Search

Aviation English (AE) used for radiotelephony (R/T) communications is a highly restricted English mandated to maximize accuracy, conciseness, and clarity, thus contributing to air safety. While specific phraseology is commonly used with prescribed syntax and discourse organization, in non-routine situations, clear and concise "plain aviation English" is also employed, allowing negotiation of (im)politeness to emerge. While R/T communications have recently been investigated empirically in relation to its instruction and testing, pragmatic concerns have been under-researched. This study explores how (im)politeness is negotiated in R/T communications and how aviation specialists jointly fulfill their transactional and interactional needs. Three excerpts were selected from different repositories of aviation English, and discursive construction of face and (im)politeness were analyzed within each aviation context. Additionally, four pilots with a range of experience were interviewed for expert interpretation of the excerpts with their interpretation informing the researchers'. The findings revealed complex ways in which the interactants discursively engaged in facework in an attempt to fulfill their transactional and relational needs. The effectiveness of the relational language was driven by affordances and constraints within each local aviation context. • Corpus-informed discursive construction of face/(im)politeness in aviation English. • Face and (im)politeness negotiated in radiotelephony communications. • Aviation specialists jointly fulfilling their transactional/interactional needs. • Facework and relational language in the context of aviation radiotelephony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imiquimod is known to exert its effects through Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) and/or TLR8, resulting in expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Keratinocytes have not been reported to constitutively express TLR7 and TLR8, and the action of imiquimod is thought to be mediated by the adenine receptor, not TLR7 or TLR8. In this study, we revealed the expression of TLR7 in keratinocytes after calcium-induced differentiation. After addition of calcium to cultured keratinocytes, the immunological responses induced by imiquimod, such as activation of NF-κB and induction of TNF-α and IL-8, were more rapid and stronger. In addition, imiquimod induced the expression TLR7, and acted synergistically with calcium to induce proinflammatory cytokines. We confirmed that the responses induced by imiquimod were significantly inhibited by microRNAs suppressing TLR7 expression. These results suggest that TLR7 expressed in keratinocytes play key roles in the activation of NF-κB signaling by imiquimod, and that their modulation in keratinocytes could provide therapeutic potential for many inflammatory skin diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]