors in vivo. In order to further understand the biological significance of the Vas-eIF5B interaction, the region of Vas required for eIF5B-binding was mapped and then specifically disrupted. Reduction of Vas-eIF5B binding using a transgenic approach, virtually eliminated germ cell formation, while having only a moderate effect on the somatic requirement of Vas in posterior segmentation. In addition, Vas-eIF5B interaction was found to be required for the establishment of polarity within the egg during oogenesis, likely through direct regulation of gurken (grk) mRNA. We concluded that through interaction with eIF5B, Vas plays a critical role in translational regulation in the germ line. In addition, another Drosophila DEAD-box protein, highly similar to Vas, called Belle (Bel) was characterized. Mutations in bel were found to also affect the germ line, leading to both female and male sterility. Like Vas, Bel is implicated in translation initiation, however bel is an essential gene, with a requirement for growth, whose function is not restricted to the germ line. Our data suggest that Bel may be a nucleocytoplasmic shuttling protein,

Arabic satellite television has recently attracted tremendous attention in both the academic and professional worlds, with a special interest in Aljazeera as a curious phenomenon in the Arab region. Having made a household name for itself worldwide with the airing of the Bin Laden tapes, Aljazeera has set out to deliberately change the culture of Arabic journalism, as it has been repeatedly stated by its current General Manager Waddah Khanfar, and to shake up the Arab society by raising awareness to issues never discussed on television before and challenging long-established social and cultural values and norms while promoting, as it claims, Arab issues from a presumably Arab perspective. Working within the meta-frame of democracy, this Qatari-based network station has been received with mixed reactions ranging from complete support to utter rejection in both the west and the Arab world. This research examines the social semiotics of Arabic television and the socio-cultural impact of translation-mediated news in Arabic satellite television, with the aim to carry out a qualitative content analysis, informed by framing theory, critical linguistic analysis, social semiotics and translation theory, within a re-mediation framework which rests on the assumption that a medium “appropriates the techniques, forms and social significance of other media and attempts to rival or refashion them in the name of the real" (Bolter and Grusin, 2000: 66). This is a multilayered research into how translation operates at two different yet interwoven levels: translation proper, that is the rendition of discourse from one language into another at the text level, and translation as a broader process of interpretation of social behaviour that is driven by linguistic and cultural forms of another medium resulting in new social signs generated from source meaning reproduced as target meaning that is bound to be different in many respects. The research primarily focuses on the news media, news making and reporting at Arabic satellite television and looks at translation as a reframing process of news stories in terms of content and cultural values. This notion is based on the premise that by its very nature, news reporting is a framing process, which involves a reconstruction of reality into actualities in presenting the news and providing the context for it. In other words, the mediation of perceived reality through a media form, such as television, actually modifies the mind’s ordering and internal representation of the reality that is presented. The research examines the process of reframing through translation news already framed or actualized in another language and argues that in submitting framed news reports to the translation process several alterations take place, driven by the linguistic and cultural constraints and shaped by the context in which the content is presented. These alterations, which involve recontextualizations, may be intentional or unintentional, motivated or unmotivated. Generally, they are the product of lack of awareness of the dynamics and intricacies of turning a message from one language form into another. More specifically, they are the result of a synthesis process that consciously or subconsciously conforms to editorial policy and cultural interpretive frameworks. In either case, the original message is reproduced and the news is reframed. For the case study, this research examines news broadcasts by the now world-renowned Arabic satellite television station Aljazeera, and to a lesser extent the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) and Al- Arabiya where access is feasible, for comparison and crosschecking purposes. As a new phenomenon in the Arab world, Arabic satellite television, especially 24-hour news and current affairs, provides an interesting area worthy of study, not only for its immediate socio-cultural and professional and ethical implications for the Arabic media in particular, but also for news and current affairs production in the western media that rely on foreign language sources and translation mediation for international stories.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2009. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Theatre, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [1], ii, 129 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-129).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. / Description based on contents viewed Oct. 5, 2007; title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references (p. 38-42).

The subject of this thesis is the implementation of e-commerce as a technical and commercial strategy of a mail order company. The study is longitudinal and mainly performed with interviews and observations during 2001 and 2009. I have analyzed the material with the help of translation theory and with an emphasis on Callon (1986).The study revealed that the mail order company over time changed the way e-commerce was looked upon and thereby also the way that the company should organize. I identified six different definitions of e-commerce which sequentially replaced one another as the idea that was to be translated in the company. In the beginning of the translating process the idea with e-commerce was identified as mainly technical, but that changed over time and thereafter mainly became a commercial idea about trade. This meant that focus shifted and that the persons involved in translating e-commerce also became more closely linked to the market and the customers. The e-commerce site was then defined as a shop or a warehouse and thereby became connected with familiar physical places and not with abstract digital and technical places such as cyberspace where sites are offline or online.At the end of the study e-commerce tended to be defined as an opportunity for customers to shop together and thereby being social on an interactive media. This meant that the customers contributed in defining new boundaries for the company, boundaries that included the customers since they now could interact with each other as well as with the company on the web site. The idea with e-commerce was thereby translated several times in the company during the time of the study. The translation process was bewildering for the company and meant at the end of the study that it identified itself as an e-commerce company and not as a mail order company, partly due to that 60% of the customer orders were then laid over the Internet. Another reason was that mail order was considered out of date and that e-commerce was and is the main channel for distance shopping today at the studied company.

Focusing on the unique challenges of Chinese-to-English translation, this thesis attempts to bridge the gap between practical concerns related to readability and the cognitive structure and functions of metaphor. It explores the possibility of a compromise between the interest of the reader, the culturally-bound expressiveness of original texts, and translator interpretation. The metaphorical difficulties that arise in the translation of two Chinese novellas, "Paper Dreams" by Lu Min and "One Hundred Birds Saluting the Phoenix" by Xiao Jianghong, are analyzed to demonstrate how compromise can begin to take shape through the combined application of reader accessibility guidelines and cognitive theories of metaphor. Ultimately, this process reveals how each metaphor requires customized solutions and suggests that voices from various fields should be taken into consideration when transforming the literature of one tongue into an imitative product in another.

Esta investigação focou-se em elementos do desenvolvimento da competência tradutória (CT) atribuíveis a um treinamento em tradução desenhado para que estudantes universitários de Letras em estágios iniciais de aprendizagem de L2 pudessem \"captar princípios fundamentais da tradução\", começando a assimilar um método de trabalho adequado, conforme a meta formulada por Hurtado (1996) para um curso introdutório à tradução direta escrita \"geral\". Este recorte de pesquisa inseriu-se no interesse amplo de entender a CT e seu desenvolvimento, com auxílio de observações empíricas, tanto quanto de reflexões já elaboradas na literatura sobre esses temas. Estudos empíricos e reflexões teóricas foram reunidos da literatura e discutidos nos capítulos iniciais para justificar (1) nossa seleção dos ?princípios fundamentais que regem a tradução?; (2) os critérios para a seleção de materiais, pontos teóricos e procedimentos metodológicos; (3) as diretrizes para a coleta de dados e (4) os parâmetros para a análise dos dados coletados. Para observar os resultados do treinamento, reuniu-se um corpus de traduções de contos infantis da escritora argentina María Elena Walsh feitas por vinte e um sujeitos, distribuídos em três grupos: (a) grupo principal (oito participantes do treinamento, todos estudantes universitários de Letras-Espanhol, finalizando a disciplina básica de Língua Espanhola 2); (b) grupo de controle de estudantes (sete sujeitos de mesmo perfil que os primeiros, sem participação no treinamento); (c) grupo de controle de profissionais de Letras (seis sujeitos graduados e pós-graduados em Letras-Espanhol, profissionais experientes no ensino de Língua Espanhola e/ou Literaturas de Língua Espanhola). Para os dois grupos de estudantes, o corpus foi coletado longitudinalmente, de maneira sincronizada com o início, o meio e o término do treinamento, permitindo observar modificações no desempenho em tradução ao longo do tempo. Conforme a delimitação prévia de princípios tradutórios fundamentais e de indicadores de sua captação e operacionalização pelos sujeitos, a análise de resultados focou-se na detecção de problemas relacionados ao contexto e a requisitos de adequação funcional em dezoito fragmentos das traduções, assim como no desempenho dos sujeitos em termos de qualidade de adequação funcional atingida para os fragmentos selecionados. Os resultados foram favoráveis à hipótese central de que um curso introdutório à tradução direta escrita geral de bases funcionalistas, discursivas e cognitivas, que explore didaticamente a tradução subordinada, a tradução de função poética e de elementos culturalmente marcados, terá resultados importantes sobre a subcompetência estratégica, observáveis no produto e no processo tradutórios, mesmo no caso de estudantes ainda não proficientes na L2, no caso do par lingüístico português-espanhol. Contribuições mais amplas deste estudo seriam: (1) fornecer evidências empíricas de um importante ponto em que a CT se diferencia da competência bilíngüe; (2) oferecer elementos para sustentar que o princípio de prevalência do contexto é universal e central na tradução e é nuclear na subcompetência estratégica da CT; (3) apontar que as dificuldades da tradução subordinada e da tradução de função poética e de elementos culturalmente marcados são prototípicas do princípio de prevalência do contexto em tradução; (4) mostrar que o trabalho sobre esse tipo de material é eficaz para reformular esquemas mentais em cursos introdutórios à tradução geral; (5) propor que a tradução de função poética é um subtipo da tradução subordinada; (6) oferecer parâmetros para pensar a especificidade do par português-espanhol em tradução; (7) contribuir para o debate e o estudo do papel da explicitação de conceitos teóricos e dos conhecimentos ditos ?declarativos? na formação de tradutores. Além disso, o corpus coletado poderá abrir outras perspectivas interessantes de investigação empírica da CT / This research focused on elements of the development of translation competence (TC) ascribable to a translation training course designed so that undergraduate students of a Language and Literature Studies Program at basic levels of L2, could \"grasp overall principles which govern translation\" and begin to acquire appropriate translation working methods, according to the goals proposed by Hurtado (1996) for an introductory course of general direct written translation. This focus should be seen as a part of a broader concern to understand TC and its development by means of empirical observations integrated with theoretical reflections available in the literature. In this thesis, empirical findings and theoretical proposals were gathered from Translation Studies and discussed in the initial chapters to support (1) our selection of the \"overall principles which rule translation\"; (2) our choice of materials, theoretical issues and methodological procedures; (3) the guidelines on data collection and (4) the parameters to analyze the collected data. In order to observe the results of the training, a corpus of translations was formed. Children stories of the Argentine author María Elena Walsh were translated by twenty-eight volunteers distributed in three groups: (a) the main group (eight participants of the training, all of them majoring in Spanish, at the end of the basic subject Spanish Language 2); (b) a control group of students (seven students with the same profile as the main group, who did not take part in the training); (c) a control group of Language and Literature Studies professionals (six graduates of Spanish Language and Literature Studies, who work professionally as teachers of Spanish and/or Spanish Literature, and have completed a master\'s degree in the area). The data of the two groups of students were collected as a longitudinal corpus, in a synchronized way with respect to the start, the middle and the end of the pilot training course. This corpus allowed me to observe modifications in the performance of the students over time. According to the initial reflections on fundamental translation principles, I established indicators of the grasping and application of these principles by the subjects. The data analysis relied on these indicators, defined as the detection, in eighteen fragments of the translated stories, (a) of problems related to the context and (b) of functional appropriateness requirements. The performance of the subjects was also assessed in terms of the quality achieved in their translation solutions. The results of the analysis were in favor of our main hypothesis, according to which an introduction to general direct written translation based on functionalist, discursive and cognitive approaches to translation training and which deals with materials involving constrained translation and the translation of poetic and culture-specific elements would have important effects on the strategic subcompetence, which would be apparent in the translation product and process, even for students who were not highly proficient in the L2, in the case of the Spanish- Portuguese pair. This research also presents the following broader contributions: (1) providing empirical evidences of an important aspect in which TC differs from bilingual competence; (2) offering elements to argue that the principle of the hierarchical predominance of the context is universal and central in translation and that it is a core in the strategic subcompetence of TC; (3) pointing that the difficulties of constrained translation and translation of poetic function and culture specific elements are prototypically related to the predominance of context principle; (4) showing that working on this type of materials is an efficient way to reconstruct mental schemes about translation in an general introductory translation course; (5) proposing that the translation of poetic function is a subtype of constrained translation; (6) offering parameters to identify the specificity of the Portuguese-Spanish pair in translation; (7) contributing to the debate and the study of the role of theoretical concepts and of the so-called \"declarative\" knowledge in translation training. Finally, the collected corpus can open other interesting perspectives of empirical studies of TC and its development

The generation of high affinity, selective, and in vivo-stable peptide-based drugs is currently a major challenge in the field of drug development. Technologies exist that permit the generation of a vast diversity of chemical and conformational space and an example of such a technology is mRNA display, which utilizes protein translation machinery to produce a wide array of polypeptides starting from a combinatorial library of mRNA templates. The intention of this research was to bridge mRNA display to a reconstituted translation system using protein synthesis using recombinant elements (PURE) system for a new drug discovery platform. We hypothesized that it is possible to generate mRNA-peptidomimetic fusions using reconstituted translation system and chemo-enzymatically charged tRNAs, to incorporate unnatural amino acids into mRNA-peptidomimetic fusions. Upon demonstating that the reconstituted system was functional, we have synthesized hexapeptide fusion products containing four alanine residues and one biocytin residue. Fusions were assayed using urea-PAGE in the presence of streptavidin which allowed for unambiguous evaluation of the full length fusion fraction. It was determined that overall more fusion product was generated with template that codes for biocytin early in the coding sequence, but that the percent of biocytin-containing product stays similar regardless of the biocytin place in the coding region. We have also found that the change in template untranslated region length does not improve incorporation of biocytin in dipeptide fusions within the tested range. Finally, after first unsuccessful attempts to make sarcosine hexapeptide fusions, we investigated the effect of magnesium ion concentration on the translation reaction. As a result of four series of experiments performed involving both alanine and sarcosine fusion synthesis in parallel, we concluded that an increase in magnesium concentration from 5 mM to 20 mM coincided with enabling of the reconstituted system in making hexapeptide fusions with sarcosine in a significantly high number of cases. This research work arises from the need to enable a new drug discovery tool that will allow both synthesis and affinity maturation of peptide-based compounds. It represents our pioneering efforts to develop a new technology and ultimately help bring to existence compounds of significant therapeutic value. / Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of / Graduate