Americans\u27 Foreign Language Deficit and Possible Solutions

This paper describes why knowledge of a foreign language is important and investigates why Americans are falling behind others around the world in regards to their knowledge of a foreign language. The paper then gives descriptions of different types of foreign language classes in the US, specifically classes that use the “book method” of teaching and classes that use the “immersion method” of teaching. Students from these classes also give feedback about their foreign language learning. The paper concludes with recommendations for how more Americans can more effectively learn a foreign language and how the United States can fix its foreign language deficit. For this paper, research regarding benefits of learning a foreign language, Americans’ lack of foreign language skills and effective methods for teaching a foreign language was done using scholarly and other reliable sources. To see the difference between the “book method” and the “immersion method” of teaching a foreign language, different classes on La Salle University’s campus were observed. Students from these classes were then surveyed in order to get feedback about how they perceived their classes and progression learning a foreign language. Recommendations at the end of the paper are made based off the research, observations and surveys conducted. It was discovered that learning a foreign language has many benefits, such as more career opportunities, improved cognitive functions, higher test scores and better understanding of other people and cultures. It was also found that Americans are severely trailing behind Europeans in the way of proficiency in foreign languages, most likely because there is much less stress put on foreign languages in the American educational system. Since this is the case, the United States should change how it teaches foreign languages in schools; this includes teaching students foreign languages at a younger age, employing the immersion method, and using more effective classroom exercises and activities

Development and validation of the brief esophageal dysphagia questionnaire

BackgroundEsophageal dysphagia is common in gastroenterology practice and has multiple etiologies. A complication for some patients with dysphagia is food impaction. A valid and reliable questionnaire to rapidly evaluate esophageal dysphagia and impaction symptoms can aid the gastroenterologist in gathering information to inform treatment approach and further evaluation, including endoscopy.Methods1638 patients participated over two study phases. 744 participants completed the Brief Esophageal Dysphagia Questionnaire (BEDQ) for phase 1; 869 completed the BEDQ, Visceral Sensitivity Index, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Questionnaire, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale for phase 2. Demographic and clinical data were obtained via the electronic medical record. The BEDQ was evaluated for internal consistency, split‐half reliability, ceiling and floor effects, and construct validity.Key ResultsThe BEDQ demonstrated excellent internal consistency, reliability, and construct validity. The symptom frequency and severity scales scored above the standard acceptable cutoffs for reliability while the impaction subscale yielded poor internal consistency and split‐half reliability; thus the impaction items were deemed qualifiers only and removed from the total score. No significant ceiling or floor effects were found with the exception of 1 item, and inter‐item correlations fell within accepted ranges. Construct validity was supported by moderate yet significant correlations with other measures. The predictive ability of the BEDQ was small but significant.Conclusions & InferencesThe BEDQ represents a rapid, reliable, and valid assessment tool for esophageal dysphagia with food impaction for clinical practice that differentiates between patients with major motor dysfunction and mechanical obstruction.Validated, rapid clinical assessment tools for esophageal dysphagia are lacking. The brief esophageal dysphagia questionnaire aims to gauge the severity and frequency of dysphagia with additional items to gauge food impaction. The BEDQ is a reliable and valid tool to assess esophageal dysphagia.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135130/1/nmo12889.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135130/2/nmo12889_am.pd

A colimit decomposition for homotopy algebras in Cat

Badzioch showed that in the category of simplicial sets each homotopy algebra of a Lawvere theory is weakly equivalent to a strict algebra. In seeking to extend this result to other contexts Rosicky observed a key point to be that each homotopy colimit in simplicial sets admits a decomposition into a homotopy sifted colimit of finite coproducts, and asked the author whether a similar decomposition holds in the 2-category of categories Cat. Our purpose in the present paper is to show that this is the case.Comment: Some notation changed; small amount of exposition added in intr

Book Reviews: MARRINER-TOMEY, A. (1989). Nursing Theorists and Their Work, 2nd ed. St. Louis: Mosby

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68645/2/10.1177_089431849000300211.pd

Precipitation data and analysis

CER70-71DBS-EJR-MAS-JHD-VCD-HR50.May 1971.VIMHEX is an intensive program of tropical meteorological and hydrological observations taken in northeast Venezuela during the summer of 1969 to support a study of tropical atmospheric physics and the resulting effects of rainfall. The objectives of the program are to express the meso-scale weather structure in terms of the synoptic-scale envelope and to formulate the ground response to the rainfall produced by tropical weather disturbances over relatively flat tropical topography. The Volume I Hydrology Report lists all the precipitation data collected during the summer of 1969 in the study area of northeast Venezuela. Most of the precipitation data is in the form of hourly rainfall. In addition, weekly and other longer period isohyetal maps are presented for the study area. The weekly and monthly average precipitations over the drainage basins have been determined. For the summer months of July, August, and September an average of 4.8 mm of precipitation per day fell on the drainage basins. In subsequent reports, these data will be related to the hydrology and stream response of the area.VIMHEX was sponsored by the Department of Defense through its THEMIS program

Численное моделирование теплофизических условий реализации режима циркулирующего кипящего слоя применительно к топкам котлов

Актуальность проведения исследований, направленных на совершенствование методов численного анализа аэротермохимических процессов в топках с циркулирующим кипящим слоем на основе компьютерного математического моделирования, является весьма высокой для обоснования основных проектно-конструкторских и режимно-эксплуатационных параметров при создании котлов с ЦКС. С помощью наработанных численных расчетов возможно не только правильно осмыслять и понимать физические явления, наблюдаемые, например, на экспериментальных установках, но и в некоторых случаях заменить физический или натуральный эксперимент компьютерным как более дешевым и менее трудоемким.The relevance of research aimed at improving the methods of numerical analysis of aerothermochemical processes in furnaces with a circulating fluidized bed based on computer mathematical modeling is very high for justifying the main design and operational parameters creating boilers with CFB. With the help of accumulated numerical calculations, it is possible not only to correctly comprehend and understand the physical phenomena observed, for example, in experimental installations, but also in some cases to replace a physical or natural experiment with a computer one as cheaper and less time-consuming

Carbon stable isotope analysis of cereal remains as a way to reconstruct water availability: preliminary results

Reconstructing past water availability, both as rainfall and irrigation, is important to answer questions about the way society reacts to climate and its changes and the role of irrigation in the development of social complexity. Carbon stable isotope analysis of archaeobotanical remains is a potentially valuable method for reconstructing water availability. To further define the relationship between water availability and plant carbon isotope composition and to set up baseline values for the Southern Levant, grains of experimentally grown barley and sorghum were studied. The cereal crops were grown at three stations under five different irrigation regimes in Jordan. Results indicate that a positive but weak relationship exists between irrigation regime and total water input of barley grains, but no relationship was found for sorghum. The relationship for barley is site-specific and inter-annual variation was present at Deir ‘Alla, but not at Ramtha and Khirbet as-Samra

Signatures of arithmetic simplicity in metabolic network architecture

Metabolic networks perform some of the most fundamental functions in living cells, including energy transduction and building block biosynthesis. While these are the best characterized networks in living systems, understanding their evolutionary history and complex wiring constitutes one of the most fascinating open questions in biology, intimately related to the enigma of life's origin itself. Is the evolution of metabolism subject to general principles, beyond the unpredictable accumulation of multiple historical accidents? Here we search for such principles by applying to an artificial chemical universe some of the methodologies developed for the study of genome scale models of cellular metabolism. In particular, we use metabolic flux constraint-based models to exhaustively search for artificial chemistry pathways that can optimally perform an array of elementary metabolic functions. Despite the simplicity of the model employed, we find that the ensuing pathways display a surprisingly rich set of properties, including the existence of autocatalytic cycles and hierarchical modules, the appearance of universally preferable metabolites and reactions, and a logarithmic trend of pathway length as a function of input/output molecule size. Some of these properties can be derived analytically, borrowing methods previously used in cryptography. In addition, by mapping biochemical networks onto a simplified carbon atom reaction backbone, we find that several of the properties predicted by the artificial chemistry model hold for real metabolic networks. These findings suggest that optimality principles and arithmetic simplicity might lie beneath some aspects of biochemical complexity

Pre-agricultural plant management in the uplands of the central Zagros: the archaeobotanical evidence from Sheikh-e Abad

Prior to the emergence of agriculture in southwest Asia, sedentarising human communities were experimenting with a diverse range of wild plant species over a prolonged period. In some cases, this involved the cultivation of species that would go on to be domesticated and form the foundation of future agricultural economies. However, many forms of plant use did not follow this trajectory, and in multiple places farming was only taken up later as an established ‘package’. In this paper, we present new archaeobotanical evidence from the Early Neolithic site of Sheikh-e Abad in the central Zagros of western Iran. Sheikh-e Abad is unique in being the only settlement known to date within southwest Asia that lies at an altitude above 1000m and which has occupation spanning the agricultural transition. Thus, it provides a rare opportunity to examine pre-agricultural plant management strategies in an upland zone. Our analyses of the plant remains from Sheikh-e Abad suggest that from its earliest occupation inhabitants were unconsciously ‘auditioning’ a suite of locally available wild grasses which ultimately were never domesticated. We discuss the possible reasons for this from a socio-ecological perspective, considering both the biology and ecology of the plant species in question, as well as the ways in which they were potentially managed