Intercultural Communicative Competence: A Necessary Ability for All

In today’s world, there is a growing need to promote intercultural communicative competence (ICC) due to increasingly multilingual and multicultural societies. Moreover, more people today have contact across cultures than ever before in human history. For these reasons, ICC has become a national and international imperative and a necessary ability for all. In response, many higher education institutions seek to internationalize curricula; however, often without a coherent plan to provide intercultural education to all students. ICC is promoted primarily through study abroad programs; however, only a small percentage of students participate. Similarly, civic aid organizations in various countries promote ICC through international service programs; however, only a small percentage of their populations participate. This paper explores these activities in the United States -- with references to other countries -- and proposes a definition of ICC that includes host language ability as a fundamental component. It then considers the benefits of ICC based on data from two research projects conducted in eight countries. These studies identify attributes attained by participants in intercultural exchanges, and assess their impact on the lives of participants. The positive benefits of developing ICC are cited including their contributions toward promoting tolerance, understanding, and respect for an increasingly diverse world

Exploring and Assessing Intercultural Competence

Exploring and Assessing Intercultural Competenc

Enhancing the intercultural effectiveness of exchange programmes: formal and non-formal educational interventions

This paper examines how the addition of intercultural interventions carried out throughout European credit-bearing exchange programmes can enhance sojourners’ development of intercultural competencies, and it explores how both formal and non-formal pedagogical interventions may be designed and implemented. Such interventions were conducted at a Portuguese university with 31 sojourners throughout one academic year, and their impact was assessed using a mixed methods research design. Sojourners included incoming students of the exchange programmes Campus Europae and Erasmus, as well as highly skilled immigrants. Findings confirm the positive impact of interventions on the development of intercultural competencies and, in turn, their contribution to internationalisation efforts. Implications for further research suggest a need to increase interventions and to develop a systematic approach for fostering intercultural competencies throughout the study abroad cycle

Production of Gaseous Carriers Via Biomass Gasification for Energy Purposes

AbstractIt is under development a biomass gasification plant based on a 1 MWth bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) reactor with internal recirculation. Compared to conventional BFB design, the mechanism of internal circulation of solids can give beneficial effect to the process in terms of biomass conversion efficiency into gaseous product and gas quality. A model describing the process of biomass gasification in the two reaction chambers was developed. Expected results were preliminarily validated by experimental results obtained at a bench scale facility working on the same gasification concept

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Upsets the Proportion of Fatty Acids in Umbilical Arterial but Not Venous Plasma

OBJECTIVE—Neonates of women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have reduced levels of arachidonic acid (AA) (20:4 n-6) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (22:6 n-3). To assess whether this is the result of impaired placental transfer or endogenous fetal metabolism, fatty acids in umbilical venous and arterial plasma were analyzed in neonates of GDM women

Enhanced circulating retinol and non-esterified fatty acids in pregnancies complicated with intrauterine growth restriction

IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction) increases the incidence of perinatal complications and, although several placental transport functions have been shown to be altered in pregnancies complicated by IUGR, the mechanism behind it is not well understood. The aim of the present study was to investigate factors in maternal and cord blood plasma from normal and IUGR-complicated pregnancies associated with the body weight of newborns. At the time of Caesarean section, 24 women with IUGR pregnancies were compared with a group of 30 normal controls with AGA (appropriate gestational age) fetuses who were studied at Caesarean section, which took place 5 weeks later than IUGR pregnancies, and also to a group of 25 non-delivered gestational age-matched control pregnant women (AGA-35wk). Maternal plasma retinol, gamma- and alpha-tocopherol, NEFAs (non-esterified fatty acids), and palmitic, palmitoleic, gamma-linolenic and arachidonic acids were higher in women with IUGR pregnancies than in AGA-35wk controls, whereas stearic and alpha-linolenic acids were lower. Smaller differences were found when comparing these variables for IUGR and AGA women. However, umbilical vein plasma gamma-tocopherol, cholesterol, triacylglycerols and NEFAs were higher in the IUGR group than in the AGA group, whereas arachidonic acid was lower. Maternal plasma retinol and NEFAs were the only variables negatively correlated with birthweight when multiple linear regressions were analysed. In conclusion, the increased levels of circulating retinol and NEFAs in maternal plasma are negatively associated with birth and placental weights, which may reflect an impaired placental transfer in IUGR pregnancies. As retinoids are involved in the control of gene transcription, it is proposed that a decrease in placental transfer of retinol could underlie the metabolic dysfunction of IUGR pregnancies