Cross Linguistic Transfer of Phonological Awareness and Word Recognition: An Exploratory Study on English Language Learners

Bilingual studies on cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness and word recognition emphasize the relevance of nature of language and orthography. The current study was designed to examine the significance of language and orthographic structure for phonological awareness and word recognition skills in children who are native speakers of Malayalam language learning English at school. The association of phonological awareness and word recognition in 30 Malayalam speaking preschool English Language Learners (ELL’s) was tested using a set of stimuli in both English and Malayalam.  Results revealed that word recognition was associated with phoneme awareness in English whereas in Malayalam, all the three levels tested in this study (rhyme, syllable and phoneme awareness) showed association with word recognition. However, considering the cross-linguistic associations, Malayalam word recognition was related to all levels of phonological awareness in English whereas no strong association was observed for word recognition in Malayalam with phonological awareness in English. Regression analysis revealed phoneme awareness in English as a strong predictor of word recognition in both the languages. These findings highlight the cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness between English and Malayalam supporting the Transfer Facilitation Model (TFM). Pedagogical implications of these findings on ELLs are discussed

Removal of lead(II) ions from aqueous solutions using activated carbon from Militia ferruginea plant leaves

The adsorption of lead(II) on to activated carbon developed from an indigenous Ethiopian medicinal plant leaves namely Birbira (Militia ferruginea) was investigated to assess the possible use of this adsorbent. The influences of contact time, adsorbent dose, Pb(II) concentration, pH and temperature on adsorption were investigated. The maximum adsorption took place at 3 h. at a dose of 4.0 g of adsorbent, and 97.3 % of Pb2+ adsorption at pH of 4.0. The amount of lead ion adsorbed per gram of the adsorbent increased with decreasing concentration of Pb2+. The percentage of adsorption had increased with the increasing temperature. The positive value of ∆H indicated that the adsorption of lead ions on the adsorbent was an endothermic process. The values of free energy (∆G) were negative as expected for a spontaneous process. The decrease in ∆G value with increasing temperature revealed that adsorption of the ion on the adsorbent became favorable at a higher temperature. The calculated value of ∆H was 25.05 kJ mol–1, ∆S was 135.48 JK-1 mol-1 and ∆G was also calculated for each temperature. The two theoretical adsorption isotherms, namely, Langmuir and Freundlich were used to describe the experimental results. The Freundlich adsorption isotherm best fits and adsorption capacity was calculated to be 3.3 mg of Pb(II) per g of adsorbent. The adsorption followed the first order kinetics and was found to be pH dependent being maximum at pH 4.0. The pH effect and desorption studies showed that ion exchange mechanism might be involved in the adsorption process. Reuse of the desorbed bio-adsorbent is possible. The effect of foreign ions on the removal of Pb(II) has been investigated. The removal of Pb(II) from industrial wastewater sample was also tested and showed that more than 97 % removal was possible. The results showed that activated carbon prepared from Birbira (Militia ferruginea) leaves could be used for the removal of Pb(II) from wastewater. KEY WORDS: Industrial wastewater, Lead removal, Adsorbent, Militia ferruginea  Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2008, 22(3), 349-360

Electron-electron interaction in multiwall carbon nanotubes

Magnetic susceptibility $\chi$ of pristine and brominated arc-produced sample of multiwall carbon nanotubes was measured from 4.2 to 400 K. An additional contribution $\Delta \chi(T)$ to diamagnetic susceptibility $\chi(T)$ of carbon nanotubes was found at T $<$ 50 K for both samples. It is shown that $\Delta \chi(T)$ are dominated by quantum correction to $\chi$ for interaction electrons (interaction effects-IE). The IE shows a crossover from two-dimensional to three-dimensional at $B$ = 5.5 T. The effective interaction between electrons for interior layers of nanotubes are repulsion and the electron-electron interaction $\lambda$$_c$ was estimated to be $\lambda_c\sim$ 0.26.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Application of GPR in urban utility detection ranging and characterization

Keeping track of underground utilities through maps or real physical signs is essential for their maintenance and quick repairs, whenever required, without causing much obstruction to day to day life. It is not uncommon that maps are misplaced or real physical signs are destroyed. In such situations, digging and excavation becomes unavoidable during repair works. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is one of the non invasive methods which now are being applied for detection, ranging and characterization of subsurface buried objects. GPR employs radar pulses, sends them into ground, then get back scattered energy from dielectric discontinuities in the subsurface. Frequency of antennae determine their capacity to detect and resolve the buried objects (depth of penetration is worth a mention). Hence, 400MHz and 200MHz frequency antennae are generally used for utility mapping at shallow depths up to 4 to 5 meters. GPR response to buried objects is very much dependent upon buried object locations, their constituents, their surroundings and antennae properties. It is very crucial to have a database of GPR responses corresponding to various influencing factors over their ranges of variability either by experimental or simulation studies. In the present work, an attempt has been made to generate data so as to know the dependence of GPR responses on changes in the influencing factors. Simulations have been carried out by using exclusive GPR simulation software called GPRMax. Several typical ground scenarios have been simulated and effects of various object, medium and antennae parameters on response of GPR have been studied and relationships have been established between them using response surface method (RSM). Finally, real GPR data has been compared with simulated data and interpreted

Thermal Analysis Of A Gas Turbine Rotor Blade

:  A turbine rotor blade is the individual component which makes up the turbine section of a gas turbine. The blades are responsible for extracting energy from the high temperature, high pressure gas produced by the combustor. The turbine blades are often the limiting component of gas turbines. To survive in this difficult environment, turbine blades often use exotic materials like AL 2024 and T6 alloys.Turbine rotor blade is designed and analyzed in ANSYS 14.

Thermal Analysis of Single Pass GRITH Weld for Different Materials

Girth welds are the different types of arc welding processes applied in the joining of two pipes along the circumference during a phase construction of a pipeline depending on the ease of implementation and the environmental factor. They are used in making circumferential welds in pipeline and underground systems. They are used in the pipeline industry. Here in this project we have designed a pipe which has be welded to a flange by single pass girth welding. Here we are going to consider two welding cases i.e. normal welding process and welding with an Al block under the welding portion. We are going to consider these two welding conditions for girth welding of the pipe made of two different materials i.e. Stainless Steel and Carbon steel alloy. Thermal analysis is done to the product to study the weld behavior of the component. The Component is designed in CATIA V5 and Thermal analysis is carried out in ANSYS