Short Stories in English Language Teaching

Being an important part of culture, literature should be included in foreign language teaching programs. As it is written for the native users of the language, it is an authentic material and presents good examples of target language. Reading literary works gives students great opportunities to improve their language. Nevertheless, students believe that literature is difficult to understand, boring and unnecessary. Therefore, teachers who want to use literature in language classes face a strong resistance of students against studying literature. It is possible to break the resistance of the students by choosing suitable materials to use and finding enjoyable activities. In ELT departments, students are taught how to use literature in EFL situations.This is a descriptive study which shows the ideas of 40 junior students of ELT department of Akdeniz University about the contributions of studying short stories. They were given a questionnaire to learn their ideas about the benefits of short stories. The data were examined through SPSS and the results were interpreted. Their answers showed that they didn’t find it boring, difficult or unnecessary any more. They also become aware of the fact that reading short stories has contributed to them in many ways. In the light of the findings, some suggestions were made related to the use of literature in EFL classes.Key words: short stories, teaching literature in EFL classes, English language teachin

Modeling large Ethernet networks for the ATLAS high level trigger system using parameterized models of switches and nodes

Large local area Ethernet networks are strong candidates to connect data sources and processing nodes in high energy physics experiments. In the high level trigger system of the ATLAS LHC experiment several Gbytes/s of data, distributed over 1700 buffers, have to be delivered to around a thousand processing nodes. Due to the network size, its performance and scalability can only be assessed by modeling. To avoid lengthy simulation runs, and concentrate only on characteristics important for network transfers, the components of the system need to be parameterized. The network performance depends on traffic patterns generated by processing nodes and switching capabilities of the network, we therefore evaluated and modeled both processing nodes and switches. We have developed a parameterized model of a class of switches, where a limited set of parameters, collected from measurements on real devices, is used to model switching characteristics. Another set of simple measurements is used to collect values for parameters used to model processing nodes running the Linux operating system and the TCP/IP communications protocol suite. In this paper we present the set of parameters used in the models together with measuring procedures used to calibrate our models. Calibrated models are used to model small test-bed setups with random traffic to validate our approach

Labour market regulation and tax reform complement each other

Italy and Spain show how this complementarity helps reduce labour market dualism, and fosters job growth, write Angelo Martelli, Nauro Campos, Michael Ganslmeier, Yuemei Ji, Orkun Sak

N=1/2 Supersymmetric gauge theory in noncommutative space

A formulation of (non-anticommutative) N=1/2 supersymmetric U(N) gauge theory in noncommutative space is studied. We show that at one loop UV/IR mixing occurs. A generalization of Seiberg-Witten map to noncommutative and non-anticommutative superspace is employed to obtain an action in terms of commuting fields at first order in the noncommutativity parameter tetha. This leads to abelian and non-abelian gauge theories whose supersymmetry transformations are local and non-local, respectively.Comment: One reference added, published versio

COMPARISON OF ACTIVITY CONCENTRATIONS OF NATURAL RADIONUCLIDES IN SOILS COLLECTED AT DIFFERENT DEPTHS OF SELECTED HAND-DUG WELLS IN ABEOKUTA

This study was aimed at measuring and comparing the activity concentration of soil samples collected from some selected hand – dug wells with their corresponding depths of collection in Abeokuta metropolis. Total of twenty (20) soil samples were collected from hand-dug wells in five sites (Obada, Adigbe, Kuto, Olorunsogo, and Obantoko) within Abeokuta with four (4) soil samples from each hand-dug well at the surface, (0.0m) through to 2.25m depth. Gamma ray spectroscopy with High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector was used for the measurements. The average activity concentrations obtained for the three natural radionuclides 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in Bq/Kg are 34.31 ± 2.01, 128.73 ± 4.41 and 152.31 ± 2.59 respectively at depth 0.00 m (surface), 23.00 ± 1.61, 68.39 ± 3.24 and 191.08 ± 3.11 respectively at depth 0.75 m, 31.52 ± 2.21, 145.37± 4.95 and 375.56 ± 5.50 respectively at 1.50 m and lastly 28.57±1.70, 95.61 ± 3.71 and 181.10 ± 3.94 respectively at 2.25 m depth. The world average activity concentrations for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K are given to be 35 Bqkg-1, 30 Bqkg-1 and 400 Bqkg-1 respectively (UNSCEAR 2000). 232Th showed  higher average values than the world’s average while averages of 226Ra and 40K were lower but most of the activity concentration values obtained in some of the locations are higher than the world’s average values, especially 226Raand 232Th in the soil samples.

Intraocular Pressure Changes During Ramadan Fasting: Effect of Change in Weight and Review of Available Reports

Background: Ramadan fasting (RF) alters many systemic milieus. Dehydration from fasting may cause weight loss, while sedentary lifestyle of some Muslims during fasting results in weight gain. RF is associated with low intraocular pressure (IOP). We aim to find out changes in IOP and its relationship to weight changes during and after Ramadan fasting.Materials and Methods: IOP of eligible males was measured at 0900, 1200 and 1500 hours (hrs). Mean fasting IOP (FIOP) and non-fasting IOP (NFIOP) of both eyes at each period were calculated. Weights were also taken during fasting and after fasting. FIOP and NFIOP were compared using paired t-test for all participants category (1) and participants in different categories of weight changes found during fasting: Those who lost weight during fasting, category (2). Those whose weights were unchanged, category (3), and those who gained weight category (4)Results: There were 51eligible males, category (1) consisting 38, 5 and 8 participants in categories 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Mean weight (Kg) of participants were: fasting 64.000, and non-fasting 65.853, P < .001. At 0900hrs, FIOP was higher than NFIOP but not reaching significant level in all categories. At 1500 hrs however, FIOP was significantly lower than NFIOP for categories 1 and 2 but not significantly for categories 3 and 4.Conclusion: Findings of the few previous works are conflicting. IOP changes during Ramadan may be a manifestation of changes in weight only. We suggest further works should categorize participants according to weight changes during fasting before analysing IOP.Keywords: Ramadan Fasting, Intraocular Pressure, Weight Effec

Etude des propriétés magnéto-optiques des couches minces à base de ferrite de cobalt obtenues par voie sol-gel

Ce travail est consacré à l'étude des propriétés magnéto-optiques (rotation Faraday) de couches minces à base de ferrite de cobalt obtenues par voie sol-gel. La contribution de la méthode sol-gel utilisée est très importante et cela permet d’obtenir des couches minces ayant une bonne qualité optique. Cette démarche nécessite juste l’utilisation de liquides magnétiques ou ferro fluides, de précurseurs de silice (pas cher) et d’un substrat de verre. Le but est d’obtenir des couches minces et étudier leurs propriétés magnéto-optiques. Les courbes obtenues à la longueur d’onde de 820 nm présentent des cycles d’hystérésis avec des rotations rémanentes de 40, 60 et 81°/cm. Ces résultats présentent une excellente rotation Faraday de 212, 318 et 340°/cm à la longueur d’onde de 820 nm. Ceci montre la forte potentialité de la matrice sol-gel dopée.Mots-clés: nanoparticules magnétiques, ferrite de cobalt, sol-gel, couches minces, rotation Faraday. Study of themagneto-optical properties of thin films cobalt ferrite obtainedby the sol-gel This work is devoted to the study of magneto-optical (Faraday rotation) of thin cobalt ferrite layers obtained by sol-gel. The contribution of the sol-gel method is very important and it allows obtaining thin film shaving a good optical quality. This requires only the use of magnetic fluids or ferro fluids, silica precursors (cheap) and a glass substrate. The goal is to obtain thin layers and study their magneto-optical properties. The curves obtained for the wave length of 820 nm have hysteresis loops with retentive rotations of 40, 60 and 81°/ cm. These results show excellentFaradayrotation 212, 318 and 340°/cm ata wave length of 820 nm. This shows the high potential of the doped sol-gel matrix.Keywords: agnetic nanoparticles, cobalt ferrite, sol-gel, thin films, Faraday rotation

Testing and Modeling Ethernet Switches and Networks for Use in ATLAS High-level Triggers

The ATLAS second level trigger will use a multi-layered LAN network to transfer 5 Gbyte/s detector data from ~1500 buffers to a few hundred processors. A model of the network has been constructed to evaluate its performance. A key component of the network model is a model of an individual switch, reproducing the behavior measured in real devices. A small number of measurable parameters are used to model a variety of commercial Ethernet switches. Using parameters measured on real devices, the impact on the overall network performance is modeled. In the Atlas context, both 100 Mbit and Gigabit Ethernet links are required. A system is described which is capable of characterizing the behavior of commercial switches with the required number of nodes under traffic conditions resembling those to be encountered in the Atlas experiment. Fast Ethernet traffic is provided by a high density, custom built tester based on FPGAs, programmed in Handel-C and VHDL, while the Gigabit Ethernet traffic is generated using Alteon NICs with custom firmware. The system is currently being deployed with 32 100Mbit ports and 16 Gigabit ports, and will be expanded to ~256 nodes of 100 Mbit and ~50 GBE nodes

Protein interactions in Xenopus germ plasm RNP particles

Hermes is an RNA-binding protein that we have previously reported to be found in the ribonucleoprotein (RNP) particles of Xenopus germ plasm, where it is associated with various RNAs, including that encoding the germ line determinant Nanos1. To further define the composition of these RNPs, we performed a screen for Hermes-binding partners using the yeast two-hybrid system. We have identified and validated four proteins that interact with Hermes in germ plasm: two isoforms of Xvelo1 (a homologue of zebrafish Bucky ball) and Rbm24b and Rbm42b, both RNA-binding proteins containing the RRM motif. GFP-Xvelo fusion proteins and their endogenous counterparts, identified with antisera, were found to localize with Hermes in the germ plasm particles of large oocytes and eggs. Only the larger Xvelo isoform was naturally found in the Balbiani body of previtellogenic oocytes. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) experiments confirmed that Hermes and the Xvelo variants interact in germ plasm, as do Rbm24b and 42b. Depletion of the shorter Xvelo variant with antisense oligonucleotides caused a decrease in the size of germ plasm aggregates and loosening of associated mitochondria from these structures. This suggests that the short Xvelo variant, or less likely its RNA, has a role in organizing and maintaining the integrity of germ plasm in Xenopus oocytes. While GFP fusion proteins for Rbm24b and 42b did not localize into germ plasm as specifically as Hermes or Xvelo, BiFC analysis indicated that both interact with Hermes in germ plasm RNPs. They are very stable in the face of RNA depletion, but additive effects of combinations of antisense oligos suggest they may have a role in germ plasm structure and may influence the ability of Hermes protein to effectively enter RNP particles

Mutations in NNT encoding nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase cause familial glucocorticoid deficiency

This work has been supported by the Medical Research Council UK (New Investigator Research Grant G0801265 to L.A.M., Clinical Research Training Fellowship Grant G0901980 to C.R.H. and Project Grant G0700767 to P.J.K.)