Describing Lexico-Grammatical Features of English as A Lingua Franca in Kurdistan and The Issue of Intelligibility

Due to the widespread use of the English language, the number of non-native speakers has increased rapidly and lately exceeded the number of native speakers. Now the vast majority of communications are taking place among non-native speakers in international settings, often without the presence of native speakers. Consequently, this dominance of the English language has led to the emergence of a new conceptualization of using the language, which is that as a result of being used in international settings, new varieties of the language have emerged which might not necessarily conform to native-speaker standards. This is known as English as a lingua franca (ELF). The current study fills a gap in the literature by identifying systematically repeated lexical and grammatical features of proficient users of English in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The research compares against other ELF features previously identified in various contexts. The corpus of this study included data collected from both written and spoken interactions. A corpus of 42,094 words of authentic English use by 10 master’s students in one of the English-medium universities in the Kurdistan Region. The analysis resulted in identifying a number of deviations which were both similar and different from those found in previous studies. The results indicated deviations in the use of articles, prepositions, the third person singular –s, redundant marking and non-marking plural nouns, and verbs with high semantic generality. The findings of this research suggest that although a number of lexico-grammatical deviations occur systematically in the ELF in this context, their occurrences did not seem to impede intelligibility or the flow of communication amongst the participants

Support Vector Machine to Detect Hypertension

Development of tools to facilitate diagnosis of some disease such as cancer, cardiovascular, hypertension, diabetes, is of great relevance in the medical field. In this paper, we will present a method based on Support Vector Machine regression model to detect the hypertension based on some risk factors including obesity, stress, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, physical exercises, cigaret consumption and diet lifestyle. Data represents a group of students from the Lebanese universities. After the data pre-processing, two Support Vector Machine models are designed and implemented in order to estimate systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The outcomes of the methods are diastolic and systolic blood pressure. Accurate results have been obtained which proves the effectiveness of the proposed Support Vector Machine for preliminary detection of hypertension

FACTORS AFFECTING THE MOTIVATION OF STUDENTS SPEAKING SKILLS’ PROGRESS

Speaking skill is of great importance to English language learners. As is known, motivation plays an important role in the development of speaking skills. Motivation, in turn, is also affected by other variables. This study aims to analyze the factors that influence learners’ motivation. The analysis was carried out using five variables, namely, motivation, personality, attitudes towards English language teachers, classroom environment and instructional media, and attitudes towards English language. Data collection method included a questionnaire distributed to the participant of this study which included 92 participants from Tishk International University (TIU) studying in education, pharmacy, nursing, and medical analysis faculties. From this research, it is concluded that the variables that have the most influence on learners’ motivation are attitudes towards English language teachers, classroom environment and instructional media, and attitudes towards English language, where these variables have a positive effect on learners’ motivation

Formalin Versus Bouin Solution for Rat Testicular Tissue Fixation: A Histochemical and Immunohistochemical Evaluation

Background: An accurate histopathological assessment and reporting of testicular biopsies require an appropriate tissue fixative. We assessed the histological, histochemical, and immunohistochemical quality of testicular biopsies, comparing 10% formalin versus Bouin solution as tissue fixatives. Methods: This experimental study utilized 20 adult male albino rats equally divided into five cages for 30 days. By the end of the experiment, all animals were anesthetized, and both testes were removed and weighted; one testicle was fixed in 10% formalin and the other testicle in Bouin solution, offering 40 specimens and then subjected to histological, morphometric, histochemical, and immunohistochemical assessments. Results: Formalin revealed high-quality cytological details and better nuclear chromatin detail (P=0.03). At the architectural level, the Bouin solution showed better quality details with less cytoplasmic shrinkage of seminiferous tubule germ cells (P=0.001). Bouin’s fixed tissues were more suitable for staining by trichrome methods but unsuitable when subsequent immunohistochemistry was requested. The diagnostic concordance between the Bouin solution versus formalin-fixed biopsies was 91.7%. Conclusion: This study supports that the morphology of testicular tissue fixed with Bouin solution was nearly comparable to those fixed with 10% neutral buffered formalin. However, the Bouin solution cannot substitute formalin when subsequent immunohistochemistry is considered

CMS Resistive plate Champers

There are many types of gas detectors which are used in CERN in LHC project, There is a main parts for the gas detectors which must be in all gas detectors types like Multiwire proportional chambers, such as the micromesh gaseous structure chamber (the MicroMegas), Gas-electron multiplier (GEM) detector, Resistive Plate Champers... Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment detecting muons which are powerful tool for recognizing signatures of interesting physics processes. The CMS detector uses: drift tube (DT), cathode strip chamber (CSC) and resistive plate chamber (RPC). Building RPC’s was my project in summer student program (hardware). RPC’s have advantages which are triggering detector and Excellent time resolution which reinforce the measurement of the correct beam crossing time. RPC’s Organized in stations : RPC barrel (RB) there are 4 stations, namely RB1, RB2, RB3, and RB4 While in the RPC endcap (RE) the 3 stations are RE1, RE2, and RE3. In the endcaps a new starion will be added and this what my group worked on , we almost finished with the first disc for the one of the end caps and one more disc still for the other one. There are stips for building RPC’s and after that the Quality Assurance steps will be applied on the new RPC’s which are: Leak Test of Gas Gaps and chamber Spacer test of the gas gaps High voltage test of Gas gaps and chamber Visual Inspection of chamber Cosmic test of chamber Online Database And also there is experimental steps which I will I will discuss in the report with the testing procedur

Fabrication of Selective Sensors for Hg2+ Traces in Water Using Graphene Decorated with Metal Nanoclusters

Mercury metal is released into water by different sources including sewage industrial waste, thus, it can enter human food chain. It is considered one of the most harmful pollutant of heavy metals since it is non-biodegradable, and it can enter to human body by different means including direct consumption (for example, through drinking water), absorption through skin, and by respiratory system. Exposure to mercury cause severe effects on human health such as brain damage, kidney failure, damage in the nervous system, birth defects, chromosome breakage, and paralysis [1, 2]. The United Nation Environment Program (UNEP) assessed the annual released quantity of mercury to 4400-7500 tons [3]. In addition, the International World Health Organization regulated the maximum allowed amount of mercury ions (Hg2+) in drinking water to 6 ppb [4]. Nevertheless, previous studies estimated the allowed amount of inorganic Hg2+ in water to 0.5 ppb [5]. Therefore, the development of sensitive, selective, reliable, and cost effective Hg2+ sensors is needed for medical diagnostic, quality control of food industry, as well as water and environment quality monitoring. In this work, we present novel conductometric sensors based on graphene and Au nanoclusters that are highly selective to Hg2+ ions. Electrical electrodes were deposited on the surface of graphene by thermal evaporation. Au nanoclusters were produced by sputtering and inert gas condensation technique inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber, and they were self-assembled on the surface of graphene. To the best of our knowledge, the sensors reported here are the first conductometric sensors based on graphene and Au nanoclusters that are utilized for detection of Hg2+ traces in water. These sensors were exceedingly sensitive to Hg2+ ions, therefore, they have potential to be applied for practical life applications. Gold nanoclusters were produced by the sputtering and inert gas condensation technique inside an ultra-high vacuum system. The system consists of three main chambers (source, mass filter, and deposition chambers) that were pumped initially to a base pressure of 10-8 mbar using two turbo pumps. A gold target of purity 99.99% (Testbourne ltd, UK) was fixed on a water-cooled magnetron sputter head. Plasma was generated inside the source chamber using argon (Ar) inert gas, and it was used to sputter Au from its target through dc discharge type. The supplied Ar gas was also utilized to condense the sputtered material forming nanoclusters, and to create pressure gradient between the source and deposition chambers that enables the formed nanoclusters to travel to the deposition chamber. Each Hg2+ sensor was fabricated using (1 cm × 1 cm) commercial graphene layer on SiO2/doped-Si substrate (thickness of SiO2 is 285 nm, and Si is p-type with resistivity of 0.001-0.005 ohm.cm). Interdigitated parallel Au electrodes (with electrode separation of 100 μm) were fabricated by thermal evaporation using a Torr International evaporator through a shadow mask on the surface of graphene [6]. Two batches of sensors were tested in this work: i) sensors based on graphene only, and ii) sensors based on graphene and percolating films of Au nanoclusters, each has a thickness of 5 nm. For nanocluster deposition, each graphene sample was fixed on a cryostat finger. Nanocluster deposition rate was initially measured using a quartz crystal monitor (QCM) facing nanocluster beam and was fixed on a motorized linear translator. Next, the QCM was removed away from the sample, thus, nanoclusters were deposited on graphene surface. Sensitivity measurements were performed using Hg2+ solutions with different concentrations (0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 3, 6, 20, 40, and 60 ppb). The selectivity was tested using 0.6 ppb solutions of the following ions: Cr2+, Cd2+, Cu2+, Co2+, Fe2+, Zn2+, and K+. The selectivity results of the sensor reveal that the fabricated sensors are selective to Hg2+ ions, and the selectivity is evidently enhanced for sensors with Au nanoclusters. The sensitivity of sensors decorated with Au nanoclusters to Hg2+ ions is higher than that for sensors made of graphene only, which could be assigned to the high binding affinity of Au nanoclusters to Hg2+ ions [7, 8]. This can be explained qualitatively bearing in mind previous studies that investigated the binding energy of the metal ions (under consideration in this work) with either graphene or Au nanoclusters. Upon investigating the binding energy of metal ions with graphene, it was reported that Hg2+ ions have the highest binding energy to graphene compared to other ions (Cr2+, Cd2+, Cu2+, Co2+, Fe3+, Zn2+, and K+), which exhibit slightly lower binding energy to graphene and thus their sensitivity signals are very comparative [8]. The sensitivity of Au nanostructures to Hg2+ ions was found to be large due to their high binding energy [7]. In addition, the binding energy of Hg2+ ions to Au nanostructures is evidently higher than that to the other metal ions investigated in this work [9], which makes the graphene-Au sensor selective to Hg2+ ions. The sensing mechanism of the graphene-based sensors can be summarized as follows: exposure of the graphene sensor to Hg2+ ions decreases electron concentration in the n-type graphene, thus, the conductance of the sensor decreases. Decoration of graphene with Au nanoclusters creates electron scattering centers that increase electron diffusive scattering which decreases electrical conductance. Adsorption of Hg2+ ions on Au nanoclusters causes further decrease in the conductance, which implies the increase in the sensitivity and selectivity of the sensor. In conclusion, the sensitivity of the present sensors is below the minimum allowed limit of Hg2+ in drinking water set by the World Health Organization and that set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. These sensors are small in size and easy to carry outdoor and have low power requirements, thus, they have a potential to be used for practical field applications.qscienc

Exosomal gene fold expression estimation of Leishmania major by real time qPCR in vivo and in vitro

The aim of this research is to estimate the virulence factor L. major exosome by real time gene expression. The higher gene expression in footpad tissue was (29.34), the higher gene expression in day seven culture was (20.37), higher gene expression in day twelve culture was (12.25), highest gene expression in culture line control (8.33). The current work revealed that exosome gene expression was elevated in footpad in comparison to cultures media. The elevated levels were in passage three and lowest levels in passage one, in control culture line the level of gene expression was declined with progress of time

Transcriptome analysis of Sparidentex hasta larvae exposed to water-accommodated fraction of Kuwait crude oil

Abstract Anthropogenic activities have been shown to significantly affect marine life. Water pollution and oil spills are particularly deleterious to the fish population, especially during their larval stage. In this study, Sobaity-sea bream Sparidentex hasta (Valenciennes, 1830) larvae were exposed to serial dilutions of water-accommodated fraction of Kuwait crude oil (KCO-WAF) for varying durations (3, 6, 24, 48, 72 or 96 h) in acute exposure regime. Gene expression was assessed using RNA sequencing and validated through RT-qPCR. The RNA sequencing data were aligned to the sequenced genome, and differentially expressed genes were identified in response to treatment with or without KCO-WAF at various exposure times. The highest number of differentially expressed genes was observed at the early time point of 6 h of post-exposure to KCO-WAF. The lowest number of differentially expressed genes were noticed at 96 h of treatment indicating early response of the larvae to KCO-WAF contaminant. The acquired information on the differentially expressed genes was then used for functional and pathway analysis. More than 90% of the differentially expressed genes had a significant BLAST match, with the two most common matching species being Acanthopagrus latus and Sparus aurata. Approximately 65% of the differentially expressed genes had Gene Ontology annotations, whereas > 35% of the genes had KEGG pathway annotations. The differentially expressed genes were found to be enriched for various signaling pathways (e.g., MAPK, cAMP, PI3K-Akt) and nervous system-related pathways (e.g., neurodegeneration, axon guidance, glutamatergic synapse, GABAergic synapse). Early exposure modulated the signaling pathways, while KCO-WAF exposure of larvae for a longer duration affected the neurodegenerative/nervous system-related pathways. RT-qPCR analysis confirmed the differential expression of genes at each time point. These findings provide insights into the underlying molecular mechanisms of the deleterious effects of acute exposure to oil pollution—on marine fish populations, particularly at the early larval stage of Sparidentex hasta

Exosomal Gene Fold Expression Estimation of Leishmania Major by Real TIME QPCR in Vivo and in Vitro

The aim of this research is to estimate the virulence factor L. major exosome by real time gene expression. The higher gene expression in footpad tissue was (29.34), the higher gene expression in day seven culture was (20.37), higher gene expression in day twelve culture was (12.25), highest gene expression in culture line control (8.33). The current work revealed that exosome gene expression was elevated in footpad in comparison to cultures media. The elevated levels were in passage three and lowest levels in passage one, in control culture line the level of gene expression was declined with progress of time

Weight-bearing in ankle fractures: An audit of UK practice.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this national study was to audit the weight-bearing practice of orthopaedic services in the National Health Service (NHS) in the treatment of operatively and non-operatively treated ankle fractures. METHODS: A multicentre prospective two-week audit of all adult ankle fractures was conducted between July 3rd 2017 and July 17th 2017. Fractures were classified using the AO/OTA classification. Fractures fixed with syndesmosis screws or unstable fractures (>1 malleolus fractured or talar shift present) treated conservatively were excluded. No outcome data were collected. In line with NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) criteria, "early" weight-bearing was defined as unrestricted weight-bearing on the affected leg within 3 weeks of injury or surgery and "delayed" weight-bearing as unrestricted weight-bearing permitted after 3 weeks. RESULTS: 251 collaborators from 81 NHS hospitals collected data: 531 patients were managed non-operatively and 276 operatively. The mean age was 52.6 years and 50.5 respectively. 81% of non-operatively managed patients were instructed for early weight-bearing as recommended by NICE. In contrast, only 21% of operatively managed patients were instructed for early weight-bearing. DISCUSSION: The majority of patients with uni-malleolar ankle fractures which are managed non-operatively are treated in accordance with NICE guidance. There is notable variability amongst and within NHS hospitals in the weight-bearing instructions given to patients with operatively managed ankle fractures. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates community equipoise and suggests that the randomized study to determine the most effective strategy for postoperative weight-bearing in ankle fractures described in the NICE research recommendation is feasible