Technology in elt to improve learners’ communicative competence

The topic of technology has become very popular in ELT, especially with the transition to online education in the COVID pandemic times. There are a multitude of benefits of using technology for students (and teachers). However, teachers often believe that they are not tech-savvy and avoid using technology. This article will prepare educators to implement various tools to raise their self-confidence in terms of technology use. The article includes the latest research on the topic of technology in teaching languages, and offers practical applications and authentic tasks to raise teachers’ tech awareness and readiness. Enhancing teachers’ technological skills can help design curriculum and lesson plans more efficiently. By doing so, teachers can keep students engaged and motivated through digitally generated activities. The article will offer ideas for a fun schema activating task, a theoretical discussion, and practical applications of the suggested digital tools. The key takeaway from this article is that tea

The world's largest oil and gas hydrocarbon deposits: ROSA database and GIS project development

This article proposes the use of Big Data principles to support the future extraction of hydrocarbon resources. It starts out by assessing the possible energy-system transformations in order to shed some light on the future need for hydrocarbon resource extraction and corresponding drilling needs. The core contribution of this work is the development of a new database and the corresponding GIS (geographic information system) visualization project as basis for an analytical study of worldwide hydrocarbon occurrences and development of extraction methods. The historical period for the analytical study is from 1900 to 2000. A number of tasks had to be implemented to develop the database and include information about data collection, processing, and development of geospatial data on hydrocarbon deposits. Collecting relevant information made it possible to compile a list of hydrocarbon fields, which have served as the basis for the attribute database tables and its further filling. To develop an attribute table, the authors took into account that all accumulated data features on hydrocarbon deposits and divided them into two types: static and dynamic. Static data included the deposit parameters that do not change over time. On the other hand, dynamic data are constantly changing. Creation of a web service with advanced functionality based on the Esri Geoportal Server software platform included search by parameter presets, viewing and filtering of selected data layers using online mapping application, sorting of metadata, corresponding bibliographic information for each field and keywords accordingly. The collected and processed information by ROSA database and GIS visualization project includes more than 100 hydrocarbon fields across different countries

ON SOME BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF INFLUENZA VIRUSES TYPE A ISOLATED DURING THE PERIOD 1981-1983

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CHARACTERIZATION O F SOME BIOLOGICAL MARKERS AND ANTIGENIC STRUCTURE OF INFLUENZA VIRUSES TYPE A ISOLATED DURING THE PERIOD 1986-1987 IN SEVERAL DISTRICTS OF NORTH-EASTERN BULGARIA

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Stress-related anhedonia is associated with ventral striatum reactivity to reward and transdiagnostic psychiatric symptomatology

BACKGROUND: Early life stress (ELS) is consistently associated with increased risk for subsequent psychopathology. Individual differences in neural response to reward may confer vulnerability to stress-related psychopathology. Using data from the ongoing Duke Neurogenetics Study, the present study examined whether reward-related ventral striatum (VS) reactivity moderates the relationship between retrospectively reported ELS and anhedonic symptomatology. We further assessed whether individual differences in reward-related VS reactivity were associated with other depressive symptoms and problematic alcohol use via stress-related anhedonic symptoms and substance use-associated coping. METHOD: Blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was collected while participants (n = 906) completed a card-guessing task, which robustly elicits VS reactivity. ELS, anhedonic symptoms, other depressive symptoms, coping behavior, and alcohol use behavior were assessed with self-report questionnaires. Linear regressions were run to examine whether VS reactivity moderated the relationship between ELS and anhedonic symptoms. Structural equation models examined whether this moderation was indirectly associated with other depression symptoms and problematic alcohol use through its association with anhedonia. RESULTS: Analyses of data from 820 participants passing quality control procedures revealed that the VS × ELS interaction was associated with anhedonic symptoms (p = 0.011). Moreover, structural equation models indirectly linked this interaction to non-anhedonic depression symptoms and problematic alcohol use through anhedonic symptoms and substance-related coping. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that reduced VS reactivity to reward is associated with increased risk for anhedonia in individuals exposed to ELS. Such stress-related anhedonia is further associated with other depressive symptoms and problematic alcohol use through substance-related coping

ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF PROFESSIONAL DUTY IN NURSING

Over time, nursing practice has emerged as an independent profession based on theoretical knowledge, practical experience, and scientific justification. The professional duty of medical specialists corresponds to the rights of the patient. To be professionally responsible means to make decisions about what is good or bad, right or wrong, taking into account the final result of the actions - the greatest benefit to the patient. PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to examine the ethical aspects of professional duty in the nursing profession by analyzing international and national codes of ethics. METHODS: In order to achieve this goal, we have used general and private science methods and approaches, including documentary method, analysis and synthesis, comparative method. RESULTS: Various nursing codes of ethics were reviewed- The Nightingale Pledge, The ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses, The ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements, The Code of Professional ethics for Nurses, Midwives and Associated Medical Specialists in the Republic of Bulgaria, Guidance for good medical practice. The codes were analyzed in a comparative aspect in terms of volume, content, and practical orientation. CONCLUSION: Codes of ethics are meaningless without professionals who are motivated to act morally in every situation containing ethical issue. Nursing students must understand their role as responsible future professionals and be familiar with the content of the Ethical code and the Guidance of good medical practice. The implementation of the ethical norms is controlled by specially formed bodies of the professional organization

Everyday Things Change: Australian Athlete Communication During the Coronavirus Lockdown

During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Australian professional sport leagues were impacted by temporary league shutdowns. One example is the Suncorp Super Netball, the world’s premier netball competition. This commentary paper explores the Suncorp Super Netball league shutdown from the perspective of the players. Our commentary has emerged from an ongoing ethnographic study supported by interviews with two players (a representative on the players association and a club captain) conducted during the league shutdown. Such a shutdown was the first in the history of the league, and it required an unprecedented response, coordinated by interdependent stakeholders. The authors outlined the importance of stakeholder communication in effectively navigating this extraordinary situation. In addition, the authors discussed the usefulness of technology-as-context for teamwork and leadership, given the limitations on physical interaction and geographical separation. In conclusion, the authors proposed recommendations for sport practitioners and potential research directions resulting from the coronavirus-related league shutdown.</jats:p

Estimation of errors in text and data processing

The company Adiss Lab Lts. obtained 1 000 000 medical reports that are either in free form text, or in XML format. One of the main goals of their development is to integrate an algorithm for information extraction (IE) in their platform. The verification of the algorithm’s output for a report is done by a medical doctor (MD) for a certain fee. Validating the correctness of all data would be overwhelming and very expensive. Hence, the problem, as presented by the company, is to provide a method (algorithm) which determines the minimum amount of reports that will validate the correctness of the IE algorithm and a procedure for selecting these reports. In order to solve the problem we have considered an algorithm-centric approach uses active learning and semi-supervised learning

Do home adaptation interventions help to reduce emergency fall admissions? A national longitudinal data-linkage study of 657,536 older adults living in Wales (UK) between 2010 and 2017

Backgroundfalls are common in older people, but evidence for the effectiveness of preventative home adaptations is limited.Aimdetermine whether a national home adaptation service, Care&Repair Cymru (C&RC), identified individuals at risk of falls occurring at home and reduced the likelihood of falls.Study Designretrospective longitudinal controlled non-randomised intervention cohort study.Settingour cohort consisted of 657,536 individuals aged 60+ living in Wales (UK) between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2017. About 123,729 individuals received a home adaptation service.Methodswe created a dataset with up to 41 quarterly observations per person. For each quarter, we observed if a fall occurred at home that resulted in either an emergency department or an emergency hospital admission. We analysed the data using multilevel logistic regression.Resultscompared to the control group, C&RC clients had higher odds of falling, with an odds ratio (OR [95% confidence interval]) of 1.93 [1.87, 2.00]. Falls odds was higher for females (1.44 [1.42, 1.46]), older age (1.07 [1.07, 1.07]), increased frailty (mild 1.57 [1.55, 1.60], moderate 2.31 [2.26, 2.35], severe 3.05 [2.96, 3.13]), and deprivation (most deprived compared to least: 1.16 [1.13, 1.19]). Client fall odds decreased post-intervention; OR 0.97 [0.96, 0.97] per quarter. Regional variation existed for falls (5.8%), with most variation at the individual level (31.3%).ConclusionsC&RC identified people more likely to have an emergency fall admission occurring at home, and their service reduced the odds of falling post-intervention. Service provisioning should meet the needs of an individual and need varies by personal and regional circumstance