Reading profiles in secondary school: concurrent language and cognitive abilities, and retrospective and prospective reading skills

IntroductionWe examined the concurrent language and cognitive abilities in a group of Swedish students with different reading profiles in secondary school, and the retrospective (primary school) and prospective (upper-secondary school) reading skills of each reading profile.MethodsSeventy-nine students participated in data collections in primary (grade 2: age 8), secondary (grade 8: age 14) and upper-secondary school (year 2: age 17). Independent variables included measures of word recognition, and vocabulary and text comprehension in secondary school. Dependent variables included measures of phonemic awareness, verbal fluency, listening comprehension, spelling, verbal working memory and nonverbal reasoning skills in secondary school, and word recognition and reading comprehension in primary and upper-secondary school.ResultsWhen exploring the concurrent language and cognitive abilities of the reading profiles in secondary school, spelling emerged as a weakness and listening comprehension as a strength for students with poor decoding. Students with poor comprehension experienced weaknesses in spelling, and non-verbal reasoning. Students with both poor decoding and comprehension displayed a multi-deficit profile in language and cognition. As regards the retrospective and prospective reading skills, the relative ranking of the reading profiles was rather consistent in both primary and upper-secondary school.DiscussionThe findings suggest that limitations in phonological awareness may not be a prominent feature of secondary school students with poor decoding in more transparent orthographies. From an educational perspective, spoken sources may support learning among students with poor decoding, whereas students with poor comprehension or combined difficulties in decoding and comprehension need support when learning from both spoken and written sources

Self-efficacy for writing and written text quality of upper secondary students with and without reading difficulties

IntroductionSelf-efficacy for writing (SEW) and reading ability are some of several factors that may be related to the quality of written text that students produce. The aim of the current study was (1) to explore the variation in SEW and written text quality in L1-Swedish and L2-English among upper secondary students with different reading profiles in L1 (typical reading vs. reading difficulties) and with different study backgrounds (SB1year or SB2years = one or two years of studies of Swedish and English, respectively), and in the next step (2) to explore if individual variations in L1-reading and SEW may explain variation in written text quality.MethodsParticipants were 100 upper secondary students (aged 17–18) with different reading profiles operationalized as typical reading and reading difficulties. Data consisted of screening for word recognition and reading comprehension, text quality results from argumentative L1- and L2-writing tasks, school information on study background in Swedish/English, and students’ responses from an online survey about SEW.ResultsAs to SEW results, an ANOVA revealed significant main effects for reading profile and study background in L1, but in L2 there was only a significant main effect for reading profile. Written text quality results indicated that there was a significant interaction effect between reading profile and study background in L1, indicating that the significant main effect for reading profile on written text quality was influenced by the group of students with reading difficulties and SB1year. There was a significant main effect for reading profile and study background on written text quality in L2. Students with reading difficulties and SB1year were the most vulnerable group, and they had the lowest scores in L1/L2 SEW and written text quality in L1 and L2. Multiple regression results indicated that word recognition and SEW contributed significantly to L1-text quality, and word recognition, reading comprehension, and SEW contributed significantly to L2-text quality. Thus, this study sheds light on the under-researched area of L1/L2 SEW and text quality of students with reading difficulties at the level of upper secondary school.DiscussionPedagogical implications are discussed and highlight the need for writing instruction across subjects in upper secondary school and for extra writing support/scaffolding for students with reading difficulties and shorter study background in the language subjects L1 (Swedish) and L2 (English)

Management of Adult Dengue Shock Syndrome Patients Not Improving with DEAG Guidelines Based Therapy

Background: Dengue Expert Advisory Group (DEAG) guidelines are used for management of dengue patients in our scenario. It was observed in last consecutive dengue epidemics at Rawalpindi that some of the dengue shock syndrome (DSS) patients don’t improve unless modifications in DEAG guidelines are made. This study was conducted to evaluate modified DEAG management guidelines in DSS patients with decompensated shock who were not improving with treatment based on standard DEAG guidelines.Methods: This quasi experimental study was conducted at Dengue Units of Hospitals attached with Rawalpindi Medical College during Rawalpindi dengue epidemic 2015. Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS) patients who were not improving with DEAG guidelines based treatment, were managed as per modified treatment plan i.e., continuing with colloid or blood depending on HCT in tapering way for initial few hours after hemodynamic stabilization is achieved. Outcome was recorded in terms of improvement/recovery and mortality. Poor outcome (mortality was correlated with mean age, gender, primary or secondary dengue infection, presence of additional illnesses and mean duration of hospital stay by Chi2 and t test wherever relevant.Results: Seventeen patients were included in the study. 64.7% were female. Mean patient age was 31.29±9.56 years. Thirteen patients (76.47%) recovered and were discharged. Four patients (23.52%) expired. Poor outcome had statistically significant association with presence of additional illnesses and shorter duration of hospital stay (p value <0.05).Conclusion: Modification in DEAG treatment plan lead to better outcome in majority of DSS patients who did not improve with DEAG standard management

Application of silver in microtubular solid oxide fuel cells

In this paper, the behaviour of silver as cathode conductive material, interconnect wire, and sealing for anode lead connection for microtubular solid oxide fuel cells (µSOFC) is reported. The changes in silver morphology are examined by scanning electron microscopy on cells that had been operated under reformed methane. It is found that using silver in an solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack can improve the cell performance. However, it is also concluded that silver may be responsible for cell degradation. This report brings together and explains all the known problems with application of silver for SOFCs. The results show that silver is unstable in interconnect and in cathode environments. It is found that the process of cell passivation/activation promotes silver migration. The difference in thermal expansion of silver and sealant results in damage to the glass. It is concluded that when silver is exposed to a dual atmosphere condition, high levels of porosity formation is seen in the dense silver interconnect. The relevance of application of silver in SOFC stacks is discussed

DOM benchmark comparison of the front-end JavaScript frameworks React, Angular, Vue, and Svelte

One of the most used tools for creating interactive, advanced, and easily maintainable websites in 2020 is the programming language JavaScript. Over the last decade, many front-end frameworks have been built on top of JavaScript, which makes creation, design, and maintenance of interactive websites easier. As of 2020, the most popular front-end JavaScript frameworks were, by a large margin, React and Vue, followed by Angular. A relatively new framework called Svelte was also gaining in popularity and raised developer interest. This study will evaluate the performance of these front-end JavaScript frameworks. The criteria for evaluation are primarily based on speed of completing certain operations related to DOM elements in the web browser, such as DOM element addition, editing, and removal. Non-technical evaluation points include differences in architecture, development experience, popularity, maturity, and availability. To set the context for the study of these frameworks, the study begins with an outline of the history and development of JavaScript. Its current status and versions are also described. Surrounding technologies relevant to the study are presented, such as DOM and HTML. Following this, the key features of front-end JavaScript frameworks are investigated, and the development setup process for a generic framework is documented. The criteria for selecting frameworks for evaluation is presented, and the four selected front-end frameworks are then investigated and evaluated. A benchmark JavaScript application is described and created for each of the frameworks. With this reference application, a number of technical benchmarks are performed, where the frameworks are rated according to how well they perform various DOM data updates. Finally, a recommendation is made on which frameworks are best suited for use, and how the future landscape of front-end JavaScript frameworks is likely to develop