English in Indonesian Islamic Higher Education: Examining the Relationship Between Performance in the Yes/no Test and Reading Skills

This study examines the relationship between performance in the Yes/No test of English recognition vocabulary and reading skills in Indonesian Islamic learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Participants in the study were 83 Indonesian undergraduate students, comprising an Advanced group (n=41) and Intermediate group (n=42) of EFL learners enrolled in the English department at the State Islamic University (UIN) of Malang, Indonesia. All participants completed both tests. The results reveal that the hits accuracy performance between the Advanced EFL group and the Intermediate EFL group was statistically significant, indicating that Yes/No test performance, in context of hits accuracy, did discriminate between levels of English proficiency. However, the differences disappeared with corrected scores since both groups indicated a high false alarm rate. In addition, this study also reveals that there was no evidence of a relationship between Yes/No performance and reading scores. Several pedagogical implications for EFL language teachers are discussed

The schema for simultaneous measurement of calcium oscillations in 96-well plates and methods for extracting wave features.

(A) Schematic of our method for measurement of calcium oscillations. Rat primary cortical neurons were harvested and cultured to DIV 14. Cultures were loaded with calcium indicator Cal-520 and measured in 60 wells (all except the perimeter wells on 96-well plates). (B) Representative calcium oscillations in 1 mM or 0.1 mM magnesium in Tyrode’s buffer. (C) Descriptive statistics and box plots of peak numbers in each condition. The horizontal line in each box represented the median location, the box represented the interquartile range, and the whiskers showed the minimal and maximal values. p*<0.05 (unpaired t-test, n = 60 per condition). AVG, average; S.D., standard deviation; CV, coefficient of variation. (D) A representative calcium oscillation and definitions of wave features. Calcium oscillations were visualized and each feature extracted using Wave Finder in Spotfire. Features are defined as follows. Mean Peak Height is the difference between the maximum value of the peak and the height of the point at which the peak starts rising. Mean Peak Height / Peak Width was the ratio of the peak height to the peak width. Peak Width was the time from the point at which the peak starts rising to the time when the signal decreased to 10% of the peak height. Mean Peak Width 50% was the time from the maximum value to the time when the signal decreased to the half of this value. AUC was calculated using the trapezoidal rule. (E) The list of features extracted from calcium oscillations.</p

Simultaneous measurement of calcium oscillations in 60 wells.

Simultaneous measurement of calcium oscillations in 60 wells.</p

PCA coordinates and contribution plots in response to treatment with AEDs.

(A) PCA of wave features. The individual wells are plotted. Different AEDs are represented by different shapes. (B) Plot depicting the contribution of features to PC1 and PC2 (arrows). (C) Bar plots displaying the percentage of variance explained by each component.</p

PCA coordinates and contribution plots of the other two replicates, related to Fig 3.

Independent experiments were conducted more than three times. A and B represent the datasets of independent experiments. (TIF)</p

Subjective outcomes about pain and discomfort.

<p>Subjective outcomes about pain and discomfort.</p

Baseline characteristics of the study participants.

<p>Values are numbers (percentages) of women.</p

Trial outcomes by intention-to-treat analysis.

<p>Trial outcomes by intention-to-treat analysis.</p

Variations in prebiotic oligosaccharide fermentation by intestinal lactic acid bacteria

<p>Prebiotic oligosaccharides confer health benefits on the host by modulating the gut microbiota. Intestinal lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are potential targets of prebiotics; however, the metabolism of oligosaccharides by LAB has not been fully characterized. Here, we studied the metabolism of eight oligosaccharides by 19 strains of intestinal LAB. Among the eight oligosaccharides used, 1-kestose, lactosucrose and galactooligosaccharides (GOSs) led to the greatest increases in the numbers of the strains tested. However, mono- and disaccharides accounted for more than half of the GOSs used, and several strains only metabolized the mono- and di-saccharides in GOSs. End product profiles indicated that the amounts of lactate produced were generally consistent with the bacterial growth recorded. Oligosaccharide profiling revealed the interesting metabolic manner in <i>Lactobacillus paracasei</i> strains, which metabolized all oligosaccharides, but left sucrose when cultured with fructooligosaccharides. The present study clearly indicated that the prebiotic potential of each oligosaccharide differs.</p

Ionomycin-induced calcium influx induces neurite degeneration in mouse neuroblastoma cells: analysis of a time-lapse live cell imaging system

<p>Reactive oxygen species induce neuronal cell death. However, the detailed mechanisms of cell death have not yet been elucidated. Previously, we reported neurite degeneration before the induction of cell death. Here, we attempted to elucidate the mechanisms of neurite degeneration before the induction of cell death using the neuroblastoma N1E-115 cell line and a time-lapse live cell imaging system. Treatment with the calcium ionophore ionomycin induced cell death and neurite degeneration in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Treatment with a low concentration of ionomycin immediately produced a significant calcium influx into the intracellular region in N1E-115 cells. After 1-h incubation with ionomycin, the fluorescence emission of MitoSOX^TM increased significantly compared to the control. Finally, analysis using a new mitochondrial specific fluorescence dye, MitoPeDPP, indicated that treatment with ionomycin significantly increased the mitochondrial lipid hydroperoxide production in N1E-115 cells. The fluorescence emissions of Fluo-4 AM and MitoPeDPP were detected in the cell soma and neurite regions in ionomycin-treated N1E-115 cells. However, the emissions of neurites were much lower than those of the cell soma. TBARS values of ionomycin-treated cells significantly increased compared to the control. These results indicate that ionomycin induces calcium influx into the intracellular region and reactive oxygen species production in N1E-115 cells. Lipid hydroperoxide production was induced in ionomycin-treated N1E-115 cells. Calcium influx into the intracellular region is a possible activator of neurite degeneration.</p