Teaching Story without Struggle: Using Graded Readers and Their Audio Packs in the EFL Classroom

In recent years the support for extensive reading (ER) in English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) programs has been compelling. When practicing extensive reading, the learner reads a wide variety of texts for pleasure and achieves a general understanding of the content while deciphering unknown words through context. This approach contrasts with intensive reading, a more traditional approach based on a slow, careful reading of a text, with goals of complete comprehension and the identification of specific details and information

Underwriting Apophenia and Cryptids: Are Cycles Statistical Figments of our Imagination?

This paper re-examines the evidence in favour of the existence of underwriting cycles in property and casualty insurance and their economical significance. Using a meta-analysis of published papers in the area of insurance economics, we show that the evidence supporting the existence of underwriting cycles is misleading. There is, in fact, little evidence in favour of insurance cycles with a linear autoregressive character. This means that any cyclicality in firm profitability in the property and casualty insurance industry is not predictable in a classical econometric framework. It follows that pricing in the property and casualty insurance industry is not incompatible with that of a competitive market

Chronic pain and sex differences:Women accept and move, while men feel blue

Purpose The aim of this study is to explore differences between male and female patients entering a rehabilitation program at a pain clinic in order to gain a greater understanding of different approaches to be used in rehabilitation. Method 1371 patients referred to a specialty pain rehabilitation clinic, completed sociodemographic and pain related questionnaires. They rated their pain acceptance (CPAQ-8), their kinesiophobia (TSK), the impact of pain in their life (MPI), anxiety and depression levels (HAD) and quality of life scales: the SF-36, LiSat-11, and the EQ-5D. Because of the large sample size of the study, the significance level was set at the p amp;lt;= .01. Results Analysis by t-test showed that when both sexes experience the same pain severity, women report significantly higher activity level, pain acceptance and social support while men report higher kinesiophobia, mood disturbances and lower activity level. Conclusion Pain acceptance (CPAQ-8) and kinesiophobia (TSK) showed the clearest differences between men and women. Pain acceptance and kinesiophobia are behaviorally defined and have the potential to be changed.Funding Agencies|Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR); Vardal Foundation; RehSAM; AFA insurance, Sweden; Swedish Association for Survivors of Accident and Injury (RTP); Renee Eanders Foundation</p

The Impact of Mortgage-Backed Securities on Capital Requirements of Life Insurers in the Financial Crisis of 2007–2008

In this paper, we explore U.S. life insurers’ exposure to mortgage backed securities (MBS) and its potential impact on capital should the credit ratings of these bonds be lowered. We analyse 2 years: 2003 (well before the realisation of problems with these instruments) and 2006 (immediately prior). We create five potential scenarios of different severity for recategorising MBS credit ratings and compute the theoretical impact on measured insurer asset risk, via a proxy for the C-1 component of life insurers’ risk-based capital. Under all scenarios, we find large increases in assessed asset risk. We then model insurer capital structure as a function of asset risk and other factors to assess whether insurers had prepared their capital structures for the possibility of problems with these instruments. Our findings indicate not only that insurers were unprepared for MBS downgrades, but also that they reduced capital as they accumulated MBS, as though acquiring MBS should raise the overall quality of the investment portfolio. Finally, we analyse possible adjustments to capital to accommodate the now recognised increased risks of MBS. Our models suggest, for example, that an insurer with median residential MBS exposure might be expected to increase its capital by 10 per cent or more to maintain a historical relationship between capital and risk factors, in the event of a moderate recategorisation of MBS risk. Even larger adjustments are indicated should the crisis spread to commercial MBS as well. The Geneva Papers (2009) 34, 100–118. doi:10.1057/gpp.2008.40

Tuning the photophysical properties of cationic iridium(III) complexes containing cyclometallated 1-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-1H-pyrazole through functionalized 2,2′-bipyridine ligands: blue but not blue enough

Four new heteroleptic iridium(III) complexes in the family [Ir(dfppz)2(N^N)]+, where Hdfppz = 1-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-1H-pyrazole and N^N = 6-phenyl-2,2′-bipyridine (1), 4,4′-(di-tert-butyl)-6-phenyl-2,2′-bipyridine (2), 4,4′-(di-tert-butyl)-6,6′-diphenyl-2,2′-bipyridine (3) and 4,4′-bis(dimethylamino)-2,2′-bipyridine (4), have been synthesized as the hexafluoridophosphate salts and fully characterized. Single crystal structures of ligand 3 and the precursor [Ir2(dfppz)4(μ-Cl)2] have been determined, along with the structures of the complexes 4{[Ir(dfppz)2(1)][PF6]}·3CH2Cl2, [Ir(dfppz)2(3)][PF6]·CH2Cl2 and [Ir(dfppz)2(4)][PF6]·CH2Cl2. The role of inter- and intramolecular face-to-face π-stacking in the solid state is discussed. In the [Ir(dfppz)2(N^N)]+ (N^N = 1–3) cations, the phenyl substituent in ligands 1, 2 or 3 undergoes hindered rotation on the NMR timescale at 298 K in solution and the systems have been studied by variable temperature NMR spectroscopy. Acetonitrile solutions of [Ir(dfppz)2(N^N)][PF6] (N^N = 1–3) exhibit similar absorption spectra arising from ligand-based transitions; absorption intensity is enhanced on going to [Ir(dfppz)2(4)][PF6] and the spectrum extends further into the visible region. Acetonitrile solutions of the complexes are blue emitters with λem = 517, 505, 501 and 493 nm for N^N = 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively (λexc = 280–310 nm). The redox behaviours of [Ir(dfppz)2(N^N)][PF6] (N^N = 1–3) are similar, and the introduction of the electron-donating NMe2 substituents onto the N^N ligand shifts the metal-centred oxidation to less positive potentials. Theoretical calculations predict a mixed metal-to-ligand/ligand-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT/LLCT) character for the emitting triplet state in agreement with the broad and unstructured character of the emission bands. The NMe2 substituents enlarge the HOMO–LUMO gap and blue-shifts the emission of [Ir(dfppz)2(4)]+ that is centred on the ancillary ligand. These complexes, when processed into a thin film and sandwiched between two electrodes, lead to very low voltage operating electroluminescent devices. No additional components are needed, which demonstrates their electron and hole transport abilities in conjunction with the luminescent properties