371 research outputs found

    Acquisition of third person personal pronouns by L1 Malay speakers

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    This study investigates the acquisition of English third personal person pronouns (henceforth third person pronouns) by first language (L1) Malay learners. The theoretical framework adopted for the study is the Failed Functional Features Hypothesis (FFFH) (Hawkins & Chan, 1997) which claims that second language (L2) learners who begin the task after a particular period of time will not be able to acquire the L2 property and its associated functional features if these have not been instantiated in the learners’ L1. Specifically the aim of this study is to find out to what extent the learners of three different age groups and matched levels of proficiency are able to acquire the English third person pronouns and their associated features (gender, case and number). One hundred and fifty (50 elementary, 50 intermediate, 50 advanced) L1 Malay speakers participated in the study. Two instruments, the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and a Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT), were administered to the respondents. The OPT was used to determine the proficiency level of the respondents. The main task, i.e. the GJT, comprised 72 items (both grammatical and ungrammatical) on third person pronouns, tests the respondents’ knowledge on gender, case and number. The data obtained indicated that the learners in the elementary group had the most difficulty in the acquisition of the items tested, followed by the intermediate and the advanced groups, respectively. This indicates that the learners go through developmental stages of acquisition. Overall, the learners’ performances for the grammatical items were better than the ungrammatical items even at the advanced level, implying that at ultimate attainment, they were not able to reach native-like competence. This could be due to the parametric differences between the two languages for the grammatical property being investigated

    Network governance in US airport taxicab planning activities

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    This thesis examines the use of network governance in US airport transportation planning activities involving taxicab services for airport patrons. The research provides US airports with new insights whereby they can successfully engage with both transportation regulatory agencies and taxicab service providers in developing mutually agreeable policies that foster the development of supply-side taxicab service improvements. A mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods is used to unearth how US airports interact with these actors, and to identify attitudes held by airport staff in their engagements involving airport taxicab planning matters. The research may ultimately lead to the achievement of sustainable increases in the air passenger ground transportation modal share at US airports, resulting in both desirable long-term operational and environmental benefits for airport management, those involved with the provision of airport taxicab services, and the traveling public

    An investigation into teaching strategies for Chinese traditional music in Hong Kong secondary schools

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    Chinese music has always been in the school music syllabuses of\ud Hong Kong but it did not have a firm place until the change of the political\ud status in 1997. The return of sovereignty to China brought about a new\ud stress on Chinese culture for Hong Kong generally and for schools in\ud particular. There is now a strong emphasis on Chinese music, especially\ud traditional Chinese music. However, the emphasis on Chinese music may\ud have caused an overloaded curriculum, as teachers have to cover both\ud Chinese and Western music. It is possible that teachers emphasize factual\ud knowledge about Chinese music, because information about Chinese music\ud can be transmitted by means of technological devices such as CD_ROM,\ud audio and audio-visual teaching materials, PowerPoint and the interne. The\ud use of such aids can alleviate the problems of overload, as teachers can\ud cover most aspects of the teaching topics listed in the music syllabuses.\ud However, it has been argued that the goals of music education\ud should include the acquisition of a personal experience of music, rather than\ud focusing exclusively on acquiring knowledge about music. Reid (1986)\ud claimed that the kind of personal experience-knowledge of arts could not be\ud derived merely from `know-that' and 'know-how', which he called\ud propositional knowledge. He said that an 'acquaintance knowledge of\ud music', which results from direct contact or acquaintance with music, is\ud crucial to the understanding of music. This kind of musical knowledge is an\ud accumulation of knowledge-experience, a kind of personal knowledge of\ud music over and above factual knowledge about music.\ud Reid (1986) suggested that personal knowledge of music should be\ud acquired by means of "renewed and fresh cognitive occurrences and\ud repeated cognitive experiences". However, there has been little agreement\ud on ways to acquire the acquaintance knowledge of music. Therefore this\ud study initially focuses on teaching strategies that might help students\ud acquire personal knowledge of music. What teaching strategies can help students to acquire a personal appreciation and experience of music? To\ud what extent is it possible to formulate teaching strategies to bring about a\ud personal knowledge of traditional Chinese music in Hong Kong schools?\ud From a literature review of Chinese music teaching I identified four\ud observational teaching variables, which appeared to influence the\ud acquisition of personal knowledge. The variables were (a) teaching\ud sequence, (b) the relative proportion of teaching time devoted to giving\ud information and to providing musical experience, (c) students' control over\ud music activities or 'framing' and (d) repeated rather than one-off listening. I\ud investigated each variable separately in a secondary school context. A pilot\ud test was followed by experiments to isolate and investigate the four main\ud variables.\ud In the case of the first variable, there were two treatments: (a) a\ud teaching sequence that placed information first and (b) a teaching sequence\ud that placed information last; In the case of the second variable, there were\ud also two treatments: (a) a high proportion of information-giving relative to\ud musical involvement and (b) a low proportion of information-giving relative\ud to musical involvement (a) In the case of the third variable, the two\ud treatments were: (a) strong didactic instructional framing and (b) weak\ud didactic instructional framing. In the case of the fourth variable, the\ud responses of the same group of students were taken after their first listening\ud to a series of traditional pieces of Luogudianzi in Beijing opera and after\ud subsequent listening to the same music,.\ud Data on students' personal knowledge of Luogudianzi in Beijing\ud opera were collected in two ways. The first quantitatively evaluated\ud students' changes on (a) level of musical understanding of, (b) attitude\ud towards the Luogudianzi in Beijing opera after the teaching of a series of\ud lessons called "Chinese non-melodic percussion instruments and Beijing\ud opera Luogudianzi". Students completed an attitude inventory and a written\ud response on the test music of Luogudianzi after the teaching of the lessons.\ud Their musical understanding of and attitudes towards the test music of\ud Luogudianzi under Treatment 1 were then compared with their musical understanding of and attitudes towards the test music after Treatment 2. I\ud also collected qualitative data on students' attitude towards and musical\ud understanding of the Luogudianzi in semi-structured student interviews, and\ud also interviewed the teacher at the end of a series of lessons.\ud Each teaching variable was tested separately in every experiment.\ud The findings showed that not every teaching variable affected students'\ud personal knowledge of Luogudianzi. Only the teaching variable which\ud emphasized more information and less direct musical experience in listening\ud had an effect on students' attitudes to and musical understanding of the\ud Luogudianzi. Factors which might have contributed to the unexpected\ud results were identified.\ud The study raised as many questions as it answered and authentic\ud musical experience in teaching traditional music remains an issue which\ud deserves further investigation in formulating teaching strategies to bring\ud about a personal knowledge of Chinese music

    Interrogating a collaborative instructional approach to academic literacy: the missing link in supporting students’ language learning

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    In Covid-19’s ‘new normal’ academics have been urged to tear down subject silos and approach teaching collaboratively with renewed interest and increased urgency. An example of this can be found in curriculum-integrated academic literacy instruction which is based on the collaboration between language and content instructors. Case studies frequently report barriers to engaging content instructors in supporting students’ language learning. However, the internal conflicts of language instructors are under-represented: little is known about their subjective experiences and emotions as they go about negotiating and accommodating a collaborative instructional approach. This paper undertakes a narrative inquiry into three language instructors’ stories of teaching discipline-specific academic literacy. In bringing to the fore their reflexive voices on authority, agency and feelings of student resistance, it explores themes around identity and collaboration and underlines a critical missing link that mediates faculty collaboration and student learning. Humanising faculty development and venturing into scholarly enquiry are then proposed as potential ways to empower language instructors to manage the emotional complexities in their collaborative engagements

    Partial protection against enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection in a mouse model immunized with recombinant newcastle disease virus capsids displaying the EV71 VP1 fragment.

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    Enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection may cause severe neurological complications, particularly in young children. Despite the risks, there are still no commercially available EV71 vaccines. Hence, a candidate vaccine construct, containing recombinant Newcastle disease virus capsids that display an EV71 VP1 fragment (NPt-VP1 1-100) protein, was evaluated in a mouse model of EV71 infection. Previously, it was shown that this protein construct provoked a strong immune response in vaccinated adult rabbits. That study, however, did not address the issue of its effectiveness against EV71 infection in young animals. In the present study, EV71 viral challenge in vaccinated newborn mice resulted in more than 40% increase in survival rate. Significantly, half of the surviving mice fully recovered from their paralysis. Histological analysis of all of the surviving mice revealed a complete clearance of EV71 viral antigens from their brains and spinal cords. In hind limb muscles, the amounts of the antigens detected correlated with the degrees of tissue damage and paralysis. Findings from this study provide evidence that immunization with the NPt-VP1 1-100 immunogen in a newborn mouse model confers partial protection against EV71 infection, and also highlights the importance of NPt-VP1 1-100 as a possible candidate vaccine for protection against EV71 infections

    Immunization with recombinant enterovirus 71 viral capsid protein 1 fragment stimulated antibody responses in hamsters

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    Enterovirus 71 (EV71) causes severe neurological diseases resulting in high mortality in young children worldwide. Development of an effective vaccine against EV71 infection is hampered by the lack of appropriate animal models for efficacy testing of candidate vaccines. Previously, we have successfully tested the immunogenicity and protectiveness of a candidate EV71 vaccine, containing recombinant Newcastle disease virus capsids that display an EV71 VP1 fragment (NPt-VP1(1-100)) protein, in a mouse model of EV71 infection. A drawback of this system is its limited window of EV71 susceptibility period, 2 weeks after birth, leading to restricted options in the evaluation of optimal dosing regimens. To address this issue, we have assessed the NPt-VP1(1-100) candidate vaccine in a hamster system, which offers a 4-week susceptibility period to EV71 infection. Results obtained showed that the NPt-VP1(1-100) candidate vaccine stimulated excellent humoral immune response in the hamsters. Despite the high level of antibody production, they failed to neutralize EV71 viruses or protect vaccinated hamsters in viral challenge studies. Nevertheless, these findings have contributed towards a better understanding of the NPt-VP1(1-100) recombinant protein as a candidate vaccine in an alternative animal model system

    Lethal Nipah Virus Infection Induces Rapid Overexpression of CXCL10

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    Nipah virus (NiV) is a recently emerged zoonotic Paramyxovirus that causes regular outbreaks in East Asia with mortality rate exceeding 75%. Major cellular targets of NiV infection are endothelial cells and neurons. To better understand virus-host interaction, we analyzed the transcriptome profile of NiV infection in primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells. We further assessed some of the obtained results by in vitro and in vivo methods in a hamster model and in brain samples from NiV-infected patients. We found that NiV infection strongly induces genes involved in interferon response in endothelial cells. Among the top ten upregulated genes, we identified the chemokine CXCL10 (interferon-induced protein 10, IP-10), an important chemoattractant involved in the generation of inflammatory immune response and neurotoxicity. In NiV-infected hamsters, which develop pathology similar to what is seen in humans, expression of CXCL10 mRNA was induced in different organs with kinetics that followed NiV replication. Finally, we showed intense staining for CXCL10 in the brain of patients who succumbed to lethal NiV infection during the outbreak in Malaysia, confirming induction of this chemokine in fatal human infections. This study sheds new light on NiV pathogenesis, indicating the role of CXCL10 during the course of infection and suggests that this chemokine may serve as a potential new marker for lethal NiV encephalitis
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