THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICES OF MOBILE-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING AND MIND MAPPING IN THE TEACHING OF WRITING IN ESL CLASSROOMS

Mobile assisted language learning (MALL) is a highly popularmultidisciplinary study field which increasingly attracts the attention ofscholars around the world. Moreover, it has attracted the scholars whohave realized the potential to apply mobile technologies to enhancelearning. This paper explores the perspectives and practices of mobileassistedlanguage learning and mind mapping and their practices inteaching of writing in the ESL classrooms. Few aspects are covered likedefining MALL, theoretical perspectives drawn from MALL, relatingthese to the practice of MALL and mind mapping in writing, pedagogicalapproaches used in MALL and issues faced in the ESL writingclassrooms. Thus, it is showed that MALL can be incorporated intowriting by using it with several writing approaches and techniques whichcounterparts the pedagogical advantages in mobile language learningcontexts. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the reviewedstudies and it implicates that mobile learning and mind mapping has goodprospects for teaching writing to ESL students

Chitty culinary traditions in Melaka, Malaysia.

The article offers information about the culinary traditions of Chitty in Melaka, Malaysia. It mentions that the Chitty are also called Peranakan Indians, thus describing their origin, in the same way as the phrase is used to determine Peranakan Chinese. Moreover, modern Chitty continue to practice Hinduism, although the Chitty women can be easily determined from Indian women by their Nyonya or Malay dress

Preliminary Study on Machining Condition Monitoring System Using 3-Channel Force Sensor Analyzed by I-kaz Multilevel Method

Cutting tool wear is one of the major problems affecting the finished product in term of surface finish quality, dimensional precision and the cost of the defect. This paper discusses the preliminary study on machining condition monitoring system using force data captured using 3-channel force sensor. The data were analyzed by I-kaz multilevel method to monitor the flank wear progression during the machining. The flank wear of the cutting insert was measured using Moticom magnifier under two different operational conditions in turning process. A 3-channel Kistler force sensor was assembled to hold the tool holder to measure the force on the cutting tool in the tangential, radial and feed direction during the machining process. The signals were transmitted to the data acquisition equipment, and finally to the computer system. I-kaz multilevel method was used to identify and characterize the changes in the signals from the sensors under two different experimental set up. The values of I-kaz multilevel coefficients for all channels are strongly correlated with the cutting tool wear condition. This preliminary study can be further developed to efficiently monitor and predict flank wear level which can be used in the real machining industry

Co-combustion of biomass fuels with coal in a fluidised bed combustor.

Co-combustion of biomass with coal has been investigated in a 0.15 m diameter and 2.3 m high fluidised bed combustor under various fluidisation and operating conditions. Biomass materials investigated were chicken waste, rice husk, palm kernel shells and fibres, refuse derived fuel and wood wastes. These were selected because they are produced in large quantities particularly in the Far East. The carbon combustion efficiency was profoundly influenced by the operating and fluidising parameters in the decreased following order: fuel properties (particle size and density), coal mass fraction, fluidising velocity, excess air and bed temperature. The smaller particle size and lower particle density of the fuels (i.e. coal/chicken waste, coal/rice husk and coal/wood powder), the higher carbon combustion efficiency obtained in the range of 86-90%, 83-88%, 87-92%, respectively. The carbon combustion efficiency increases in the range of 3% to 20% as the coal fraction increased from 0% to 70%, under various fluidisation and operating conditions. Also, the carbon combustion efficiency increases with increasing excess air from 30- 50% in the range of 5 - 12 % at 50% coal mass fraction in the biomass mixture. However, further increased of excess air to 70% will reduced the carbon combustion efficiency. Relatively, increasing fluidising velocity contributed to a greater particle elutriation rate than the carbon to CO conversion rate and hence increased the unburned carbon. Furthermore, the bed temperature had insignificant influence of carbon combustion efficiency among the biomass fuels. Depending upon excess air ranges, fluctuations of CO emissions between 200 - 1500 ppm were observed when coal added to almost all biomass mixtures. In ash analyses, the percentages of unburned carbon were found to have increased in the range 3 to 30% of the ash content with the increases of coal fraction in the coal! biomass mixture. Furthermore, no fouling, ash deposition and bed agglomeration was observed during the combustion runs for all tests due to lower operating bed temperature applied. Lastly, a simple model was developed to predict the amount of combustion in the freeboard. This study demonstrated the capability of co-firing biomass with coal and also demonstrated the capability to be burnt efficiently in existing coal-fired boilers with minimum modification

Patterns of negotiation of meaning routine in online forum discussion

This study examines a text-based, asynchronous online forum discussion among English language teacher trainers who were involved in a two-week online professional development course. It investigates the participants’ negotiation of meaning routine when they come across new content related item and describes the pattern of this negotiation of meaning routine. A textual analysis method, employing Smith’s (2003) expansion of Varonis and Gass Model (1985) for negotiation of meaning, was utilised to analyse the discussion threads. The analysis revealed that the participants did engage in negotiation of meaning and all the four negotiation of meaning steps (trigger, indicator, response and reply to response) were evident. It was also revealed that content triggers, local indicator, elaboration in responses and task appropriate response were frequently used. As the application of CMD for teaching and learning is increasing, findings of this study could inform educators about the kind of strategies that could enrich online interaction

Gemcitabine intercellular diffusion mediated by gap junctions: new implications for cancer therapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Solid tumors are often poorly vascularized, with cells that can be 100 μm away from blood vessels. These distant cells get less oxygen and nutrients and are exposed to lower doses of chemotherapeutic agents. As gap junctions allow the passage of small molecules between cells, we tested the possibility that the chemotherapeutic agent gemcitabine can diffuse through gap junctions in solid tumors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We first showed with a dye transfer assay that the glioblastoma and the osteosarcoma cells used in this study have functional gap junctions. These cells were genetically engineered to express the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (TK), and induced a "bystander effect" as demonstrated by the killing of TK-negative cells in presence of the nucleoside analogue ganciclovir (GCV). The ability of gemcitabine to induce a similar bystander effect was then tested by mixing cells treated with 3 μM gemcitabine for 24 hours with untreated cells at different ratios. In all cell lines tested, bystander cells were killed with ratios containing as low as 5% treated cells, and this toxic effect was reduced in presence of α-glycyrrhetinic acid (AGA), a specific gap junction inhibitor. We also showed that a 2- or a 24-hour gemcitabine treatment was more efficient to inhibit the growth of spheroids with functional gap junctions as compared to the same treatment made in presence of AGA. Finally, after a 24-hour gemcitabine treatment, the cell viability in spheroids was reduced by 92% as opposed to 51% in presence of AGA.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results indicate that gemcitabine-mediated toxicity can diffuse through gap junctions, and they suggest that gemcitabine treatment could be more efficient for treating solid tumors that display gap junctions. The presence of these cellular channels could be used to predict the responsiveness to this nucleoside analogue therapy.</p

Coal bottom ash for palm oil mill effluent (POME) decolourization

The utilization of coal bottom ash (CBA) from thermal power plant for palm oil mill effluent (POME) decolourization was studied. CBA is prepared using chemical activation with hydrochloric acid (HCl) to increase adsorption performance. Physico-chemical characterizations of CBA-HCl was analysed using BET for surface area, FTIR for its surface chemistry, SEM for morphology and EDX for elemental analysis. The effectiveness of CBA-HCl for colour adsorption of POME was investigated as a function of pH, initial concentration, adsorbent dosage and contact time by batch experiments. Adsorption increased with increasing contact time and the equilibrium states could be achieved in range of 18 to 24 hr. Results showed that CBA-HCl perform with maximum colour removal of 93% at pH 6 with 10% (w/v) adsorbent dosage in 24 hr. It was shown that the isotherm for adsorption of colour from POME on CBA-HCl was well fitted by Freundlich equation (correlation coefficient, R2 = 0.9636). Based on the results, CBA showed potential adsorbent candidate for POME decolourization

Co-combustion of refuse derived fuel with coal in a fluidised bed combustor

Power generation from biomass is an attractive technology which utilizes municipal solid waste-based refused derived fuel. In order to explain the behavior of biomass-fired fluidized bed incinerator, biomass sources from refuse derived fuel was co-fired with coal in a 0.15 m diameter and 2.3 m high fluidized bed combustor. The combustion efficiency and carbon monoxide emissions were studied and compared with those from pure coal combustion. This study proved that the blending effect had increased the carbon combustion efficiency up to 12% as compared to single MSW-based RDF. Carbon monoxide levels fluctuated between 200-1600 ppm were observed when coal is added. It is evident from this research that efficient co-firing of biomass with coal can be achieved with minimum modification of existing coal-fired boilers