Drawing on the familiar to create new listening exercises

Many times language learners are vastly deficient in listening mastery while stronger in interpreting the written word or in speaking. This negative situation is oftentimes the result of insufficient opportunities available, for whatever reason, to language learners. Repetitive listening on “familiar ground” might be one way to help improve this drawback. This article attempts to deal with that familiar ground by giving examples and pointers vis-à-vis how to incorporate local characters, local historical figures, and local history and geography into listening exercises. Using this approach, students can more easily recognize in the second language facts and other data they already know in the first languag

Advances in Low-Cost Manufacturing and Folding of Solar Sail Membranes

Solar sail membranes must have a high area-to-mass ratio and high solid volume fraction when stowed. In order to meet mission requirements, current solar sail projects, such as NASAs Near Earth Asteroid Scout, require metallized sail membranes with thicknesses on the order of 2-3 m. These very thin membranes do not retain creases like thicker membranes, solar panels, or paper models. For Cubesat-class spacecraft, volume, rather than mass, is often the driving requirement for deployable structural elements. These two factors make it both difficult and highly desirable to characterize the practical differences between solar sail membrane packaging methods with laboratory demonstrations. This paper presents lessons gathered from lab work with solar sail membranes at a 10-meter scale

Durability Characterization of Mechanical Interfaces in Solar Sail Membrane Structures

The construction of a solar sail from commercially available metallized film presents several challenges. The solar sail membrane is made by seaming together strips of metallized polymer film. This requires seaming together a preselected width and thickness of a base material into the required geometry, and folding the assembled sail membranes into a small stowage volume prior to launch. The sail membranes must have additional features for connecting to rigid structural elements (e.g., sail booms) and must be electrically grounded to the spacecraft bus to prevent charge build up. Space durability of the material and mechanical interfaces of the sail membrane assemblies will be critical for the success of any solar sail mission. In this study, interfaces of polymer/metal joints in a representative solar sail membrane assembly were tested to ensure that the adhesive interfaces and the fastening grommets could withstand the temperature range and expected loads required for mission success. Various adhesion methods, such as surface treatment, commercial adhesives, and fastening systems, were experimentally evaluated and will be discussed

Investigation of Genetic Variation Underlying Central Obesity amongst South Asians

The LOLIPOP study is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, the British Heart Foundation (SP/04/002), the Medical Research Council (G0601966,G0700931), the Wellcome Trust (084723/Z/08/Z), and the NIHR (RP-PG-0407-10371). The work was carried out in part at the NIHR/Wellcome Trust Imperial Clinical Research Facility. The Sikh Diabetes Study is supported by National Institute of Health grants KO1TW006087, funded by the Fogarty International Center, R01DK082766, funded by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and a seed grant from University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, USA. The Mauritius Family Study is supported by the Mauritius Ministry of Health and Quality of Life, Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council NHMRC project grant numbers 1020285 and 1037916, the Victorian Government’s OIS Program, and partly funded by US National Institutes of Health Grant DK-25446. We thank the participants and research staff who made the study possible.South Asians are 1/4 of the world’s population and have increased susceptibility to central obesity and related cardiometabolic disease. Knowledge of genetic variants affecting risk of central obesity is largely based on genome-wide association studies of common SNPs in Europeans. To evaluate the contribution of DNA sequence variation to the higher levels of central obesity (defined as waist hip ratio adjusted for body mass index, WHR) among South Asians compared to Europeans we carried out: i) a genome-wide association analysis of >6M genetic variants in 10,318 South Asians with focused analysis of population-specific SNPs; ii) an exome-wide association analysis of ~250K SNPs in protein-coding regions in 2,637 South Asians; iii) a comparison of risk allele frequencies and effect sizes of 48 known WHR SNPs in 12,240 South Asians compared to Europeans. In genome-wide analyses, we found no novel associations between common genetic variants and WHR in South Asians at P<5x10-8; variants showing equivocal association with WHR (P<1x10-5) did not replicate at P<0.05 in an independent cohort of South Asians (N = 1,922) or in published, predominantly European meta-analysis data. In the targeted analyses of 122,391 population-specific SNPs we also found no associations with WHR in South Asians at P<0.05 after multiple testing correction. Exome-wide analyses showed no new associations between genetic variants and WHR in South Asians, either individually at P<1.5x10-6 or grouped by gene locus at P<2.5x10−6. At known WHR loci, risk allele frequencies were not higher in South Asians compared to Europeans (P = 0.77), while effect sizes were unexpectedly smaller in South Asians than Europeans (P<5.0x10-8). Our findings argue against an important contribution for population-specific or cosmopolitan genetic variants underlying the increased risk of central obesity in South Asians compared to Europeans.Yeshttp://www.plosone.org/static/editorial#pee

Reflections on the development of an EFL reading programme for middle school students of varied levels of English

This personal-experience article attempts to share with the reader an EFL reading and grammar programme that was designed in 2002 for a group of 12 to 14-year olds (6th and 7th graders) whose English levels varied from almost nil to semiconversational. Multi-levels of English in any given group present a considerable challenge to either the EFL or ESL teacher, needless to say. More than one of these&#13; students exhibited evidence of a learning disability, not only in L2 but in L1 as well. For instance, transposition of letters (b instead of d and vice versa) in both languages, poor spelling in L1 and L2, and in L2, writing on the level of a second or third- grade native speaker. A considerable number of these students had been forced to leave other, larger schools for academic and/or disciplinary reasons. So, this teacher swallowed then rolled up his sleeves to go to work (in fear of what the year would bring?). In other words, the teacher accepted the challenge.&#13; &#13; Key words: English-Teaching High School-Programs, Reading-Teaching-Programs, Books and Reading for Children-Teaching High School-Programs&#13; &#13; Este artículo de experiencia personal tiene como objetivo dar a conocer al lector un programa de EFL sobre lectura y gramática que fue diseñado en 2002 para un grupo de niños entre los 12 y 14 años de edad (grados 6 y 7), los cuales tenían niveles de inglés que variaban entre cero conocimiento del idioma y semi-conversacional. Los multi-niveles en inglés en cualquier grupo presentan un desafío considerable para el profesor de EFL o ESL. Adicionalmente, más de un estudiante demostró tener problemas de aprendizaje no sólo en L2 sino en L1. Por ejemplo, la transposición de letras (b en vez de d o viceversa) en ambos idiomas, pobre ortografía en L1 y L2 y en L2 la escritura en un nivel igual al de un estudiante nativo que cursa segundo o tercero de primaria. Un número considerable de estudiantes han sido obligados a&#13; abandonar otros colegios grandes por razones académicas y/o disciplinarias. Así que me alisté para ir a trabajar, remangándome la camisa (¿quizá con el miedo de pensar&#13; qué traería el nuevo año?). En otras palabras, acepté el desafío.&#13; &#13; Palabras claves: Inglés-Enseñanza secundaria-Programas, Lectura-Enseñanza- Programas, Libros y lecturas para niños-Enseñanza secundaria-programa

Drawing on the Familiar to Create New Listening Exercises

Many times language learners are vastly deficient in listening mastery while stronger in interpreting the written word or in speaking. This negative situation is oftentimes the result of insufficient opportunities available, for whatever reason, to language learners. Repetitive listening on “familiar ground” might be one way to help improve this drawback. This article attempts to deal with that familiar ground by giving examples and pointers vis-à-vis how to incorporate local characters, local historical figures, and local history and geography into listening exercises. Using this approach, students can more easily recognize in the second language facts and other data they already know in the first languag

Investigation of the role of TASK-2 channels in rat pulmonary arteries; pharmacological and functional studies following RNA interference procedures

1. In the present study, we investigated the ability of RNA interference technology to suppress TASK-2 potassium channel expression in human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells stably transfected with TASK-2 cDNA and in rat isolated intact pulmonary arteries. 2. Lipofectamine-induced transfection of a specific siRNA sequence targeted against TASK-2 resulted in a dose- and time-dependent decrease in TASK-2 channel protein expression. In siRNA-transfected cells the TASK-2 peak currents were significantly smaller than in control cells at every investigated pH, while the pH sensitivity was not altered. Using scrambled siRNA as a negative control, there were no significant changes in TASK-2 protein expression or current compared to mock-transfected cells. 3. In TASK-2 siRNA-transfected small pulmonary arteries, but not in scrambled siRNA-treated vessels, myocyte resting membrane potential at pH 7.4 was significantly less negative and the hyperpolarisations in response to increasing pH from 6.4 to 8.4 were significantly smaller compared with control. 4. The application of levcromakalim (10 μM), NS1619 (33 μM) and a potassium channel inhibitor cocktail (5 mM 4-aminopyridine, 10 mM tetraethylammonium chloride, 30 μM Ba(2+) and 10 μM glibenclamide) had similar effects in control and in siRNA-transfected vessels. The TASK-1 (anandamide-sensitive) contribution to resting membrane potential was comparable in each group. Clofilium (100 μM) generated significantly smaller responses in transfected artery segments. 5. These results suggest that RNA interference techniques are effective at inhibiting TASK-2 channel expression in cultured cells and in intact vessels and that TASK-2 channels have a functional role in setting the membrane potential of pulmonary artery myocytes