Predicting language learners' grades in the L1, L2, L3 and L4: the effect of some psychological and sociocognitive variables

This study of 89 Flemish high-school students' grades for L1 (Dutch), L2 (French), L3 (English) and L4 (German) investigates the effects of three higher-level personality dimensions (psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism), one lower-level personality dimension (foreign language anxiety) and sociobiographical variables (gender, social class) on the participants' language grades. Analyses of variance revealed no significant effects of the higher-level personality dimensions on grades. Participants with high levels of foreign language anxiety obtained significantly lower grades in the L2 and L3. Gender and social class had no effect. Strong positive correlations between grades in the different languages could point to an underlying sociocognitive dimension. The implications of these findings are discussed

Electrical wound-healing assay for cells in vitro

Confluent cell monolayers in tissue culture are fragile and can easily be mechanically disrupted, often leaving an area devoid of cells. This opening in the cell sheet is then repopulated, because the cells on the fringe of the damage, which are no longer contact-inhibited, move into the available space. This mechanical disruption is often done deliberately in a “wound-healing” assay as a means to assess the migration of the cells. In such assays, a scrape is made in the cell layer followed by microscopy to monitor the advance of the cells into the wound. We have found that these types of assays can also be accomplished electrically. In this approach, cells growing on small electrodes and monitored by using electric cell-substrate impedance sensing are subjected to currents, resulting in severe electroporation and subsequent cell death. After this invasive treatment, the electrode's impedance is again monitored to chart the migration and ultimate healing of the wound. We report here that this procedure to study cell behavior is both highly reproducible, quantitative, and provides data similar to that acquired with traditional measurements