The Intercultural Communication Institute

The paper deals with the frequency of tense-aspect forms in British English for justifying the selec-tion of language phenomena from the linguistic point of view. This approach is applied through educa-tional process at universities. Moreover, communicative oriented approach to language education should be based on this selection. It presupposes educational orientation to real communicative situa-tions. Based on analyzing corpus data from the British National Corpus all tense-aspect forms can be divided into four groups: rare, occasional, frequent and constant. The authors have made the algorithm for learning tense-aspect forms in British English based on the frequency of these forms.

The paper examines a particular type of secondary self-naming that is commonly attested in China universities as a means to enter a foreign cultural environment. Given its purpose to facilitate intercultural communication, the authors note a clear pattern how this secondary proper name is chosen: a Russian name is used when studying the Russian language, and a European one — when mastering other languages (English, German, French, etc.). A term mimeticonym is introduced for such secondary proper name the person is choosing to familiarize themselves with a foreign culture. The paper describes a two-level experiment focusing on motivation behind this secondary self-naming practice, which includes linguistic, situational, communicative, and sociocultural factors. The authors distinguish between mimeticonyms of the 1st and 2nd stage — the former acquired when studying the first foreign language (in this case, Russian), the latter — when mastering others (European). At the first stage, linguistic features predominate since “Russian” names seem phonetically approximate to the real names, the sound form is brief and easy to pronounce, and there’s a semantic similarity between etymons of the Chinese and Russian names. Communicative factors reveal the influence of the situational context on choosing a secondary name (typically, within the educational discourse) while sociocultural factors reveal the level of awareness about the target culture among foreign students. The fact that these naming patterns tend to reproduce when the person gets to study other foreign languages, allows the authors to conclude their sustainable nature. Based on the data of a survey among Chinese students of Russian and other foreign languages, the semantic structure of the secondary name is described in terms of signification, denotation, and connotation. On the functional side, the role of secondary self-naming (the choice of a mimeticonym) is key for person’s adaptation to a different culture and reducing psychological stress in the process of intercultural communication.

A field-based study and laboratory tests were undertaken to determine the functional diversity of microorganisms in metal- and alkali-contaminated soils in Central and North-eastern Slovakia where iron ore and magnesite have been mined and processed for a long time. To improve the understanding of the functional diversity of microorganisms, we examined the effects of environmental factors on the functional diversity of microorganisms in metal- and alkali-contaminated soils in the emission field of heaps and tailings impoundments of iron ore mines (Central Spiš) and magnesite factories (Jelšava and Lubeník). Biolog<sup>®</sup> Eco Plates were used to determine and assess metabolic profiles of microbial communities. The examined area of Central Spiš showed extremely high values of Hg and Cu and the values of Zn, Cd, Pb and Cr exceeding the permissible limit were determined. Soil reaction was extremely acidic to strongly acidic. The Jelšava and Lubeník area was characterized by alkaline contamination and the soil reaction was slightly acidic to strongly alkaline. The values of Cr, Mn, and Mg exceeding the permissible limit were measured there. The results indicate harmful and even toxic contamination. Our results showed that the diversity of microorganisms was different in the investigated areas and it was significantly influenced by environmental factors such as soil reaction, bulk density, porosity, and heavy metals Hg, Pb, Cr, Zn, Cu, Mn and Mg. Based on the results of the Shannon index, we can conclude that the diversity was low to moderate (2.5–3.3) and medium (3.3–4.0). Correlations between functional diversity of microorganisms and soil reaction, Hg, Cr, and Cu were determined. Our findings are decisive for understanding the microbial diversity in metal- and alkali-contaminated soils and they can be used to assess the quality and health of soil, as well as for scientific applications of remediation techniques.

Н.Г. Кузнецова, С.Л. Васильева, И

Although intercultural couples are increasingly the norm there is a paucity of systemic literature on working with interfaith couples and families. This paper, based on composite case examples, attempts to address this gap. I use two examples of couples where one partner is South Asian Muslim, to illustrate four inter‐related themes that emerged in the process of the work. The themes were: therapists’ positioning, the importance of the wider socio‐political context, honour, shame and gendered beliefs, and the family life cycle. I also highlight how embodied and non‐verbal representational systemic techniques can be used when working with interfaith couples to access domains of relationality, which may be inaccessible to exclusively verbal strategies.

<p>The globalization of markets, the need to develop<br> competitive advantages and core competencies, among other things,<br> lead organizations to increasingly cross borders to operate in other<br> countries. The expatriation of professionals who go to work in<br> another country besides their own becomes increasingly common. In<br> order to generate data about this issue, research was conducted<br> concerning the perception of expatriate employees concerning<br> expatriation success. The research method used was case study<br> through a qualitative approach. This research was done through<br> interviews with five India expatriates and five China expatriates,<br> interview with expatriate department heads and analysis of company<br> documents. It was found that there are differences between the<br> organizational perception and perception of expatriates of what<br> constitutes mission success. The paper also provides suggestions for<br> further research and suggestions for future expatriates.</p>

The mitochondrial chaperone mortalin has been linked to neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease (PD) based on reduced protein levels in affected brain regions of PD patients and its interaction with the PD-associated protein DJ-1. Recently, two amino acid exchanges in the ATPase domain (R126W) and the substrate-binding domain (P509S) of mortalin were identified in Spanish PD patients. Here, we identified a separate and novel variant (A476T) in the substrate-binding domain of mortalin in German PD patients. To define a potential role as a susceptibility factor in PD, we characterized the functions of all three variants in different cellular models. In vitro import assays revealed normal targeting of all mortalin variants. In neuronal and non-neuronal human cell lines, the disease-associated variants caused a mitochondrial phenotype of increased reactive oxygen species and reduced mitochondrial membrane potential, which were exacerbated upon proteolytic stress. These functional impairments correspond with characteristic alterations of the mitochondrial network in cells overexpressing mutant mortalin compared with wild-type (wt), which were confirmed in fibroblasts from a carrier of the A476T variant. In line with a loss of function hypothesis, knockdown of mortalin in human cells caused impaired mitochondrial function that was rescued by wt mortalin, but not by the variants. Our genetic and functional studies of novel disease-associated variants in the mortalin gene define a loss of mortalin function, which causes impaired mitochondrial function and dynamics. Our results support the role of this mitochondrial chaperone in neurodegeneration and underscore the concept of impaired mitochondrial protein quality control in PD.

Email: Nathan S Consedine* nconsedi@liu.edu; Brenda A Adjei brenda.adjei@liu.edu; David Horton dhorton79@gmail.com; Andrew K Joe akj3@columbia.edu; Luisa N Borrell lnb2@columbia.edu; Paul Michael Ramirez paul.ramirez@liu.edu; Tracey Ungar tracey.ungar@liu.edu; James M McKiernan jmm23@columbia.edu; Judith S Jacobson jsj4@columbia.edu; Carol Magai cmagai@liu.edu; Alfred I Neugut ain1@columbia.edu * Corresponding author