Technology for Oral Assessment

With recent developments in multimedia recording, researchers have begun to investigate the use of technology in oral proficiency assessment. This article addresses the benefits and ease of using seven different multimedia tools to assess P-16 students’ oral language proficiency and compares traditional methods of in-class oral language assessment to out-of-class recordings. Additionally, the authors discuss the potential benefits of using technology to lower students’ affective filter, to provide teachers with a digital portfolio of student progress, and to increase instructional and preparation time

Establish Your Presence in the Blogosphere: A Guide to Blog Development for the Foreign Langauge Classroom

As the wave of technology progresses, the static Web page has given way to the Weblog (blog) as a medium for delivering information. The blog has moved the technology forward with its bidirectional communication ability. This article discusses the evolution of blogs, important considerations when establishing a blog presence, and directions for creating blogs. Online examples are given to guide the reader

What Audacity! Decreasing Student Anxiety while Increasing Instructional Time

Promoting student engagement in the second language classroom can be difficult for teachers. Multiple obstacles such as perceptions of the irrelevance of authentic language applications and the affective barriers (e.g. performance anxiety speaking before peers) tend to hinder student oral language performance. For teachers, especially for beginners, other obstacles appear such as being given the most challenging assignments with little to no professional support. Many times these educators scramble to squeeze the most out of every minute in the classroom for instructional purposes while trying to increase student achievement. Three free and open source software options are presented and findings from two studies of focusing on the use of Audacity indicate multiple benefits for both teachers and students. Afterwards, the authors demonstrate how to use Audacity for oral language assessment and discuss its implications for the world language classroom

New pathways into headship?

There continues to be something of a conundrum in the recruitment of headteachers in England. While “a very large majority of headteachers report being satisfied with their jobs” (Micklewright et al 2014: 17), headteacher recruitment and retention remain major challenges for school governors and policy makers. In this context, the New Pathways into Headship project was commissioned by the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) in January 2013. Tasked with considering new or alternative pathways into headship, the project focused on three research groupings of headteachers. These were defined as: ‘Fast Trackers’, who had participated in an accelerated leadership development programme prior to achieving headship; ‘Young Heads’, who had achieved headship before they were 35 years old in primary schools and 40 in secondary schools (without participating in an accelerated development programme); ‘Career Changers’, who had pursued another career before working in schools and achieving headship. The aims of the research set out by NCTL were to: analyse the size and demography of the three research groupings; identify their career pathways towards headship; explore the school leadership practices of each group.</p

Evolution of pulmonary inflammation and nutritional status in infants and young children with cystic fibrosis

Introduction Improved nutrition is the major proven benefit of newborn screening programmes for cystic fibrosis (CF) and is associated with better clinical outcomes. It was hypothesised that early pulmonary inflammation and infection in infants with CF is associated with worse nutrition. Methods Weight, height and pulmonary inflammation and infection in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) were assessed shortly after diagnosis in infants with CF and again at 1, 2 and 3 years of age. Body mass index (BMI) was expressed as z-scores. Inflammatory cells and cytokines (interleukin 1b (IL-1b), IL-6, IL-8 and tumour necrosis factor a (TNFa)), free neutrophil elastase activity and myeloperoxidase were measured in BAL. Mixed effects modelling was used to assess longitudinal associations between pulmonary inflammation, pulmonary infection (Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and BMI z-score after adjusting for potential confounding factors. Results Forty-two infants were studied (16 (38%) male; 39 (93%) pancreatic insufficient); 36 were diagnosed by newborn screening (at median age 4 weeks) and six by early clinical diagnosis (meconium ileus). Thirty-one (74%) received antistaphylococcal antibiotics. More than two-thirds were asymptomatic at each assessment. Mean BMI z-scores wer

In vitro biomechanical evaluation of internal fixation techniques on the canine lumbosacral junction

Few biomechanical studies have evaluated the effect of internal stabilization techniques after decompressive surgery on the stability of the canine lumbosacral junction. The purpose of this canine cadaver study is to evaluate the stability of the canine lumbosacral (LS) spine in flexion and extension following laminectomy and discectomy and then stabilization with each of the three techniques: pins and polymethylmethacrylate (P/PMMA), two dorsal locking plates (SOP) or bilateral transarticular facet screws (FACET).Using a cantilever biomechanical system, bending moments were applied to the LS and range of motion (ROM) was recorded via a rotational potentiometer. With 3 Nm, the ROM (n = 4 in each group) for P/PMMA, SOP and FACET were 1.92 ± 0.96°, 2.56 ± 0.55°and 3.18 ± 1.14°, respectively. With moments up to 35 Nm, the P/PMMA specimens appeared stable. Sacroiliac motion in the SOP and FACET groups invalidated further comparisons. Each of the stabilization techniques (P/PMMA, SOP, and FACET) significantly decreased the range of motion in flexion and extension for low bending moments

Early afterglow, magnetized central engine, and a quasi-universal jet configuration for long GRBs

Two separate topics are discussed. (1) We describe the classifications of the long GRB early afterglow lightcurves within the framework of the fireball shock model, focusing on the interplay between the reverse and forward shock emission components. We will also provide evidence that the central engine of at least two bursts are entrained with strong magnetic fields, and discuss the implications of this result for our understanding of the GRB phenomenon; (2) We argue that the current gamma-ray burst (GRB) and X-ray flash (XRF) data are consistent with a picture that all GRB-XRF jets are structured and quasi-universal, with a typical Gaussian-like jet structure.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of Santa Fe GRB Conference (talk by Zhang at the meeting

Gods of physical violence, stopping at nothing: Masculinity, religion, and art in the work of Zora Neale Hurston

This essay examines the ways in which discourses concerning masculinity, religion, and aesthetics converge in the work of Zora Neal Hurston. This convergence participates in a much larger confluence of these three discourses during the Harlem Renaissance. The migration of hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the rural south to the urban north provoked massive changes in almost every aspect of African American life. It was a period when, in Du Bois\u27s words, African American men felt their best chance to attain self-conscious manhood. In fact, definitions and ideals of manhood were thrown into flux, and a newly developing secular intelligentsia found itself in an uneasy and sometimes competitive relationship with older models of black masculinity associated with the black preacher. While cosmopolitan authors like Du Bois sometimes created images of black manhood that stood in continuity with but were not contained by the institutional power of the black preacher, writers of the Harlem Renaissance often pictured the preacher of the old south as corrupt images of failed masculinity, embodiments of an Old Negro culture that had to be transcended to realize New Negro possibilities. Zora Neal Hurston\u27s work tends toward imagining Afro-Christian culture as a failure and often posits that failure in images of failed masculinity. Indeed, the weaknesses of this culture most often inhibit rather than contribute to the development of a vibrant literary and artistic culture. It is true that some characters, such as John Pearson of Jonah\u27s Gourd Vine, approach the admirable status of a kind of virile preacher-poet. Nevertheless, Pearson\u27s best attributes seem to come from something other than his status as a Christian, and in fact the church seems finally unable to accommodate the sources of his physical and imaginative strength. Indeed, ultimately Pearson seems to bear out Hurston\u27s declaration that Negro is not a Christian really, that instead the sources of African American imagination must be found more clearly in folklore and in religious practices associated with voodoo and other neo-African religions. Consistently throughout her autobiographical, folkloric, and fictional writing, she derides Christianity as a fainting and unsexed religion, one without the imaginative resources to produce great literature. Ironically, then, Hurston invokes a form of explicitly anti-Christian primitivism as a model of artistic excellence for the cosmopolitan and modern New Negro. © The Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture

Traumatic skull fractures in dogs and cats: A comparative analysis of neurological and computed tomographic features

Background Traumatic skull fractures (TSF) are relatively frequent in dogs and cats, but little information is available regarding their clinical and imaging features. Hypothesis/Objectives To describe the neurological and computed tomographic (CT) features of a large cohort of dogs and cats with TSF. Animals Ninety‐one dogs and 95 cats with TSF identified on CT. Methods Multicenter retrospective comparative study. Signalment, cause of trauma, fracture locations and characteristics, presence of neurological deficits, and 1‐week survival were recorded. Fractures were classified according to the extent of fragmentation and displacement. Results The cranial vault was affected more frequently in dogs (P = .003), whereas the face and base of the cranium more often was affected in cats (P < .001). Cats presented with multiple fractures more frequently (P < .001). All animals with TSF in the cranial vault were more likely to develop neurological signs (P = .02), especially when depressed fractures were present (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.7‐8.2; P = .001). Animals with TSF located only in the facial region were less likely to have neurological signs (odds ratio with Mantel‐Haenszel's method [ORMH], 0.2; 95% CI, 0.1‐0.6; P = .004). Most affected animals (84.9%) survived the first week post‐trauma. Death was more likely with fractures of the cranial vault (P = .003), especially when fragmented (P = .007) and displaced (P = .004). Conclusions and Clinical Importance Traumatic skull fracture distribution and patterns are different between dogs and cats. Cranial vault fractures were associated with neurological deficits and worse survival. The presence of TSF alone should not be considered a negative prognostic factor because most affected animals survived the first week