Literary dialogues as models of conversation in English Language Teaching

This study explores dialogues from a corpus of 19th century fiction as a possible model of conversation for use in English as a second or foreign language classrooms. We employ corpus linguistics methods to investigate the extent to which such dialogues contain lexical chunks and conversation strategies. This is then compared to usage in unscripted 21st century conversations, as found in a large spoken corpus. Findings show that there are a number of similarities to modern day spoken language in the chunks used in the 19th century data but also some key differences in how some common chunks function. It is also clear that many conversation strategies are significantly underused in the fictional dialogues. Overall, the study shows that dialogues from fiction have some potential as a model of conversation and could be used to supplement materials offering very contrived dialogues

An Improved Portrayal of the Floor of the Arctic Ocean, Based on a Grid Derived from GEBCO Bathymetric Contours

Digital descriptions of sea floor relief and land topography in the Arctic are useful for scientific and illustrative purposes, however existing public-domain data sets, such as the ET0P05 grid and extracts from the GEBCO Digital Atlas, don’t lend themselves particularly well to visualization and other processes that work best with uniformly-spaced data. A technique has been developed for converting isobaths from the GEBCO Digital Atlas into a uniform 5 km X 5 km grid of depth values. At the same time, the land component of ET0P05 has been re-sampled at a similar grid spacing. When combined, these two grid sets yield convincing shaded relief portrayals of the Arctic region. The methodologies described here are not restricted to the Arctic, but may be applied with minor modification to other regions as well

Phrases in EAP academic writing pedagogy: Illuminating Halliday’s influence on research and practice

This paper looks at how phrases are conceptualized in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) research and practice. It presents examples of phrases identified in academic discourse by EAP researchers, and compares these with examples of the phrases taught in EAP writing course books. The paper highlights the ways in which the forms and functions of phrases recommended for teaching by EAP researchers are different from the forms and functions recommended for teaching in EAP writing materials. This paper illustrates this apparent divergence between EAP research and practice through reviewing the concept of ‘function’ as applied to phrases in both academic discourse research and EAP pedagogy. It then compares the forms and functions categories for six sets of phrases: two produced by researchers and intended for pedagogy, and four found in teaching materials. The paper suggests that, in this area of EAP at least, Halliday’s work is more directly influential on current research than on current practice, and that EAP phraseology is one area where the growing gap between EAP research and practice can in future be quantified

Age, Growth, and Genetic Structure of Black and White Crappie Populations in a New Oklahoma Reservoir

The purpose of this research was to study the genetic stIUcture of founding populations of black and white crappie in a new Oklahoma. reservoir. Additional objectives were incorporated into the study in order to examine the relationships between age, growth, and foraging strategies in founding crappie populations. The creation of Copan lake was a serendipitous event, and it was hoped that this study would provide baseline data for future research as well as new insight on reservoir crappie problems. Funding was made available through the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. In addition, computer funds were provided by the Oklahoma State University Zoology Department.Zoolog

Changes in copepod distributions associated with increased turbulence from wind stress

Vertical profiles of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate (ε), current velocity, temperature, salinity, chlorophyll fluorescence, and copepods were sampled for 4 d at an anchor station on the southern flank of Georges Bank when the water column was stratified in early June 1995. Copepodite stages of Temora spp., Oithona spp., Pseudocalanus spp., and Calanus finmarchicus, and all of their naupliar stages except for Temora spp., were found deeper in the water column when turbulent dissipation rates in the surface mixed layer increased in response to increasing wind stress. Taxa that initially occurred at the bottom of the surface mixed layer at 10 to 15 m depth ( ε ¾ 10-8 W kg-1) before the wind event were located in the pycnocline at 20 to 25 m depth when dissipation rates at 10 m increased up to 10-6 W kg-1. Dissipation rates in the pycnocline were similar to those experienced at shallower depths before the wind event. After passage of the wind event and with relaxation of dissipation rates in the surface layer, all stages returned to prior depths above the pycnocline. Temora spp. nauplii did not change depth during this period. Our results indicate that turbulence from a moderate wind event can influence the vertical distribution of copepods in the surface mixed layer. Changes in the vertical distribution of copepods can impact trophic interactions, and movements related to turbulence would affect the application of turbulence theory to encounter and feeding rates

Inventions Utilizing Microfluidics and Colloidal Particles

Several related inventions pertain to families of devices that utilize microfluidics and/or colloidal particles to obtain useful physical effects. The families of devices can be summarized as follows: (1) Microfluidic pumps and/or valves wherein colloidal-size particles driven by electrical, magnetic, or optical fields serve as the principal moving parts that propel and/or direct the affected flows. (2) Devices that are similar to the aforementioned pumps and/or valves except that they are used to manipulate light instead of fluids. The colloidal particles in these devices are substantially constrained to move in a plane and are driven to spatially order them into arrays that function, variously, as waveguides, filters, or switches for optical signals. (3) Devices wherein the ultra-laminar nature of microfluidic flows is exploited to effect separation, sorting, or filtering of colloidal particles or biological cells in suspension. (4) Devices wherein a combination of confinement and applied electrical and/or optical fields forces the colloidal particles to become arranged into three-dimensional crystal lattices. Control of the colloidal crystalline structures could be exploited to control diffraction of light. (5) Microfluidic devices, incorporating fluid waveguides, wherein switching of flows among different paths would be accompanied by switching of optical signals