Reading Instruction and the Language-Impaired Child: Means To What End?

This simple statement alludes to the important relationship between speech and literacy that has come to intrigue and perplex many in recent years. Speech and literacy have been recognized as two complex processes that are conceptually and practically intertwined in the great tangle called language (Snow, 1983; Vellutino, 1977; Mattingly, 1972). Language, a system of communication that employs spoken or written symbols (Harris and Sipay, 1984, p. 247), is defined as a single phenomenon having receptive and expressive modes

Radio Frequency Identification: Legal Aspects

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a wireless technology that identifies objects without having either contact or sight of them. Unlike optically read technologies such bar codes, RFID tags can be read despite fog, ice, snow, paint or widely fluctuating temperatures. Additionally, RFID can identify moving objects. Data in an RFID tag is stored in an integrated circuit, and sent to the reader via an antenna. An RFID reader is essentially a radio frequency receiver controlled by a microprocessor or digital signal processor. The reader uses an attached antenna to capture the data transmitted from the tag and sends the information to a computer, where the data is processed

Economic Feasibility and Market Readiness of Solar Technologies. Draft Final Report. Volume I.

Systems descriptions, costs, technical and market readiness assessments are reported for ten solar technologies: solar heating and cooling of buildings (SHACOB), passive, agricultural and industrial process heat (A/IPH), biomass, ocean thermal (OTEC), wind (WECS), solar thermal electric, photovoltaics, satellite power station (SPS), and solar total energy systems (STES). Study objectives, scope, and methods. are presented. of Joint Task The cost and market analyses portion 5213/6103 will be used to make commercialization assessments in the conclusions of. the final report

Strategic supplier performance evaluation::a case-based action research of a UK manufacturing organisation

The main aim of this research is to demonstrate strategic supplier performance evaluation of a UK-based manufacturing organisation using an integrated analytical framework. Developing long term relationship with strategic suppliers is common in today׳s industry. However, monitoring suppliers׳ performance all through the contractual period is important in order to ensure overall supply chain performance. Therefore, client organisations need to measure suppliers׳ performance dynamically and inform them on improvement measures. Although there are many studies introducing innovative supplier performance evaluation frameworks and empirical researches on identifying criteria for supplier evaluation, little has been reported on detailed application of strategic supplier performance evaluation and its implication on overall performance of organisation. Additionally, majority of the prior studies emphasise on lagging factors (quality, delivery schedule and value/cost) for supplier selection and evaluation. This research proposes both leading (organisational practices, risk management, environmental and social practices) and lagging factors for supplier evaluation and demonstrates a systematic method for identifying those factors with the involvement of relevant stakeholders and process mapping. The contribution of this article is a real-life case-based action research utilising an integrated analytical model that combines quality function deployment and the analytic hierarchy process method for suppliers׳ performance evaluation. The effectiveness of the method has been demonstrated through number of validations (e.g. focus group, business results, and statistical analysis). Additionally, the study reveals that enhanced supplier performance results positive impact on operational and business performance of client organisation

Assembly of Protein Building Blocks Using a Short Synthetic Peptide

Combining proteins or their defined domains offers new enhanced functions. Conventionally, two proteins are either fused into a single polypeptide chain by recombinant means or chemically cross-linked. However, these strategies can have drawbacks such as poor expression (recombinant fusions) or aggregation and inactivation (chemical cross-linking), especially in the case of large multifunctional proteins. We developed a new linking method which allows site-oriented, noncovalent, yet irreversible stapling of modified proteins at neutral pH and ambient temperature. This method is based on two distinct polypeptide linkers which self-assemble in the presence of a specific peptide staple allowing on-demand and irreversible combination of protein domains. Here we show that linkers can either be expressed or be chemically conjugated to proteins of interest, depending on the source of the proteins. We also show that the peptide staple can be shortened to 24 amino acids still permitting an irreversible combination of functional proteins. The versatility of this modular technique is demonstrated by stapling a variety of proteins either in solution or to surfaces

Protein-Protein Fusion Catalyzed by Sortase A

Chimeric proteins boast widespread use in areas ranging from cell biology to drug delivery. Post-translational protein fusion using the bacterial transpeptidase sortase A provides an attractive alternative when traditional gene fusion fails. We describe use of this enzyme for in vitro protein ligation and report the successful fusion of 10 pairs of protein domains with preserved functionality — demonstrating the robust and facile nature of this reaction