Teaching of Poetry to Saudi ESL Learners: Stylistics Approach

Poetry can offer a wide range of language learning opportunities to ESL learners if it’s taught interactively and linguistically. Poetry is embellished with rhythm, beautiful diction and elevated grammatical features. These features can serve as a powerful stimulus to ESL students in learning grammar, vocabulary and integrated language skills. Some of the researchers pointed out that Poetry was taught in literature class but it was predominantly a teacher centered and nothing more than a dramatic monologue, so it failed to improve students’ language skills and creative analysis. The present study aims to explore how stylistics approach can be used as a powerful teaching resource to enrich grammar, vocabulary and integrated language skills of Saudi ESL learners. Four statistical surveys were conducted such as to elicit the impression of teachers and the impression & performance of Saudi students at Saudi universities. Statements pertinent to different aspects of poetry were used for major data collection. The findings marked a significant difference between the performance of stylistics based learners and traditional based learners in vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and integrated language skills. Unlike traditional method, the stylistics approach for teaching poetry was found very exciting, because it was learners centered and based on repertoire of interactive language exercises. As per the findings of the four surveys conducted in this study, the stylistics approach for teaching poetry in ESL classroom was perceived by both Saudi teachers and students as an enjoyable means to enrich and energize the learning environment of an ESL classroom

Facts and Fallacies Regarding LI Usage in EFL Teaching and Learning: A Case Study of Saudi Context

The present research tends to investigate the common fallacies and worldviews about LI usage in EFL teaching and learning scenario and thereby explore the most down-to-earth empirical findings drawn on Saudi Arabian context. Many applied linguists, ELT teachers and professionals have reflected upon the inclusion or exclusion of LI usage in EFL class since the inception of EFL teaching and remained at loggerhead until now due to worldwide contextual variance. Some of them recommended the calculated use of L1 in EFL classroom and advised teachers to adopt “a cautious, enlightened, and eclectic approach”. On the contrary, other theorists proposed total removal of LI in EFL classroom. With a view to revisiting the issue specific to Saudi context, three quantitative and qualitative surveys were conducted on ELT specialists, native and non-native teachers of English and EFL learners of Saudi schools and universities. Likert’s five point scales were used to analyze the collected data. Based on these surveys, some significant findings covering the wider spectrum of LI usage in the teaching of language skills, vocabulary and grammar, have been inferred. The most dominant exploration of the present research endorses occasional LI usage in vocabulary and grammar classes but disapproves of it in listening and speaking classes

Safety and efficacy of formoterol/tiotropium bromide and formoterol/glycopyrronium combination in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is characterized by a progressive development of airflow limitation that is not fully reversible. The study investigated the efficacy and safety of formoterol/tiotropium bromide and formoterol/glycopyrronium combination in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Glycopyrrolate, a long-acting anti-muscarinic agent is recently approved for the maintenance therapy of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in combination with formoterol. However, the studies on glycopyrrolate along with long-acting beta 2 agonist, particularly in Indian patients are limited. Hence it was considered worthwhile to determine safety and efficacy of fixed dose combinations of formoterol/ tiotropium vs. formoterol/glycopyrrolate in grade-2 patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Methods: Efficacy and safety of formoterol/glycopyrrolate and formoterol/tiotropium were compared in Grade-2 patients. Total 68 patients were analysed and the efficacy of treatment was determined by Spirometry, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Assessment Test score and Symptom score at day zero (before therapeutic intervention) and at two weeks of interval till 12 weeks. Results: The treatment with inhaled combination of formoterol/glycopyrrolate and formoterol/tiotropium has shown an improvement in spirometric variable Forced Expiratory Volume (in one second) decrease in mean Symptom score and COPD Assessment Test score among the grade-2 Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease patients. Conclusions: Combination therapy of formoterol/glycopyrrolate is non-inferior to formoterol/tiotropium in terms of efficacy and safety profile of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

An Improved DC Recovery Method from AC Coefficients of DCT-Transformed Images

Motivated by the work of Uehara et al. [1], an improved method to recover DC coefficients from AC coefficients of DCT-transformed images is investigated in this work, which finds applications in cryptanalysis of selective multimedia encryption. The proposed under/over-flow rate minimization (FRM) method employs an optimization process to get a statistically more accurate estimation of unknown DC coefficients, thus achieving a better recovery performance. It was shown by experimental results based on 200 test images that the proposed DC recovery method significantly improves the quality of most recovered images in terms of the PSNR values and several state-of-the-art objective image quality assessment (IQA) metrics such as SSIM and MS-SSIM.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, ICIP 201

Traumatic chylothorax from a suprascapular stab wound

Reports are few of chylothorax complicating stab wounds to the left suprascapular region. We report a case of traumatic chylothorax following a stab wound to the suprascapular region in a 14-year-old boy. He presented with progressive dyspnoea and signs of a pleural effusion. This was confirmed by radiology and thoracocentesis to be a hemothorax. The hemothorax was drained by tube thoracostomy. He developed chylothorax on the third day after inserting the chest tube. Biochemical analysis confirmed chylothorax, which was managed conservatively. The chest tube was removed after it stopped draining. We discuss the pathogenesis of this form of chylothorax and the management options.Keywords: Chylothorax, Poirier’s triangle, Stab, Traum

A comparative study of the effectiveness of β-glucosidase immobilized on CNT-nanoparticles and Ca-alginate beads

Enzymes are extensively used in various industrial, biomedical and biopharmaceutical applications. However, enzymes in their free form are unstable and expensive besides being characteristically susceptible to inhibition by high product concentrations and are highly sensitive to pH and temperature changes. Immobilization technology offers solutions to these challenges besides enhancing operational stability, longevity and ease of separation. β-glucosidase has been widely employed as model enzyme for enzymatic studies. Ca-alginate beads provide a gentle environment for immobilization, but have certain limitations such as low stability, high porosity and limitations in biocompatibility. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the other hand have excellent mechanical, thermal and electrical properties, as well as dimensional and chemical compatibility with biomolecules like DNA and enzymes, suitable for biosensor design. Here, β-glucosidase was immobilized in Ca-alginate gel and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) using standard techniques and their activity was compared with that of free enzyme. The activity was found highest (12.53 U/mL) for the free enzyme and lowest (9.768 U/mL) for the immobilized Ca-alginate. The activity of immobilized MWCNT (12.20 U/mL) was close to the free enzyme activity. The enzyme reaction was found to follow Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The Michaelis constants, Km and Vmax, determined using Langmuir linearized plot are respectively 0.09048 μmol/mL and 0.00989 μmol/mL.min for immobilized Ca-alginate; and 0.0985 μmol/mL and 0.01237 μmol/mL.min for immobilized MWCNT. The corresponding values for the free enzyme are 0.0854 μmol/mL and 0.01263 μmol/mL.min. Thus, MWCNT appears to be a promising support material for enzyme immobilization. Keywords: β-glucosidase, immobilization, Ca-alginate, carbon-nanotube, Michaelis-Menten kinetic