The Use of Top-Down Approach in Teaching Listening Through Short Stories

Listening comprehension is the first skill that students should master, because before someone understands and starts to speak, lie or she has to hear sounds, words, or speech pattern. Listening is considered as a difficult language skill since it involves some aspects of the language, for example, vocabulary, understanding the sound, grammar, getting, the mainL_ understandingidea, specific information and reference. The teaching of listening in formal schools is still considered unsuccessful for that it tends to make students boring. Therefore, English teachers should provide more challenging and interesting listening activities. Teaching listening withZ7short stories is said to be one of the way to reduce students boredom and to increase students listening comprehension.For the above reasons, this research was intended to find out whether there was significant improvement of students listening comprehension in short stories after being taught through top - down approach. This research was done in a group pretest posttest design. The population of this research was the eleventh grade in SMA YP UN ILA Bandar Lampung. The sample of this research was XI IPA I and was selected by using random sampling technique. In collecting the data, the researcher administered the pretest, the treatments and posttest. The data was analyzed by using repeated measure t-test. In which the significance was determined by p<0.05. The result of t-test computation showed that (-ratio was higher than t-table (t,>t,.J, that is, (29.330>2.021), it can be concluded that there was a significant improvement of students listening comprehension after being taught short stories through top - down approach. This means that teaching listening through short stories in a top-down approach was applicable to improve sttideiitslistening omprehension ability

Big brother is watching - using digital disease surveillance tools for near real-time forecasting

Abstract for the International Journal of Infectious Diseases 79 (S1) (2019).https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(18)34659-9/abstractPublished versio

Gender-Specific Marketing Strategies Used by Sports Supplements: A Descriptive Study

While the use of sports supplements is common among athletes and active adults, the marketing strategies used by these sports supplement manufacturers remain unknown—especially relative to active and athletic women. This descriptive study aims to describe marketing strategies used, such as color choices, structure function claims, and picture choice, and analyze if there are gender-specific differences within the strategies. A total of 100 best-selling sports supplements were selected from three separate third-party websites. Food products, accessories, and kitchen appliances were excluded. Supplement main webpages and sports supplement-specific webpages were explored to determine which marketing strategies were used and if there were gender-specific differences. Of 169 sports supplement webpages reviewed, only 23.1% (n=39) included pictures that were only/majority female. Only 7.1% (n=12) of supplement bottles used feminine colors, while for supplement pages, only 8.3% (n=14) utilized feminine colors and 43.2% (n=73) used masculine colors. While the number of women athletes continues to grow, sports supplement manufacturers are not using strategies targeted to women. Future research should examine the reasons for this discrepancy and women’s perceptions of purchasing sports supplements targeted to men

Integrability of graph combinatorics via random walks and heaps of dimers

We investigate the integrability of the discrete non-linear equation governing the dependence on geodesic distance of planar graphs with inner vertices of even valences. This equation follows from a bijection between graphs and blossom trees and is expressed in terms of generating functions for random walks. We construct explicitly an infinite set of conserved quantities for this equation, also involving suitable combinations of random walk generating functions. The proof of their conservation, i.e. their eventual independence on the geodesic distance, relies on the connection between random walks and heaps of dimers. The values of the conserved quantities are identified with generating functions for graphs with fixed numbers of external legs. Alternative equivalent choices for the set of conserved quantities are also discussed and some applications are presented.Comment: 38 pages, 15 figures, uses epsf, lanlmac and hyperbasic

Nanostructured Sensors for Determination of 3-(3,4-Dichlorophenyl)-1,1-Dimethylurea Based in Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) Deposited in Screen Printed Carbon Nanotubes

A sensor based on molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) was developed for determination of 3-(3,4-Dichlorophenyl)-1,1- dimethylurea (diuron). The MIP were synthesized by free radical polymerization in wich diuron acted as template, methacrylic acid (MAA) acted as functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) acted as crosslinker. For construction of the sensor, glassy carbon electrode was modified with Nafion® and MIP/NIP (non imprinted polymer) to see the contribution of MIP, as a film, in the diuron recognition. Differential Pulse Voltammetry was used to the quantification of diuron in a range of response 0.4 - 1.2 V in a PBS (pH=8). All parameters affecting the sensor were optimized. The sensor showed a linear response from 1.00x10-5 to 9.616x10-5 M in PBS 0.1 M (pH=8). The limit of detection was 0.58x10-5 mol L-1. The nanostructured sensor was prepared using carbon nanotubes and showed a 4 times greater response than the glassy carbon, showing promising results

Combinatorics of bicubic maps with hard particles

We present a purely combinatorial solution of the problem of enumerating planar bicubic maps with hard particles. This is done by use of a bijection with a particular class of blossom trees with particles, obtained by an appropriate cutting of the maps. Although these trees have no simple local characterization, we prove that their enumeration may be performed upon introducing a larger class of "admissible" trees with possibly doubly-occupied edges and summing them with appropriate signed weights. The proof relies on an extension of the cutting procedure allowing for the presence on the maps of special non-sectile edges. The admissible trees are characterized by simple local rules, allowing eventually for an exact enumeration of planar bicubic maps with hard particles. We also discuss generalizations for maps with particles subject to more general exclusion rules and show how to re-derive the enumeration of quartic maps with Ising spins in the present framework of admissible trees. We finally comment on a possible interpretation in terms of branching processes.Comment: 41 pages, 19 figures, tex, lanlmac, hyperbasics, epsf. Introduction and discussion/conclusion extended, minor corrections, references adde

Ploidy Variation in Multinucleate Cells Changes Under Stress

Ploidy variation is found in contexts as diverse as solid tumors, drug resistance in fungal infection, and normal development. Altering chromosome or genome copy number supports adaptation to fluctuating environments but is also associated with fitness defects attributed to protein imbalances. Both aneuploidy and polyploidy can arise from multinucleate states after failed cytokinesis or cell fusion. The consequences of ploidy variation in syncytia are difficult to predict because protein imbalances are theoretically buffered by a common cytoplasm. We examined ploidy in a naturally multinucleate fungus, Ashbya gossypii. Using integrated lac operator arrays, we found that chromosome number varies substantially among nuclei sharing a common cytoplasm. Populations of nuclei range from 1N to \u3e4N, with different polyploidies in the same cell and low levels of aneuploidy. The degree of ploidy variation increases as cells age. In response to cellular stress, polyploid nuclei diminish and haploid nuclei predominate. These data suggest that mixed ploidy is tolerated in these syncytia; however, there may be costs associated with variation as stress homogenizes the genome content of nuclei. Furthermore, the results suggest that sharing of gene products is limited, and thus there is incomplete buffering of ploidy variation despite a common cytosol

Compression wraps as adjuvant therapy in the management of acute systolic heart failure

BACKGROUND: Guidelines recommend targeting decongestion in management of decompensated HF, with lower extremity edema often serving as the clinical target. LECW are seldom used in the acute setting, with a paucity of data on efficacy in HF, despite serving as a cornerstone of chronic lymphedema management. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Study the efficacy and safety of LECW in acute decompensated HF. METHODS: Open-label, randomized, parallel-group clinical trial. PRIMARY OUTCOMES: Days on intravenous (IV) diuretic therapy, total hospital length of stay (LOS), and 30-day all-cause readmission. RESULTS: 32 patients were enrolled, with 29 patients completing the study. Enrollment was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall LOS was shorter in the intervention group (3.5 vs 6 days, p = 0.05), with no significant difference in total days on IV diuresis or 30-day readmission rate with use of LECW. Fewer patients required continuous diuretic infusion after treatment with LECW (0 vs 7 patients, p = 0.027). The intervention group scored significantly better on the MLWHF (55.5 vs 65, p = 0.021), including both the physical and emotional dimension scores. No adverse events were reported with use of LECW, including a significantly lower incidence of AKI (1 vs 13 patients, p = 0.005). CONCLUSION: The use of LECW resulted in reduced hospital LOS compared to standard therapy, with no difference in days of IV diuresis administration or 30-day readmission. Treatment with LECW also resulted in less continuous IV diuretic therapy, fewer incidence of AKI, and improved quality of life. Trends toward less escalation of diuresis, and greater reduction in edema were also observed