“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players” – Are you ready to play a role?

Among the different methodologies for TEFL, role-plays / simulations have been used as a common way for fostering students’ learning and practicing the use of English, especially students’ oral skills. In Macau, such skills are especially important for college students who are preparing to join the hospitality and tourism industry. These students will need to face different people from varied backgrounds, and when working in the front line, they will need to solve problems for their clients / customers. English, as the lingua franca, will naturally be used during the process. Consequently, students should acquire adequate communicative competence besides bettering their mastery of the English grammar. The objectives of this qualitative study were to find out students’ opinions on the effectiveness of role-plays for practicing oral skills and what the barriers were. Five Year 1 students of the Institute for Tourism Studies in Macau were interviewed. The responses given by these students showed their appreciation of role-play as a language learning activity and at the same time, their reluctance to be actively involved in the activity as a result of cultural and psychological barriers. The findings suggest that ESP instructors could put more thought into creating suitable environments that allow students to take up different roles with ease

Emotion Regulation in Three Cultures: A Multi-contextual and Multi-level Study of Preschool-Age Children in the United States, China and Japan

Emotion regulation (ER) has been studied intensively, yet there are major gaps in research on the critical role of contexts and cultural meanings of these contexts in the development of ER. Moreover, ER involves dynamic regulation at behavioral and neurobiological levels, systems that become sensitive to cultural contexts/priorities for adaptation. However, we know little about how children’s ER systems are sensitive to cultural contexts/priorities, and at which levels of regulatory processing. In my dissertation, using multi-level and multi-contextual assessments of preschoolers in the United States, China and Japan, I will first examine cross-cultural similarities and differences in behavioral aspects of emotion expression and regulation among preschoolers living in three cultures. Second, I will determine whether children’s neurobiological systems of ER are differentially sensitive to contexts. Finally, I will examine how cultural contexts/priorities may shape children’s ER at both behavioral and physiological levels (emotional expressions and cortisol reactivity). I conclude by discussing implications for understanding ER as a complex system in cross-cultural perspectives.PHDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163027/1/kaip_1.pd

Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors of Children of Alcoholics in Heterogeneous Family Structures

Honors (Bachelor's)PsychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91849/1/kaip.pd

Early socialization of hostile attribution bias: The roles of parental attributions, parental discipline, and child attributes

The goal of this study was to examine child and parent predictors of children’s hostile attribution bias (HAB) with a particular focus on exploring the associations between parents’ early attribution of child misbehavior and children’s HAB in the transition to school age. Participants were 241 children (118 girls) of middle‐income families who were at risk for school‐age conduct problems. Multi‐method, multi‐informant data were collected on maternal attributions of child misbehavior, parental use of corporal punishment, and child attributes (i.e., verbal IQ, effortful control, theory of mind, and emotional understanding) at 3 years, and child HAB in ambiguous situations at 6 years. Results indicated that mothers’ internal explanations for children’s misconduct may either reduce or increase children’s later HAB depending on the specific content of attributions, such that mothers’ belief that children misbehave because of their internal state (i.e., emotional state or temperament) was associated with lower levels of child HAB, whereas attributing power‐based motives (i.e., manipulative, controlling intentions) in children was associated with higher levels of HAB. The findings are discussed with respect to appreciating the complexity of parents’ explanations for children’s behavior, and considering parental cognition as a potential target for early identification and prevention of child HAB and related problems.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150591/1/sode12349.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150591/2/sode12349_am.pd

Brain bases of morphological processing in young children

How does the developing brain support the transition from spoken language to print? Two spoken language abilities form the initial base of child literacy across languages: knowledge of language sounds (phonology) and knowledge of the smallest units that carry meaning (morphology). While phonology has received much attention from the field, the brain mechanisms that support morphological competence for learning to read remain largely unknown. In the present study, young English‐speaking children completed an auditory morphological awareness task behaviorally (n = 69, ages 6–12) and in fMRI (n = 16). The data revealed two findings: First, children with better morphological abilities showed greater activation in left temporoparietal regions previously thought to be important for supporting phonological reading skills, suggesting that this region supports multiple language abilities for successful reading acquisition. Second, children showed activation in left frontal regions previously found active in young Chinese readers, suggesting morphological processes for reading acquisition might be similar across languages. These findings offer new insights for developing a comprehensive model of how spoken language abilities support children's reading acquisition across languages. Hum Brain Mapp 36:2890–2900, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112232/1/hbm22815.pd

5d quivers and their AdS(6) duals

We consider an infinite class of 5d supersymmetric gauge theories involving products of symplectic and unitary groups that arise from D4-branes at orbifold singularities in Type I' string theory. The theories are argued to be dual to warped AdS(6)x S4/Zn backgrounds in massive Type IIA supergravity. In particular, this demonstrates the existence of supersymmetric 5d fixed points of quiver type. We analyze the spectrum of gauge fields and charged states in the supergravity dual, and find a precise agreement with the symmetries and charged operators in the quiver theories. We also comment on other brane objects in the supergravity dual and their interpretation in the field theories.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figure

PD-1 Regulates Neural Damage in Oligodendroglia-Induced Inflammation

We investigated the impact of immune regulatory mechanisms involved in the modulation of the recently presented, CD8+ lymphocyte mediated immune response in a mouse model of oligodendropathy-induced inflammation (PLPtg-mutants). The focus was on the role of the co-inhibitory molecule PD-1, a CD28-related receptor expressed on activated T- and B-lymphocytes associated with immune homeostasis and autoimmunity. PLPtg/PD-1-deficient double mutants and the corresponding bone marrow chimeras were generated and analysed using immunohistochemistry, light- and electron microscopy, with particular emphasis on immune-cell number and neural damage. In addition, the immune cells in both the CNS and the peripheral immune system were investigated by IFN-gamma elispot assays and spectratype analysis. We found that mice with combined pathology exhibited significantly increased numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes in the CNS. Lack of PD-1 substantially aggravated the pathological phenotype of the PLPtg mutants compared to genuine PLPtg mutants, whereas the PD-1 deletion alone did not cause alterations in the CNS. CNS T-lymphocytes in PLPtg/PD-1-/- double mutants exhibited massive clonal expansions. Furthermore, PD-1 deficiency was associated with a significantly higher propensity of CNS but not peripheral CD8+ T-cells to secrete proinflammatory cytokines. PD-1 could be identified as a crucial player of tissue homeostasis and immune-mediated damage in a model of oligodendropathy-induced inflammation. Alterations of this regulatory pathway lead to overt neuroinflammation of high pathogenetic impact. Our finding may have implications for understanding the mechanisms leading to the high clinical variability of polygenic or even monogenic disorders of the nervous system

Ventriculo-atrial gradient due to first degree atrio-ventricular block: a case report

BACKGROUND: Isolated, asymptomatic first degree AV block with narrow QRS has not prognostic significance and is not usually treated with pacemaker implantation. In some cases, yet, loss of AV synchrony because of a marked prolongation of the PR interval may cause important hemodynamic alterations, with subsequent symptoms of heart failure. Indeed, AV synchrony is crucial when atrial systole, the "atrial kick", contributes in a major way to left ventricular filling, as in case of reduced left ventricular compliance because of aging or concomitant structural heart disease. CASE PRESENTATION: We performed a trans-septal left atrium catheterization aimed at evaluating the entity of a mitral valve stenosis in a 72-year-old woman with a marked first-degree AV block, a known moderate aortic stenosis and NYHA class III symptoms of functional deterioration. We occurred in a deep alteration in cardiac hemodynamics consisting in an end-diastolic ventriculo-atrial gradient without any evidence of mitral stenosis. The patient had a substantial improvement in echocardiographic parameters and in her symptoms of heart failure after permanent pacemaker implantation with physiological AV delay. CONCLUSION: We conclude that if a marked first degree AV block is associated to instrumental signs or symptoms of heart failure, the restoration of an optimal AV synchrony, achieved with dual-chamber pacing, may represent a reasonable therapeutic option leading to a consequent clinical improvement

Socioeconomic inequalities in health among Swedish adolescents - adding the subjective perspective

Abstract Background Socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health predict future inequalities in adult health. Subjective measures of socioeconomic status (SES) may contribute with an increased understanding of these inequalities. The aim of this study was to investigate socioeconomic health inequalities using both a subjective and an objective measure of SES among Swedish adolescents. Method Cross-sectional HBSC-data from 2002 to 2014 was used with a total sample of 23,088 adolescents aged 11–15 years. Three measures of self-rated health (dependent variables) were assessed: multiple health complaints, life satisfaction and health perception. SES was measured objectively by the Family Affluence Scale (FAS) and subjectively by “perceived family wealth” (independent variables). The trend for health inequalities was investigated descriptively with independent t-tests and the relationship between independent and dependent variables was investigated with multiple logistic regression analysis. Gender, age and survey year was considered as possible confounders. Results Subjective SES was more strongly related to health outcomes than the objective measure (FAS). Also, the relation between FAS and health was weakened and even reversed (for multiple health complaints) when subjective SES was tested simultaneously in regression models (FAS OR: 1.03, CI: 1.00;1.06 and subjective SES OR: 0.66, CI: 0.63;0.68). Conclusions The level of socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health varied depending on which measure that was used to define SES. When focusing on adolescents, the subjective appraisals of SES is important to consider because they seem to provide a stronger tool for identifying inequalities in health for this group. This finding is important for policy makers to consider given the persistence of health inequalities in Sweden and other high-income countries

A review of assessment methods for river hydromorphology

The work leading to this paper has received funding for the EU’s FP7 under Grant Agreement No. 282656 (REFORM