THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY LITERACY CHARACTERISTICS AND SES ON THE LITERACY ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS WHO SPEAK NON-DOMINANT LANGUAGES IN INDONESIA

Across the world, children from non-dominant language speaking families are not performing as well as their peers who speak a dominant language when they enter school. The current study examines the case of Indonesia, investigating the influence of language background status, early literacy characteristics, and socioeconomic status on literacy achievement in Indonesia. Drawing from the PIRLS 2011 dataset (N = 2,725), findings reveal that there is a significant association between each variable and literacy achievement, and that socioeconomic status explains literacy achievement most strongly among 4th grade students in Indonesia. Implications are discussed.DOI:doi.org/10.24071/ijiet.2019.03021

Realizing the Sustainability of Portfolio Assessment in Second-Language Writing

Portfolio assessment, as an alternative writing assessment approach, has received growing attention in the past few decades. Although the benefits of portfolio assessment are well validated, there is a dearth of empirical research on how portfolio assessment can be sustained over time and the support teachers need to sustain portfolio assessment practice in their teaching contexts. To fill this significant void, the present study examines the influences that contribute to the sustainability of portfolio assessment in second-language writing. Drawing on data from interviews with the principal, English department chair and four English teachers from one elementary school in Hong Kong, as well as classroom observation and teachers’ team meeting observation, the study revealed that administrators’ role in dispersing decision-making authority to teachers, exploiting learning opportunities and providing a stimulating environment for teachers, and the sharing of common vision and goals, as well as collective flows of learning among team members, are the cornerstone of transformation and sustainability for the practice of portfolio assessment. The paper concludes with practical implications on how the innovative attempts in portfolio assessment can be sustained over time

Distribution of Triamcinolone Acetonide after Intravitreal Injection into Silicone Oil-Filled Eye

published_or_final_versio

FluShuffle and FluResort: new algorithms to identify reassorted strains of the influenza virus by mass spectrometry

Background: Influenza is one of the oldest and deadliest infectious diseases known to man. Reassorted strains of the virus pose the greatest risk to both human and animal health and have been associated with all pandemics of the past century, with the possible exception of the 1918 pandemic, resulting in tens of millions of deaths. We have developed and tested new computer algorithms, FluShuffle and FluResort, which enable reassorted viruses to be identified by the most rapid and direct means possible. These algorithms enable reassorted influenza, and other, viruses to be rapidly identified to allow prevention strategies and treatments to be more efficiently implemented.Results: The FluShuffle and FluResort algorithms were tested with both experimental and simulated mass spectra of whole virus digests. FluShuffle considers different combinations of viral protein identities that match the mass spectral data using a Gibbs sampling algorithm employing a mixed protein Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. FluResort utilizes those identities to calculate the weighted distance of each across two or more different phylogenetic trees constructed through viral protein sequence alignments. Each weighted mean distance value is normalized by conversion to a Z-score to establish a reassorted strain.Conclusions: The new FluShuffle and FluResort algorithms can correctly identify the origins of influenza viral proteins and the number of reassortment events required to produce the strains from the high resolution mass spectral data of whole virus proteolytic digestions. This has been demonstrated in the case of constructed vaccine strains as well as common human seasonal strains of the virus. The algorithms significantly improve the capability of the proteotyping approach to identify reassorted viruses that pose the greatest pandemic risk. © 2012 Lun et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Development Discourse on Language of Instruction and Literacy: Sound Policy and Ubuntu or Lip Service?

Both humanist and quality concerns should have made language of instruction a priority in educational development, yet there has been no clear trajectory. This study explores whether the advantages of L1-based approaches as documented in the scholarly literature have been reflected in the development discourse over time, based on an analysis of all twelve UNESCO Global Monitoring Reports. We investigated three hypotheses using macro-analyses on the frequency of language-in-education mentions and the co-occurrence of these with mentions of early grade reading, and a micro-analysis of content associated with language. While we found no consistent trend in language-in-education terms over time, there has been more mention in reference to early grade reading, challenging support for longer-term use of L1 to support learning. More detailed mentions of language, however, appear to be aligned with sound policies and practices, and simple mentions presume that L1-based approaches are important for effective educational development

Use of the Term Elderly

Using the term elderly for a person who is robust and independent as well as for a person who is frail and dependent says little about the individual