The Effective Ways of Teaching Vocabulary to Korean Students as a Second Language Learners

The purpose of this project is to create a handbook for EFL teachers in South Korea to help them teach vocabulary more effectively and to help solve the following question: what are the most effective ways of vocabulary teaching by focusing on vocabulary knowledge and speaking production. The goal is to suggests activities that could narrow the gap between learners’ vocabulary knowledge and their communicative competence. For this purpose, this project involves the development of a handbook suggestions for an EFL curriculum and authentic teaching materials, including textbooks, PowerPoint slides and handouts. The primary audience is EFL teachers working with adult learners who are studying for the TOEIC, TOEFL and GRE. This handbook provides a brief background on morphological linguistic units such as root words, affixes, parts of speech, intonations and stresses. It also provides various methods for teaching vocabulary using various media. These methods center on method of loci. Furthermore, the handbook provides resources such as PowerPoint slides and handouts for Korean EFL teachers

Side-View Operando Optical Microscopy Analysis of a Graphite Anode to Study Its Kinetic Hysteresis

Operando analyses have provided several breakthroughs in the construction of high-performance materials and devices, including energy storage systems. However, despite the advances in electrode engineering, the formidable issues of lithium intercalation and deintercalation kinetics cannot be investigated by using planar observations. This study concerns side-view operando observation by optical microscopy of a graphite anode based on its color changes during electrochemical lithiation. Since the graphite color varies according to the optical energy gap during lithiation and delithiation, this technique can be used to study the corresponding charge-discharge kinetics. In addition, the cell configuration uses liquid electrolytes similar to commercial cells, allowing practical application. Furthermore, this side-view observation has shown that microscale spatial variations in rate and composition control the insertion and deinsertion, revealing the kinetics throughout the whole electrode. The results of this study could enhance the fundamental understanding of the kinetics of battery materials

Nonlinear mixed effect models for modeling initial viral decay rates in an HIV study

The Nonlinear Mixed Effect Viral Dynamic Model can easily handle unbalanced repeated and continuous measures data for individuals and is also popular in many other research areas such as biology and pharmacokinetics. Wu . (2004) described a Nonlinear Mixed Effects Biphasic Model to estimate short-term population and individual viral decay rates in their study. Perelson . (1999) and Ding . (1999) reported that initial viral decay estimated for viral decay models would be good markers of the potency of antiretroviral regimens. The aim of this study was to model viral decay rates, and check the validity of the model for the set of data provided and investigate whether the relationships found with baseline covariates and long-term response are consistent with Wu .’s (2004) findings. The Nonlinear Mixed Effect Single and Biphasic Viral Dynamic Models were fitted, and their respective initial viral decay rates were derived. In this study, analyses and reports are focused on the first-phase viral decay rates of the models. The study found that the actual treatment groups were more potent than the control group. It was found that actual treatment effect and the number of multi-PI mutations at baseline had impacts on the initial viral decay rates for both models. Besides, baseline HIV-1 RNA levels had an impact on the initial viral decay rates for the biphasic model. There were no significant differences in the initial viral decay rates for different ages, ethnicities, and gender groups. The study also shows that the initial viral decay rates were somewhat negatively correlated with the baseline HIV-1 RNA levels. A strong correlation between the initial viral decay rates and week 1 virus load reduction from baseline was observed. It was also observed that individuals with the higher initial viral decay rates were more likely to have suppressed virus load at week 24. Also, individuals with higher week 1 virus load reduction, i.e. early viral dynamics, were more likely to have suppressed virus load at week 24. These findings suggest that the antiviral potency or the initial viral decay rates are predictive of long-term viral load response

Identifying people with dementia for epidemiological analysis in electronic primary care records in the UK

There are many epidemiological questions that need to be answered regarding dementia, including the causes, prognosis, comorbidities, and treatment of the condition and complications. Routine data sources including a large electronic primary care dataset provide a way of investigating some of the complicated factors with rich information. However, there has been concern regarding whether dementia is recorded well enough. It has been reported that dementia is often poorly recorded in primary care and so it would be expected to be potentially difficult to identify people with dementia. Before the data sources can be used satisfactorily, it will be important to understand how dementia is recorded, and whether the records on dementia, related symptoms or use of related medications are the most appropriate ways of identifying people with dementia. This study has therefore explored this by conducting a systematic review to understand how dementia has been identified previously in primary care databases in the UK, and added to this by exploring additional terms and symptoms, and medications that might be helpful in identifying people with dementia. The codes from the literature were not very consistent, taking into account the differing study objectives and populations. The incidence rates from the longitudinal study which used reliable measurement techniques to identify dementia with a verified process and a recruitment strategy were higher than the rates from the study using primary care databases in the UK. This implies the method of dementia diagnosis may influence the rates. To identify people with dementia in primary care records, a careful alternative identification method for the study population seems to be required. This study estimated and compared the prevalence and incidence of dementia in the UK using the alternative ways of identifying people with dementia in The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database. The method of comparison of the estimated rates with other studies was employed using the comprehensive list of diagnostic codes. Since the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) was introduced in 2004, there were slight and steady increasing trends in both prevalence and incidence rates up to a recent date. The estimated incidence rates per 1,000 person-years for the 60+ age group who had any of the first diagnosis among the QOF defined codes, Other diagnoses, Dementia symptoms and Prescribed medication were 2.5, 4.7, and 15.9 in 1995, 2004, and 2015 respectively. The estimated prevalence rates per 1,000 persons for those aged 60+ who had any of the first diagnosis among the QOF defined codes, Other diagnoses and Prescribed medication were 2.8, 3.2, and 10.2 in 1995, 2004, and 2015 respectively. The prevalence rates with those codes including the Dementia symptoms were 3.0, 4.3 and 19.4 in 1995, 2004 and 2015 respectively. At least, using of the other dementia diagnostic codes (Other diagnoses) in addition to the QOF defined ones, (and treatments (Prescribed medication) for Alzheimer's disease or various other memory impairments for verification) was evidenced that will not missing out a number of people with dementia, in the comparison of the incidence and prevalence rates of dementia with the other estimates. The codes related to dementia symptoms (including memory loss/forgets, cognitive decline/impairment) seem to cover a broad definition of dementia or pre-existing dementia population in primary care records in the UK which need to be considered furthermore for study designs in epidemiology. They seem to identify the very elderly population with dementia, implying the codes related to dementia symptoms may cover important cases or the related information of dementia in primary care records. Nevertheless, the codes about non-specific or temporary symptoms may need to be used carefully as it is possible for memory or cognitive function to be impaired temporarily due to stress or medications

Mechanical rolling formation of interpenetrated lithium metal/lithium tin alloy foil for ultrahigh-rate battery anode

To achieve good rate capability of lithium metal anodes for high-energy-density batteries, one fundamental challenge is the slow lithium diffusion at the interface. Here we report an interpenetrated, three-dimensional lithium metal/lithium tin alloy nanocomposite foil realized by a simple calendering and folding process of lithium and tin foils, and spontaneous alloying reactions. The strong affinity between the metallic lithium and lithium tin alloy as mixed electronic and ionic conducting networks, and their abundant interfaces enable ultrafast charger diffusion across the entire electrode. We demonstrate that a lithium/lithium tin alloy foil electrode sustains stable lithium stripping/plating under 30mAcm(-2) and 5mAhcm(-2) with a very low overpotential of 20mV for 200 cycles in a commercial carbonate electrolyte. Cycled under 6C (6.6mAcm(-2)), a 1.0mAhcm(-2) LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 electrode maintains a substantial 74% of its capacity by pairing with such anode

Development of frame finite element model for truss structures with semi-rigid connections

The problem of connecting truss structures is one of the major concerns in structural analysis and design. The behavior of truss structures is usually analyzed using a common finite element model, which considers each member as a two-force member. Each truss member connection is treated as a rotational pinned joint, but in the reality, the members of truss structures are usually connected with bolts or by welding. Alternatively, a designer may analyze such a structure using a frame finite element model where joint connections are considered fixed or rigid connections, which provide a connection that is stiffer than the inherent behavior. In this research, instead of using truss or frame finite element models, a substructure technique is employed to develop a more realistic finite element model. Each element is separated into three parts, a main element and two joint elements. The substructure technique is integrated into the frame finite element model to reduce design variables in global equations, to increase deformability of the joint elements, and make the proposed model more realistic. Young’s modulus values of the joints are reduced as a percentage of the modulus of the main elements. Comparison of the results obtained from the proposed model to the truss and frame finite element models are reported

Thin slice sampling of video footage for mother/child interaction: application to single cases

The purpose was to test the reliability of short samples of parent/child interaction for use in single-subject research. Four variable pairs of mother/child behaviour were coded for seven mother/child play sessions. Each session lasted 20 min and 18 min of the session was behaviourally coded using frame-by-frame analysis. The co-occurrence of the mother/child behaviours within a given time window was computed and an odds ratio was calculated for the co-occurrence of the targeted behaviours. The play session was divided into shorter segments (3, 6 and 9 min) and odds ratios of the variable pairs from the shorter segments were compared to the odds ratios from the entire session. Segments of 3 and 6 min did not yield the same pattern of results as the entire session. In single-subject research, evidence of the reliability of the time segment for behavioural coding should be reported in the methods section of original research manuscripts