Interaction Strategies Used in an Online Learning Medium by Tertiary Level Students in English for Specific Purposes Course

Negotiated interaction could be one crucial factor which can facilitate the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) learners to achieve their goals both academic and professional domains in the future. This study, therefore, aims to examine two major aspects: the negotiation for meaning strategies that ESP students used in the Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) interaction as well as to explore the ESP students’ perceptions toward using the CMC, whether it leads to their Macro and Micro skills perceptions or not. The data were collected from 25 Business Writing students who are Thai, majoring in English. The study was conducted by using Facebook (FB) group and FB messenger as a CMC medium for the communication; therefore, the comments from pictogram postings and chat logs from FB messenger interactions were used as the main sources in the data analysis process. The Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis (CMDA) proposed by Herring (1996) was employed in the data analysis. Furthermore, coding framework was processed by applying the negotiation for meaning strategies taxonomy that obtained by Samani, Nordin, Mukundan, and Samad (2015). Additionally, the researchers also conducted a focus group interview in order to get the perceptions of students toward what they have encountered. Findings can be revealed into two main parts. Firstly, it revealed that there are nine strategies occurring in the CMC medium: elaboration, confirmation, elaboration request, reply elaboration, confirmation request, reply confirmation, clarification request, correction/self-correction, and reply clarification, respectively. Aside from nine strategies, paralinguistic features, appeal for help, vocabulary request, and reply vocabulary were also found as additional strategies. However, vocabulary check was not found in this study. Secondly, it was found that the ESP students perceived both Macro and Micro skills perceptions toward implementing CMC in the ESP teaching and learning. Therefore, to conclude, the negotiated meaning strategies were used by the students while they were interacting to each other via CMC interaction in order to achieve the discussion activities and also solve some difficulties in such conversations. Additionally, applying this medium could be able to facilitate the learners’ knowledge and increased the practical experiences which are professional domains in the future workplace.

Distribution of virulence genes involved in biofilm formation in multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii clinical isolates

Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen that is the major cause of hospital-acquired infections. It has been shown that A. baumannii with high biofilm formation increases the risk of acquiring infection. In this study, the prevalence of virulence genes involved in biofilm formation was determined in 225 A. baumannii clinical isolates from three hospitals in Thailand. Most of the isolates were multidrug-resistant A. baumannii strains (86.2%). Among all isolates, 76.9% (173/225) showed biofilm formation ability. The association between biofilm forming ability and gentamicin resistance was found (P < 0.05). The presence of virulence genes, epsA, bap, ompA, bfmS and blaPER-1 genes, was investigated by PCR. The prevalence of ompA, bfmS, bap, blaPER-1 and epsA genes among the isolated strains was 84.4%, 84%, 48%, 30.2%, respectively. Biofilm formation related genes, ompA and bap were associated with multidrug-resistant A. baumannii strains. The result of this study revealed that a high prevalence of biofilm-forming phenotypes among A. baumannii strains obtained from different hospitals. Effective strategies to prevent infection due to A. baumannii that produce biofilms are therefore needed. [Int Microbiol 19(2):121-129 (2016)]Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii · biofilms · virulence gene

The Use of Verbal Rhetorical Devices to Construct Readers’ Ideology in Online News Headlines

Headline editorials have their merit to create inventive language choices to meet a targeted discourse. This paper serves as an understanding on how news discourse can be elaborated by taking both meaning and effects of language use in the production and interpretation of a text into account. Gathering the key instrument from 139 relevant online news headlines under the discourse of Gerwani, a debarred women’s organization in Indonesia’s New Order regime from various online news websites publication year 1999-2016, this research aims to: 1) identify verbal rhetorical devices (alliteration, parallelism, testimonial, metonymy, irony, quotation out of context, rhetorical question, and antithesis) used in the headlines, and 2) elaborate the use of verbal rhetoric devices and how they serve the readers with persuasive manner toward their ideology, including beliefs, opinions, and value systems, regarding with Gerwani-related case. The analysis proved that the use of verbal rhetorical devices in online news headlines contributed to create relevance of the topic, thus, aided the readers to perceive intended meaning, which might influence the establishment of power to construct their ideology. Consequently, the use of language can never be separated in socio-cultural contexts of a particular society, driving a persuaded manner for headline-oriented and language practitioners to notice how important it is to use verbal rhetorical devices as one of incorporating attitudes in delivering messages in public sphere ensuring a variety of contents and contexts to be perceived.

Biofilm formation of methicillin-resistant coagulase negative staphylococci (MR-CoNS) isolated from community and hospital environments

<div><p>Methicillin-resistant coagulase negative staphylococci (MR-CoNS) are the major cause of infectious diseases because of their potential ability to form biofilm and colonize the community or hospital environments. This study was designed to investigate the biofilm producing ability, and the presence of <i>mecA</i>, <i>ica</i>AD, <i>bap</i> and <i>fnb</i>A genes in MR-CoNS isolates. The MR-CoNS used in this study were isolated from various samples of community environment and five wards of hospital environments, using mannitol salt agar (MSA) supplemented with 4 μg/ml of oxacillin. The specie level of <i>Staphylococcus haemolyticus</i>, <i>Staphylococcus epidermidis</i>, <i>Staphylococcus hominis</i> and <i>Staphylococcus warneri</i> was identified by specific primers of <i>groESL</i> (<i>S</i>. <i>haemolyticus</i>), <i>rdr</i> (<i>S</i>. <i>epidermidis</i>) and <i>nuc</i> (<i>S</i>. <i>hominis</i> and <i>S</i>. <i>warneri</i>). The remainder isolates were identified by <i>tuf</i> gene sequencing. Biofilm production was determined using Congo red agar (CRA) and Microtiter plate (MTP) assay. The <i>mecA</i> and biofilm associated genes (<i>ica</i>AD, <i>fnb</i>A and <i>bap</i>) were detected using PCR method. From the 558 samples from community and hospital environments, 292 MR-CoNS were isolated (41 from community environments, and 251 from hospital environments). <i>S</i>. <i>haemolyticus</i> (41.1%) and <i>S</i>. <i>epidermidis</i> (30.1%) were the predominant species in this study. Biofilm production was detected in 265 (90.7%) isolates by CRA, and 260 (88.6%) isolates were detected by MTP assay. The staphylococci isolates derived from hospital environments were more associated with biofilm production than the community-derived isolates. Overall, the <i>ica</i>AD and <i>bap</i> genes were detected in 74 (29.5%) and 14 (5.6%) of all isolates from hospital environments. When tested by MTP, the <i>ica</i>AD gene from hospital environment isolates was associated with biofilm biomass. No association was found between <i>bap</i> gene and biofilm formation. The MR-CoNS isolates obtained from community environments did not harbor the <i>ica</i>AD and <i>bap</i> genes. Conversely, <i>fnb</i>A gene presented in MR-CoNS isolated from both community and hospital environments. The high prevalence of biofilm producing MR-CoNS strains demonstrated in this study indicates the persisting ability in environments, and is useful in developing prevention strategies countering the spread of MR-CoNS.</p></div

Presence of biofilm production and adhesion genes in MR-CoNS.

<p>Presence of biofilm production and adhesion genes in MR-CoNS.</p

The ability to produce slime and biofilms (OD₅₇₀) of MR-CoNS isolates.

<p>The ability to produce slime and biofilms (OD₅₇₀) of MR-CoNS isolates.</p

List of primers used in this study.

<p>List of primers used in this study.</p

Comparisons of biofilm forming ability between the present and absent of each virulence genes.

<p>(A) (B) (C) (D) <i>P</i>- values represent the comparisons of median OD₅₇₀ between two groups of MR-CoNS (Mann–Whitney U-tests, <i>P</i> < 0.0). Species distribution in other species were <i>S</i>. <i>capitis</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>warneri</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>cohnii</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>pasteuri</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>caprae</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>hominis</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>saprophyticus</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>nepalensis</i> and <i>Staphylococcus</i> spp.</p

Drug resistance of MR-CoNS isolated from community and hospital environments.

<p>Drug resistance of MR-CoNS isolated from community and hospital environments.</p

Biofilm producing ability of MR-CoNS obtained from community and hospital environments.

<p>(A) (B) (C) (D) and (E) Two group comparisons of median OD₅₇₀ were analyzed by using Mann–Whitney U-tests (<i>P</i>-values < 0.05 indicate the statistical differences). (A) The comparison of OD₅₇₀ among <i>S</i>. <i>epidermidis</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>haemolyticus</i> and other staphylococcal species. (B) (C) (D) and (E) the comparison of OD₅₇₀ of MR-CoNS species between community and hospital isolates. Species distribution in other species were <i>S</i>. <i>capitis</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>warneri</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>cohnii</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>pasteuri</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>caprae</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>hominis</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>saprophyticus</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>nepalensis</i> and <i>Staphylococcus</i> spp.</p