Language, humans’ most distinctive trait, still remains a ‘mystery’ for evolutionary theory. It is underpinned by a universal infrastructure—cooperative turn-taking—which has been suggested as an ancient mechanism bridging the existing gap between the articulate human species and their inarticulate primate cousins. However, we know remarkably little about turn-taking systems of non-human animals, and methodological confounds have often prevented meaningful cross-species comparisons. Thus, the extent to which cooperative turn-taking is uniquely human or represents a homologous and/or analogous trait is currently unknown. The present paper draws attention to this promising research avenue by providing an overview of the state of the art of turn-taking in four animal taxa—birds, mammals, insects and anurans. It concludes with a new comparative framework to spur more research into this research domain and to test which elements of the human turn-taking system are shared across species and taxa.

This paper reviews new theoretical and practical developments in working with partners of people with aphasia and describes the development of a clinician's resource entitled 'SPPARC: Supporting Partners of People with Aphasia in Relationships and Conversation'. It focuses particularly on one part of that resource: the SPPARC Conversation Training Programme, which adapts conversation analysis for clinical use. The paper describes the stages involved in assessing and working on conversation in everyday life.

The pap, prs, pil, and hly operons of the pyelonephritic Escherichia coli isolate J96 code for the expression of P, F, and type 1 adhesins and the production of hemolysin, respectively; the afal operon of the pyelonephritic E. coli KS52 encodes an X adhesin. Using different segments of these operons as probes, colony hybridizations were performed on 97 E. coli urinary tract and 40 fecal clinical isolates to determine (i) the presence in the infecting bacteria of nucleotide sequences related to virulence operons, and (ii) the phenotypic properties associated with such sequences. Coexpression of P and F adhesins encoded by pap-related sequences was detected more frequently among isolates from patients with pyelonephritis (32 of 49, 65%) than among those with cystitis (11 of 48, 23%; P < 0.0001) or from fecal specimens (6 of 40, 15%; P < 0.0001). Therefore, the expression of both adhesins appears to be critical in the colonization of the upper urinary tract. In contrast, afal-related sequences were detected significantly more frequently among isolates from patients with cystitis, suggesting that this class of X adhesin may have a role in lower urinary tract infections. Urinary tract isolates differed from fecal isolates by a low incidence of type 1 adhesin expression among pil probe-positive isolates. hly-related sequences were only detected in pap probe-positive isolates. The frequency of hemolysin production among pap probe-positive isolates was not associated with a particular pattern of infection. The distribution of these virulence factors was similar in the presence or absence of reflux, indicating that structural abnormalities of the urinary tract did not facilitate colonization by adhesin-negative isolates.

This paper provides new insights into the usefulness, future directions and content of life story resources in dementia care. It will be of interest to those in health and social care as well as people living with dementia.

This article gives an overview of the application to aphasia of conversation analysis (CA), a qualitative methodology for the analysis of recorded, naturally occurring talk produced in everyday human interaction. CA, like pragmatics, considers language use in context, but it differs from other analytical frameworks because the clinician is not making interpretations about how an aspect of language should be coded or judging whether an utterance is successful or adequate in terms of communication. We first outline the CA methodology before discussing its application to the assessment of aphasia, principally through the use of two published assessment tools. We then move on to illustrate applications of CA in the field of aphasia therapy by discussing two single case study interventions. Key conversation behaviors are illustrated with transcripts from interactions recorded by the person with aphasia and the person's habitual conversation partner in the home environment. Finally, we explore the implications of using CA as a tool for assessment and treatment in aphasia.