•We identify a new pseudo-cleft construction in Japanese everyday conversation.•We describe the structural and functional characteristics of the new construction.•We suggest why previous studies ...failed to see the construction.
It has been well established that Japanese has one type of cleft construction. This understanding was reached mostly through the examination of single Japanese sentences, constructed based on (pseudo-)cleft examples in English. We identify another type of cleft in Japanese based on the examination of everyday conversation data. This construction can be aptly considered a pseudo-cleft as it involves the interrogative pronoun nani ‘what’. Both structurally and functionally, it behaves similarly to pseudo-clefts in several other languages and to the Japanese traditional cleft, as characterized in recent conversation-based studies.
This volume concerns the structure and use of fixed expressions in a range of typologically, genetically and areally distinct languages. The chapters consider the use contexts of fixed expressions, ...at the same time taking seriously the need to account for their structural aspects. Formulaicity is taken here as a central feature of everyday language use, and fixed expressions as a basic utterance building resource for interaction. Our crosslinguistic investigation suggests that humans have the propensity to automatize ways to handle various discourse-level needs for specific sequential contexts by creating (semi-)fixed expressions based on frequent patterns. The chapters examine topics such as the degrees and types of fixedness, the emergence of fixed expressions, their connection to social action, the new understanding of traditional linguistic categories in light of fixedness, crosslinguistic variation in types of fixed expressions, as well as their non-verbal aspects. The volume situates the notion of 'units' of language at the intersection of interaction and formal structure as part of a larger effort to replace rule-based conceptions of language with a more dynamic, realistic and pragmatically based model of language. The articles are based on naturally occurring data, mostly everyday conversation, in English, Estonian, Finnish, Japanese, Mandarin, and Swedish, with some crosslinguistic comparison.
The chapters in this volume focus on how we might understand the concept of 'unit' in human languages. It is an analytical notion that has been widely adopted by linguists of various theoretical and ...applied orientations but has recently been critically examined by both typologically oriented and interactional linguistics.
The 'NP' is one of the least controversial grammatical units that linguists work with. The NP is often assumed to be universal, and appears to be robust cross-linguistically (compared to 'VP' or even ...'clause') in that it can be manipulated in argument positions in constructed examples. Furthermore, for any given language, its internal structure (order and type of modifiers) tends to be relatively fixed. Surprisingly, however, the empirical basis for 'NP' has never been established. The chapters in this volume examine the NP in everyday interactions from diverse languages, including little-studied languages as well as better-researched ones, in a variety of interactional settings. Together, these chapters show that cross-linguistically, the category NP is not as robust as has been assumed: in the context of temporally unfolding human interaction, its structural status is constantly negotiated in terms of participants' evolving social agendas.
Elsinoë are plant pathogenic fungi that cause scabs, spotted anthracnose, and some morphological distortions on various plants, including woody plants, economically important crops, and ornamental ...plants. Taxonomical reexamination of Elsinoë species in Japan has not yet been conducted based on the modern species criteria. In this study, several Japanese isolates were reexamine based on the morphological and molecular-phylogenetic analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), large subunit gene (LSU)m and protein-coding gene such as RNA polymerase II subunit (rpb2) and Translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef). Japanese isolates were divided into four clades and three new species, Elsinoë hydrangeae, E. sumire, and E. tanashiensis were proposed. One species, Sphaceloma akebiae, was transferred to the genus Elsinoë.
Recent longitudinal studies have reported proportion of frailty transition in older individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study aimed at clarifying the impact of social frailty in ...community-dwelling older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and at identifying factors that can predict transition to social frailty.
We performed this study from 2019 (before declaration of the state of emergency over the rising number of COVID-19 cases) to 2020 (after declaration of the emergency). We applied Makizako's social frail index to our study subjects at the baseline and classified into robust, social prefrailty, and social frailty groups. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed using robust, social prefrailty, or social frailty status as dependent variable.
Analysis by the Kruskal-Wallis test revealed significant differences in the score on the GDS-15 among the robust, social prefrailty, and social frailty groups (
< 0.05). Furthermore, multiple regression analysis identified a significant association between the social frailty status and the score on GDS-15 (odds ratio, 1.57; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.15-2.13;
= 0.001).
The increase in the rate of transition of elderly individuals to the social frailty group could have been related to the implementation of the stay-at-home order as part of the countermeasures for COVID-19. Furthermore, the increased prevalence of depressive symptoms associated with the stay-at-home order could also have influenced the increase in the prevalence of social frailty during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aim
The present study aimed to investigate factors relating to discharge to home of elderly patients with heart failure.
Method
After applying exclusion criteria and excluding patients with missing ...data, 110 of 165 elderly patients with heart failure aged at least 75 years admitted to our institution were divided into discharge to home (n = 85) and non‐discharge to home (n = 25) groups. Clinical characteristics, comorbidities, blood test data and echocardiographic data were retrospectively investigated and compared based on patients' medical records. Nutritional status was assessed using the Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) upon admission and at 2 weeks after admission (2‐week GNRI). Correlations with discharge to home were investigated using multiple logistic regression analysis with discharge to home as the dependent variable and parameters for which significant intergroup differences were observed as explanatory variables, when considering multicollinearity. Ratio scales selected by multiple logistic regression analysis were analyzed using a receiver operating characteristic curve and cut‐off values were calculated.
Results
Independent factors predicting discharge to home were 100‐m walk achievement (P = 0.037; odds ratio OR, 3.057; 95% confidence interval CI, 2.418–8.751) and 2‐week GNRI (P = 0.006; OR, 1.083; 95% CI, 1.023–1.146). Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for 2‐week GNRI was 0.735 (95% CI, 0.622–0.847) with a cut‐off value for 2‐week GNRI to determine discharge to home of 75.29 (sensitivity, 78.8%; specificity, 60.0%).
Conclusion
The present findings suggest that 100‐m walk achievement and 2‐week GNRI may be predictors for discharge to home in elderly patients with heart failure. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2020; 20: 1029–1035..
Two potyviruses, uraria mosaic virus (UMV) and passiflora foetida virus Y (PfVY), have been detected in Japan for the first time, from newly bred passionfruit cultivars. Host range analyses and ...phylogenetic analyses based on full and partial polyprotein coding regions of UMV and PfVY, respectively, suggested they were distinct from viruses previously isolated from passionfruit. Both species belong to the BCMV subgroup within the genus
Potyvirus
, which contains other pathogenic passionfruit viruses.
PDF
