French Translation Research Articles

Microbiology testing capacity and antimicrobial drug resistance in surgical-site infections: a post-hoc, prospective, secondary analysis of the FALCON randomised trial in seven low-income and middle-income countries

Surgical-site infection (SSI) is one of the most common health-care-associated infections, substantially contributing to antibiotic use. Targeted antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent SSIs and effective treatment are crucial to controlling antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This study aimed to describe the testing capacity and multidrug resistance (MDR) of SSI microorganisms in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). This analysis included patients undergoing abdominal surgery in seven LMICs (Benin, Ghana, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa) as part of the FALCON randomised controlled trial. Wound swabs were collected from patients diagnosed with SSI, as per US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) definition. Data on microorganism species and MDR, as per CDC and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control definitions, were analysed alongside hospital-level data on local microbiological practices. An adjusted analysis was performed to identify perioperative factors associated with MDR. Testing capacity was assessed by the completion of swab testing in positively diagnosed SSIs. Between Dec 10, 2018, and Sept 7, 2020, 5788 patients were recruited to the FALCON trial. 1163 patients were diagnosed with an SSI, of whom 905 (77·8%) received prophylactic antibiotics before surgery. In patients with SSIs, 935 of 1163 (80·4%) did not have a wound swab; 195 were from hospitals not performing swabs (15 hospitals) and 740 were from hospitals with capacity but no swab performed (35 hospitals). Of 228 patients swabbed, 200 (88·5%) had microorganisms detected. Escherichia coli (89 of 200, 37·9%) was the most common microorganism and 116 of 200 (58·0%) patients were not covered by the perioperative prophylactic antibiotic. MDR was found in 102 of 147 (69·4%) patients for whom data were available to determine MDR status. Adjusted analysis found that appropriate prophylactic antibiotic coverage (adjusted odds ratio 0·43, 95% CI 0·19-0·96) and regular availability of infection control teams (0·32, 0·11-0·93) were associated with a significant reduction in MDR. Targeted perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis during contaminated abdominal surgery is insufficient in LMICs, with very few SSI organisms undergoing formal diagnosis. Expansion of testing capacity, development of local guidelines, and implementation of infection control teams could support the prevention of SSI through directed antibiotic prophylaxis, subsequently reducing the burden of MDR. National Institute for Health and Care Research. For the French and Spanish translations of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Community-based strategies to increase coverage of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy with sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review, meta-analysis, meta-ethnography, and economic assessment

Community-based approaches might increase uptake of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP). We assessed the effects of community-based approaches on IPTp-SP and antenatal care coverage, and barriers and facilitators to implementation in sub-Saharan Africa. We did a systematic review, meta-analysis, meta-ethnography, and economic assessment. We searched the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, PubMed, the Malaria in Pregnancy Library database, Medline, Global Health and Global Health Archives, and the Cochrane Library for trials, mixed-methods, qualitative, and cost-effectiveness studies of community health worker promotion of antenatal care, IPTp-SP delivery, or both, with no language restrictions, published before March 21, 2024. Information on interventions, number of IPTp-SP doses, antenatal care visits, and barriers and facilitators were extracted. We did a meta-analysis (random effects) comparing effects on two or more or three or more IPTp-SP doses and one or more or four or more antenatal care visits. We followed Noblit and Hare's method of meta-ethnography to synthesise qualitative findings, using reciprocal translation and line-of-argument synthesis. We developed a theory for increased community IPTp-SP uptake. We also summarised cost and cost-effectiveness studies. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42022364114. Of 4753 records screened, we included 23 (0·5%) reporting on 15 studies. Community health worker involvement was associated with an increase in two or more IPTp-SP doses (pooled risk ratio 1·48, [95% CI 1·24-1·75]; 12 sub-studies; I2 94·7%) and three or more IPTp-SP doses (1·73 [1·19-2·50]; ten sub-studies, I2 97·5%), with no decrease in four or more antenatal care visits (1·17 [1·00-1·36]; 13 sub-studies; I2 90·3%). Cluster-randomised controlled trials showed a lower increase in coverage of three or more IPTp-SP doses (1·08 [1·00-1·16]; I2 0·0%; six studies) compared with before-and-after studies (2·86 [1·29-6·33]; I2 98·9%; four studies; subgroup analysis p=0·019). Barriers to community health worker delivery of IPTp-SP included women's fear of side-effects, lack of knowledge, lack of trust in community health workers, and sociocultural factors. Community sensitisation, engagement of husbands, pre-established community health worker networks, and trained and supported community health workers facilitated IPTp-SP delivery by community health workers. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios ranged from $1·1 to $543 per disability-adjusted life-year averted. Community-based approaches increased IPTp-SP coverage and might have a positive effect on the number of antenatal care visits in addition to being cost-effective, although we found high heterogeneity among studies. Community sensitisation and engagement in addition to established, trained, and supported community health workers can facilitate acceptability, delivery, and uptake of IPTp-SP delivered by community health workers. EDCTP-2 supported by the European Union. For the French translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Начала и причины в 1-й главе Δ «Метафизики» Аристотеля

This paper deals with a new interpretation of the passage 1013a16–17 in Aristo­tle’s Metaphysics Δ.1, proposed by Richard Bodéüs and Annick Stevens in their recent edition of a French translation and commentary of Δ. In section 1 I de­scribe the problems with the traditional reading of this passage that implies that all principles are causes: given it, first, Aristotle makes a serious logical error in his reasoning and, second, it is impossible to match most of the senses and examples of ‘principle’ in this chapter to one of four Aristotelian causes. Then, in section 2 I give an overview the interpretation of Bodéüs and Stevens, show the validity of their reading, and explain how it solves all the aforementioned problems. Section 3 explores some additional advantages of this interpretation that are not mentioned by its authors in their edition: it justifies the presence of the second chapter of Δ in this book and helps to offer a plausible reconstruc­tion of an overall line of thought in Δ.1. Finally, in section 4 I look into the ques­tion of to which extent this interpretation is compatible with the understanding of relationship between the notions of ‘principle’ and ‘cause’ that is characteri­stic for Aristotle elsewhere in Corpus Aristotelicum

Negosiasi Identitas Budaya Jawa pada Penerjemahan Deiksis Sosial dari Novel Rumah Kaca ke dalam Bahasa Prancis

Cultural identity negotitations are proven to occur in translation because translation is a form of cross-culture communication. The pupose of this research is to explore the negotiation of Javanese cultural identity through translating social deixis in French based on form, meaning and function. Under the descriptive-qualitative method, this research attempts to explore in-depth knowledge about the research object. The comparative method is used to find similarities and differences in the form, meaning and function of social deixis from the novel Rumah Kaca (1988) and its translation in French from the novel La Maison de Verre (2018). Negotiation of Javanese cultural identity can take the form of partial negotiations and full negotiations. The causes of negotiation are differences in language systems, prioritizing equivalence of social deixis function, and differences in cultural perspective. These causes have some impacts for equivalence, namely: partial equivalence and distortion of meaning.

Korean Women’s Literature in French Translation Focusing on the Short Stories and Novellas in Revue de Corée published by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO

Korean Women’s Literature in French Translation Focusing on the Short Stories and Novellas in Revue de Corée published by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO

Leukaemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma mortality after low-level exposure to ionising radiation in nuclear workers (INWORKS): updated findings from an international cohort study

A major update to the International Nuclear Workers Study (INWORKS) was undertaken to strengthen understanding of associations between low-dose exposure to penetrating forms of ionising radiation and mortality. Here, we report on associations between radiation dose and mortality due to haematological malignancies. We assembled a cohort of 309 932 radiation-monitored workers (269 487 [87%] males and 40 445 [13%] females) employed for at least 1 year by a nuclear facility in France (60 697 workers), the UK (147 872 workers), and the USA (101 363 workers). Workers were individually monitored for external radiation exposure and followed-up from Jan 1, 1944, to Dec 31, 2016, accruing 10·72 million person-years of follow-up. Radiation-mortality associations were quantified in terms of the excess relative rate (ERR) per Gy of radiation dose to red bone marrow for leukaemia excluding chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), as well as subtypes of leukaemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphomas, and multiple myeloma. Estimates of association were obtained using Poisson regression methods. The association between cumulative dose to red bone marrow, lagged 2 years, and leukaemia (excluding CLL) mortality was well described by a linear model (ERR per Gy 2·68, 90% CI 1·13 to 4·55, n=771) and was not modified by neutron exposure, internal contamination monitoring status, or period of hire. Positive associations were also observed for chronic myeloid leukaemia (9·57, 4·00 to 17·91, n=122) and myelodysplastic syndromes alone (3·19, 0·35 to 7·33, n=163) or combined with acute myeloid leukaemia (1·55, 0·05 to 3·42, n=598). No significant association was observed for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (4·25, -4·19 to 19·32, n=49) or CLL (0·20, -1·81 to 2·21, n=242). A positive association was observed between radiation dose and multiple myeloma (1·62, 0·06 to 3·64, n=527) whereas minimal evidence of association was observed between radiation dose and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (0·27, -0·61 to 1·39, n=1146) or Hodgkin lymphoma (0·60, -3·64 to 4·83, n=122) mortality. This study reports a positive association between protracted low dose exposure to ionising radiation and mortality due to some haematological malignancies. Given the relatively low doses typically accrued by workers in this study (16 mGy average cumulative red bone marrow dose) the radiation attributable absolute risk of leukaemia mortality in this population is low (one excess death in 10 000 workers over a 35-year period). These results can inform radiation protection standards and will provide input for discussions on the radiation protection system. National Cancer Institute, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, Orano, Electricité de France, UK Health Security Agency. For the French translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

A Woman Warrior in Alternative Voices: Analysing English and French Translations of the Chinese Classic Mulan Ci ( “The Ballad of Mulan”)

ABSTRACT “The Ballad of Mulan” (Mulan Ci (<木蘭辭>)) is a widely recited folk poem in Chinese culture. It celebrates the filial piety and courage of the heroine, Mulan, who has joined the army on behalf of her father to defend her homeland. Not only is this story passed down across generations and familiar to the Chinese people, but it is also widely known globally by its various forms of adaptations and translations. This article investigates, from a perspective informed by feminist translation criticism, the representative English and French translations of the Chinese poem conducted by renowned translators. Based on the inadequate translations in presenting the woman warrior’s voice, the article argues that translation is a gendered activity where a translator’s gender cultural presuppositions play a significant role in the translation. It is found that the Western male translators have projected their stereotypical perceptions about the literary image of Chinese women in their interpretation of Mulan and adopted the position of speaking for the female protagonist by making up a faked female voice in their translations. Mulan’s subjectivity as a legendary woman has been reconstructed in the translations due to the absence of the translators’ gender sensitivity in rendering gender-related text.

Randomness Regularization With Simple Consistency Training for Neural Networks.

Randomness is widely introduced in neural network training to simplify model optimization or avoid the over-fitting problem. Among them, dropout and its variations in different aspects (e.g., data, model structure) are prevalent in regularizing the training of deep neural networks. Though effective and performing well, the randomness introduced by these dropout-based methods causes nonnegligible inconsistency between training and inference. In this paper, we introduce a simple consistency training strategy to regularize such randomness, namely R-Drop, which forces two output distributions sampled by each type of randomness to be consistent. Specifically, R-Drop minimizes the bidirectional KL-divergence between two output distributions produced by dropout-based randomness for each training sample. Theoretical analysis reveals that R-Drop can reduce the above inconsistency by reducing the inconsistency among the sampled sub structures and bridging the gap between the loss calculated by the full model and sub structures. Experiments on 7 widely-used deep learning tasks ( 23 datasets in total) demonstrate that R-Drop is universally effective for different types of neural networks (i.e., feed-forward, recurrent, and graph neural networks) and different learning paradigms (supervised, parameter-efficient, and semi-supervised). In particular, it achieves state-of-the-art performances with the vanilla Transformer model on WMT14 English → German translation ( 30.91 BLEU) and WMT14 English → French translation ( 43.95 BLEU), even surpassing models trained with extra large-scale data and expert-designed advanced variants of Transformer models.

A community case detection tool to promote help-seeking for mental health care among children and adolescents in Ugandan refugee settlements: a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial

Strategies to promote mental health care help-seeking among children are needed, especially in low-income and middle-income countries and in complex settings. The aim of this trial was to compare a vignette-based, community-level, proactive case detection tool (CCDT) against standard awareness raising for promoting mental health help-seeking among children and adolescents. This stepped wedge cluster randomised trial was conducted in the Bidi Bidi, Kyaka II, Kyangwali, Omugo, and Rhino refugee settlements in Uganda. Community gatekeepers received a 2-day training session on using the CCDT to proactively detect children with mental health concerns and encourage children (or their caregivers) to use the mental health-care service run by Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Uganda. At baseline, organisations implemented routine detection or mental health awareness-raising activities. At cross-over to CCDT implementation, gatekeepers used the tool in their daily activities. The primary outcome was mental health-care service use by children and adolescents. Child population size estimates at the zone level were not available. Therefore, service use was calculated using total population size. We report the effect of CCDT implementation as an incidence rate ratio (IRR), which we produced from a model that accounts for calendar time, exposure time, and person-time. IRRs were estimated for the analysis of effect over time in the per-protocol and intention-to-treat populations. The trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, number ISRCTN19056780. 28 administrative zones were selected for trial participation by October, 2021. Between Jan 1, and Nov 8, 2022, seven clusters of four zones sequentially crossed over from routine care to CCDT implementation in 1-month intervals. The CCDT was implemented by 177 trained community gatekeepers. In 9 months, 2385 children visited a mental health-care service; of these, 1118 (47%) were girls and 1267 (53%) were boys (mean age 12·18 years [SD 4.03]). 1998 children made a first or re-entry visit to a service; of these, 937 (47%) were girls and 1061 (53%) were boys (mean age 12·08 years [SD 4·06]). Compared to standard awareness-raising activities, CCDT implementation was associated with an increase in mental health-care service use in the first month after implementation (20·91-fold change [95% CI 12·87-33·99]). Despite a slight decline in service use over time in both the CCDT and pre-CCDT zones, CCDT zones maintained a time-average 16·89-fold increase (95% CI 8·15-34·99) in mental health service use. The CCDT enabled community gatekeepers to increase mental health-care service use by children and adolescents. Vignette-based strategies rooted in the community could become a valuable contribution towards reducing the mental health-care gap among children, especially when accompanied by accessible mental health-care services. Sint Antonius Stichting Projects. For the Arabic, French and Spanish translations of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Utilization of technologies in French language translation (FLT) education in Saudi Arabia: A quantitative survey study

The utilization of educational technologies has become a mainstream issue in recent years, particularly in the post-pandemic era. The need for technologies and the procedures for implementing them is, therefore, increasingly becoming a core subject and an interesting area of research in foreign language instruction. The present research aimed to explore the utilization of technology in teaching and learning FLT at Princess Nourah University in Saudi Arabia. The research adopted a quantitative survey study based on the data collected from 169 students using a 48-item questionnaire. The results showed that the most used technologies by students are FLT learning videos on YouTube, browsing electronic sites, and searching educational sites. The findings also revealed that the most common technologies used by teachers include e-mail, learning management systems, and gamification. The least used technologies were artificial intelligence, Boostlingo, and Kahoot, which are considered more relevant to FLT instruction [30]. For FLT students, the most challenging obstacles in utilizing technologies were a lack of training on using relevant technologies and limited electronic sites supporting FLT learning. Amongst the recommendations that the researcher highlighted based on these study findings include the fact that students must still utilize more innovative technology relevant to FLT learning, as most of this technology is considered common. All recommendations highlighted aim to develop technology-based FLT teaching and learning in the College of Languages at PNU. For research ethics purposes, the researcher achieved Approval Exempt (IRB Log # 22–0348), date: 29/May 2023.

Effectiveness of rVSV-ZEBOV vaccination during the 2018-20 Ebola virus disease epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a retrospective test-negative study.

The recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus-Zaire Ebola virus (rVSV-ZEBOV) vaccine is the only WHO prequalified vaccine recommended for use to respond to outbreaks of Ebola virus (species Zaire ebolavirus) by WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization. Despite the vaccine's widespread use during several outbreaks, no real-world effectiveness estimates are currently available in the literature. We conducted a retrospective test-negative analysis to estimate effectiveness of rVSV-ZEBOV vaccination against Ebola virus disease during the 2018-20 epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, using data on suspected Ebola virus disease cases collected from Ebola treatment centres. Those eligible for inclusion had an available Ebola virus RT-PCR result, available key data, were eligible for vaccination during the outbreak, and had symptom onset aligning with the period in which a ring-vaccination protocol was in use. After imputing missing data, each individual confirmed by RT-PCR to be Ebola virus disease-positive (defined as a case) was matched to one individual negative for Ebola virus disease (control) by sex, age, health zone, and month of symptom onset. Effectiveness was estimated from the odds ratio of being vaccinated (≥10 days before symptom onset) versus being unvaccinated among cases and controls, after adjusting for the matching factors. The imputation, matching and effectiveness estimation, was repeated 500 times. 1273 (4·8%) of 26 438 eligible individuals were positive for Ebola virus disease (cases) and 25 165 (95·2%) were negative (controls). 40 (3·1%) cases and 1271 (5·1%) controls were reported as being vaccinated at least 10 days before symptom onset. After selecting individuals who reported exposure to an individual with Ebola virus disease within the 21 days before symptom onset and matching, the analysis datasets comprised a median of 309 cases and 309 controls. 10 days or more after vaccination, the effectiveness of rVSV-ZEBOV against Ebola virus disease was estimated to be 84% (95% credible interval 70-92). This analysis is the first to provide estimates of the real-world effectiveness of the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine against Ebola virus disease, amid the widespread use of the vaccine during a large Ebola virus disease outbreak. Our findings confirm that rVSV-ZEBOV is highly protective against Ebola virus disease and support its use during outbreaks, even in challenging contexts such as in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Médecins Sans Frontières. For the French translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Teriflunomide, cognition and MRI: A longitudinal study

BackgroundAs cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) is a frequent and disabling symptom, it is particularly important to identify treatments that have proven efficacy in this aspect of the disease. Several disease-modifying therapies for MS have been evaluated and shown to have a potential effect on cognition and its neurobiological correlates, but to date there is very little data on Teriflunomide (TRF). The aim of this study is to explore the influence of TRF on comprehensive cognitive function and its MRI correlations (global and focal brain volume) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) after two years of therapy. MethodsTwenty-four patients with RRMS were evaluated at baseline and after two years of treatment with BCcogSEP, a French translation of the Brief Repeatable Battery (BRB-N) including 3 additional tests. We explored the performance evolution for each test and correlation with MRI data for all patients. We also differentiated MS patients with and without cognitive impairment. ResultsAfter two years of treatment, an improvement is observed at the Selective Reminding Test for mean number of words (p = 0.044), learning (p = 0.018), and delayed recall (p = 0.002) and at GoNoGo task (p = 0.022). At MRI, the corpus callosum volume variation correlates positively with SRT total recall test (p = 0,047). Intergoup analysis shows that the evolution of group performance differs only for the SRT total recall test. The comparison of patients with or without cognitive impairment showed a clear difference in white matter substance volume (p = 0,003) and in the Percentage Brain Volume Change (p = 0,016). ConclusionResults suggest that TRF treatment in RRMS has a positive effect in cognitive function, and specifically on long term verbal memory and inhibition. Neuroimaging data suggest a link between cognition and global and focal white matter volume, particularly in the corpus callosum which is involved in anatomical disconnection syndrome and therefore brain plasticity capacities.

Impact éloquent des mots empruntés et arabisés dans la traduction: Analyse des emprunts lexicaux dans les œuvres d’Al-Ghazāli «Al-munqid Min Addalâl (Erreur et Délivrance)» et «Le livre des Bons Usages en Matière de Mariage»

Eloquent Impact of Borrowed and Arabicized Words in Translation: Analysis of loanwords in Al- Ghazāli’s work «'Al-munqid min addalâl (Erreur et Délivrance)» and «Le livre des Bons Usages en Matière de Mariage» The Arabisation of words is a common practice in Arabic translation. It involves borrowing words from other languages and adjusting their phonetics to fit Arabic phonology. Sometimes, these words undergo semantic adaptations to fit into specific contexts, enriching the Arabic lexicon with essential terms. Such linguistic borrowings have seamlessly integrated into Arabic over time, serving both specialised and everyday functions. In the French translation of two works by Al-Ghazāli, "Al-munqid Min Addalâl (The Deliverance from Error)" and "Le livre des Bons Usages en Matière de Mariage (The Book of Good Practices in Marriage)," it is noteworthy that several Arabised words have been retained without translation. Instead, they are presented alongside their equivalents or with explanatory notes. The translator’decision to preserve these Arabised words by the translator reflects a desire to convey the original author's specific messages. It underlines a commitment to maintain the semantic depth of the original texts while honoring the cultural and linguistic richness of Arabic. These words imbue the analysed texts with profound meaning, adding a semantic dimension that enhances the works in both Arabic and French. This approach caters to a French readership interested in exploring the nuances of Al-Ghazāli's works, ensuring the integrity of his writings is preserved. It guarantees an authentic and comprehensive reading experience that captures the richness and subtleties of the original texts.

The contribution of intimate partner violence to vertical HIV transmission: a modelling analysis of 46 African countries

Addressing gender inequities could be key to the elimination of vertical transmission of HIV. Women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) might be at an increased risk of vertical transmission due to their vulnerability to HIV acquisition and barriers to access to and retention in care. Sub-Saharan Africa, where IPV burden is among the highest globally, accounts for most new paediatric HIV infections. We aimed to examine the proportion of excess vertical transmission attributable to IPV in this region. In this modelling analysis, we created a probability tree model of vertical HIV transmission among women aged 15-49 years in 46 African countries. We estimated the proportion of vertical transmission attributable to past-year physical or sexual IPV, or both, as an age-standardised population attributable fraction (PAF) and as excess vertical transmission risk per 1000 births among women experiencing IPV. We incorporated perinatal and postnatal vertical transmission among women who acquired HIV before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and during breastfeeding. Fertility, HIV prevalence, HIV incidence, antiretroviral therapy (ART) uptake, and ART retention varied in the model by women's IPV experience. The model was parameterised using UNAIDS' 2023 Spectrum model data, WHO's Global Database on Violence Against Women, and the peer-reviewed literature. Uncertainty intervals (95% UI) were calculated through 1000 Monte Carlo simulations. Across 46 countries 13% (95% UI 6-21) of paediatric HIV infections in 2022 were attributed to IPV, corresponding to over 22 000 paediatric infections. The PAF ranged from 4% (2-7) in Niger to 28% (13-43) in Uganda. The PAF was highest among girls aged 15-19 years (20%, 8-33) and lowest among women aged 45-49 years (6%, 3-9). In southern Africa, where women's HIV prevalence is highest (23%), IPV led to 11 (5-20) additional infections per 1000 births among women affected by IPV. IPV might be responsible for one in eight paediatric HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Ending IPV could accelerate vertical transmission elimination, especially among young women who bear the highest burden of violence. Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada Research Chair, and Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé. For the French, Georgian and Spanish translations of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Systemic Analysis of the Translation of Cultural Elements in English and French Versions of Mofolo’s Moeti oa Bochabela

This study analyses the translation of cultural elements in the two translations of Thomas Mofolo’s Moeti oa Bochabela. The research objectives sought to identify the cultural elements in the two translations, the techniques and strategies used in rendering them, bring out the discrepancies in translating cultural elements in the two translations and suggest improvements for inadequate translations. Data was collected from the three novels and other documents after which a comparative analysis was done. The current study was guided by Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), Philological theories of translation, Skopos Theory, Manipulation Theory and Socio-Linguistic Theory. Its findings reveal that the techniques that were used to render cultural elements in the corpus under study include literal translation, borrowing and calque, which are source text-oriented, and cultural equivalence, explicitation, reformulation, expansion, description, transposition, adaptation and omission, which are target text-oriented. The two categories of techniques fall under foreignization and domestication strategies respectively. The study also shows that in both translations, the cultural elements were more domesticated than foreignized. The English translation has more foreignization than the French one while the French translation has more domestication than the English version. Although not in all cases, there are discrepancies in the rendering of cultural elements in the two translations.

HIV incidence among women engaging in sex work in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Women who engage in sex work in sub-Saharan Africa have a high risk of acquiring HIV infection. HIV incidence has declined among all women in sub-Saharan Africa, but trends among women who engage in sex work are poorly characterised. We synthesised data on HIV incidence among women who engage in sex work in sub-Saharan Africa and compared these with the total female population to understand relative incidence and trends over time. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, and Google Scholar from Jan 1, 1990, to Feb 28, 2024, and grey literature for studies that reported empirical estimates of HIV incidence among women who engage in sex work in any sub-Saharan Africa country. We calculated incidence rate ratios (IRRs) compared with total female population incidence estimates matched for age, district, and year, did a meta-analysis of IRRs, and used a continuous mixed-effects model to estimate changes in IRR over time. From 32 studies done between 1985 and 2020, 2194 new HIV infections were observed among women who engage in sex work over 51 490 person-years. Median HIV incidence was 4·3 per 100 person years (IQR 2·8-7·0 per 100 person-years). Incidence among women who engage in sex work was eight times higher than matched total population women (IRR 7·8 [95% CI 5·1-11·8]), with larger relative difference in western and central Africa (19·9 [9·6-41·0]) than in eastern and southern Africa (4·9 [3·4-7·1]). There was no evidence that IRRs changed over time (IRR per 5 years: 0·9 [0·7-1·2]). Across sub-Saharan Africa, HIV incidence among women who engage in sex work remains disproportionately high compared with the total female population. However, constant relative incidence over time indicates HIV incidence among women who engage in sex work has declined at a similar rate. Location-specific data for women who engage in sex work incidence are sparse, but improved surveillance and standardisation of incidence measurement approaches could fill these gaps. Sustained and enhanced HIV prevention for women who engage in sex work is crucial to address continuing inequalities and ensure declines in new HIV infections. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, National Institutes of Health. For the French translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

The Prioress’s Tale and La France juive: Chaucer in Nineteenth-Century French Antisemitism

ABSTRACT This article outlines the contexts and consequences of an unrecognized late-nineteenth-century French translation of Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale. Produced by Édouard Drumont as part of his antisemitic bestseller, La France juive, the translation is incorporated into a longer history of ritual murder stories. Praising the tale as a form of historical evidence for antisemitism, Drumont concretizes a link between the medieval antisemitism of Chaucer’s tale and its later modern forms, creating an ethical necessity for the tale’s readers and critics to acknowledge the tale’s role within a longer history of antisemitism.

TRANSLATION STRATEGIES RELATED TO THE OMISSION OF VERBS WHEN TRANSLATING FROM RUSSIAN INTO FRENCH

While there is a vast literature on translation transformations and techniques, little attention among Russian researchers is paid to the omission. The article attempts to contribute to the debate by analyzing the omission as a translation technique, as well as verb omission examples when translating a literary text from Russian into French. The omission means elimination of a source text (ST) element while translating into target text. The omission can occur at the semantic or structural-semantic levels. The latter implies not only semantic but also syntactic changes. The omission can be due to the redundancy of an element in the ST. Redundancy in ST can be caused by the structural features of the source language, repetition of information in the text or by the opportunity to extract information from the situational context. The analysis of examples of verb omission taken from the translations into French of the novel Oblomov written by Ivan Goncharov showed that the use of this technique in relation to Russian verbs obeys the general patterns of the use of omission listed above: a French translator can omit a verb and use a more economical construction allowed by the norms of the French language; can translate one verb from two ST verbs with the same meaning; can eliminate the original verb if it’s meaning can be derived from the situational context. However, the original verb can convey stylistic meanings that are important in the work; if this verb is omitted, stylistic meanings disappear.

Linguistic complexity of elementary mathematics word problems and their translations

Because word problems present mathematical information through a scenario, they are language-intensive and require mathematical and reading comprehension skills to solve them. In addition, they are linguistically complex, which makes them challenging for all learners, especially multilingual learners. Given the rising number of dual-language bilingual programs in the United States—which have the goal of simultaneously supporting content and language learning—it is important to understand the linguistic complexity of word problems and their translations. Therefore, we adopted a sociolinguistic perspective to recognize the inextricable relationship between language and mathematics and conducted a linguistic content analysis of Grades 1 and 4 addition/subtraction word problems in a widely used U.S. elementary curriculum. We analyzed the ways in which word problems were linguistically complex and how complexity differed between English, French, and Spanish translations. We found that word problems were complex due to vocabulary inconsistencies, assumed cultural knowledge, verb tenses, and errors. The French and Spanish translations also had more errors and inconsistencies than the English source text. Findings have implications for curriculum and assessment developers related to multilingual editing and linguistic and contextual consistency, as well as for teachers to support students’ engagement with language and mathematics.

‘A Melmoth? a cosmopolitan? a patriot?’: Melmoth the Wanderer's Russian Epigones

Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer had immediate, rich, and enduring influence upon Russian literature: Aleksandr Pushkin, after reading it in French translation in 1823, cited it in his own 1833 novel-in-verse Eugene Onegin, introducing the adjective ‘ mel’moticheskii’ (‘Melmoth-like’) to Russian. The titular demon of Mikhail Lermontov's dramatic poem The Demon (c. 1838) emulates Melmoth, while Maturin's novel was significant both for Nikolai Gogol and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Maturin's novel was just as widely read and (sometimes) travestied within Russia as the work of other Gothic-fantastic authors, like E. T. A. Hoffmann and Lord Byron. Yet no detailed English-language scholarly overview exists of Melmoth's Russian epigones, from Pushkin's Onegin to lesser-known, later imitations. This essay will clarify Maturin's impact on Russian literature by identifying the Russian authors most clearly influenced by Melmoth, from the dawn of Romanticism to the nostalgic fictions of Russian émigré and dissident authors in the early twentieth century.