A Comparative Study Of the Verbal Achievement Of Students Who Study Foreign Language And Those Who Do Not Study Foreign Language

The history of foreign language training has emphasized a positive connection between learning another language and learning one\u27s own (Schilling, 1985; Coleman, 1929). Educators believe that through concentration on individual words, grammar, and structure, foreign language heightens the student\u27s awareness of verbal expression in general. Although children begin to speak English at an early age, progress is a result of informal repetition and mimicry. Many junior high students can speak reasonably well but are hard-pressed to distinguish nouns from verbs because they have not examined their own language closely. On the other hand, foreign language students frequently acknowledge greater understanding of English concepts because they have studied them in the second language class

Vigorous star formation in a bulge-dominated ERO at z = 1.34

We present near-IR spectroscopy of three Extremely Red Objects (EROs) using the OHS/CISCO spectrograph at Subaru telescope. One target exhibits a strong emission line which we identify as H-alpha at z = 1.34. Using new and existing ground-based optical and near-IR imaging, and archival HST imaging, we argue that this target is essentially an elliptical galaxy, with an old stellar population of around 4E11 solar masses, but having a dust-enshrouded star-forming component with a SFR of some 50--100 solar masses per yr. There is no evidence that the galaxy contains an AGN. Analysis of a further two targets, which do not exhibit any features in our near-IR spectra, suggests that one is a quiescent galaxy in the redshift range 1.2 < z < 1.6, but that the other cannot be conclusively categorised as either star-forming or quiescent. Even though our first target has many of the properties of an old elliptical, the ongoing star formation means that it cannot have formed_all_ of its stellar population at high redshift. While we cannot infer any robust values for the star formation rate in ellipticals at z > 1 from this one object, we argue that the presence of an object with such a high SFR in such a small sample suggests that a non-negligible fraction of the elliptical galaxy population may have formed a component of their stellar population at redshifts z ~ 1--2. We suggest that this is evidence for ongoing star formation in the history of elliptical galaxies.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS 1 April 2005. Ten pages, six figure

The effect of a structured narrative programme on language disordered children

This study examined the effectiveness of a structured narrative programme which had been developed to improve the narrative skills of children attending a Language Development Centre in Western Australia. The research was conducted over an eight week period with eight Year One (ie -6 years old) boys who had been diagnosed as having severe language disorders. A single subject research design was used to investigate the narrative development of the students. The design followed the ABAB format (baseline experimental design-baseline-experimental design) as outlined in Tawney and Gast (1984). The number of words used by each subject, the number of adverbials of time and place used and the number of times the subject used \u27because\u27 appropriately were measured. During the first fortnight of the study (Weeks 1 and 2) the subjects were required to produce a personal oral narrative on each of the ten consecutive school days. The topics changed daily and coloured posters were used to signal the required topic. During the second fortnight (Weeks 3 and 4), the subjects participated in a structured narrative programme immediately prior to producing their personal oral narratives each day. In the third fortnight (Weeks 5 and 6) subjects were required to produce a personal oral narrative each day but were not involved in the narrative programme. In the fourth and final fortnight the subjects participated in the structured narrative programme immediately before producing their personal oral narratives each day. After each of the 40 personal oral narrative sessions, the transcriber recorded the use of the four language aspects to be measured; the number of words, adverbials of place, adverbials of time and appropriate use of \u27because\u27

Beyond Cervical Length: A Pilot Study of Ultrasonic Attenuation for Early Detection of Preterm Birth Risk

The purpose of this study was to determine whether cervical ultrasonic attenuation could identify women at risk of spontaneous preterm birth. During pregnancy, women (n = 67) underwent from one to five transvaginal ultrasonic examinations to estimate cervical ultrasonic attenuation and cervical length. Ultrasonic data were obtained with a Zonare ultrasound system with a 5- to 9-MHz endovaginal transducer and processed offline. Cervical ultrasonic attenuation was lower at 17–21 wk of gestation in the SPTB group (1.02 dB/cm-MHz) than in the full-term birth groups (1.34 dB/cm-MHz) (p = 0.04). Cervical length was shorter (3.16 cm) at 22–26 wk in the SPTB group than in the women delivering full term (3.68 cm) (p = 0.004); cervical attenuation was not significantly different at this time point. These findings suggest that low attenuation may be an additional early cervical marker to identify women at risk for SPTB

Multiple locus VNTR analysis highlights that geographical clustering and distribution of Dichelobacter nodosus, the causal agent of footrot in sheep, correlates with inter-country movements

Dichelobacter nodosus is a Gram-negative, anaerobic bacterium and the causal agent of footrot in sheep. Multiple locus variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) is a portable technique that involves the identification and enumeration of polymorphic tandem repeats across the genome. The aims of this study were to develop an MLVA scheme for D. nodosus suitable for use as a molecular typing tool, and to apply it to a global collection of isolates. Seventy-seven isolates selected from regions with a long history of footrot (GB, Australia) and regions where footrot has recently been reported (India, Scandinavia), were characterised. From an initial 61 potential VNTR regions, four loci were identified as usable and in combination had the attributes required of a typing method for use in bacterial epidemiology: high discriminatory power (D > 0.95), typeability and reproducibility. Results from the analysis indicate that D. nodosus appears to have evolved via recombinational exchanges and clonal diversification. This has resulted in some clonal complexes that contain isolates from multiple countries and continents; and others that contain isolates from a single geographic location (country or region). The distribution of alleles between countries matches historical accounts of sheep movements, suggesting that the MLVA technique is sufficiently specific and sensitive for an epidemiological investigation of the global distribution of D. nodosus

The K2-HERMES Survey: Age and Metallicity of the Thick Disc

Asteroseismology is a promising tool to study Galactic structure and evolution because it can probe the ages of stars. Earlier attempts comparing seismic data from the {\it Kepler} satellite with predictions from Galaxy models found that the models predicted more low-mass stars compared to the observed distribution of masses. It was unclear if the mismatch was due to inaccuracies in the Galactic models, or the unknown aspects of the selection function of the stars. Using new data from the K2 mission, which has a well-defined selection function, we find that an old metal-poor thick disc, as used in previous Galactic models, is incompatible with the asteroseismic information. We show that spectroscopic measurements of [Fe/H] and [$\alpha$/Fe] elemental abundances from the GALAH survey indicate a mean metallicity of $\log (Z/Z_{\odot})=-0.16$ for the thick disc. Here $Z$ is the effective solar-scaled metallicity, which is a function of [Fe/H] and [$\alpha$/Fe]. With the revised disc metallicities, for the first time, the theoretically predicted distribution of seismic masses show excellent agreement with the observed distribution of masses. This provides an indirect verification of the asteroseismic mass scaling relation is good to within five percent. Using an importance-sampling framework that takes the selection function into account, we fit a population synthesis model of the Galaxy to the observed seismic and spectroscopic data. Assuming the asteroseismic scaling relations are correct, we estimate the mean age of the thick disc to be about 10 Gyr, in agreement with the traditional idea of an old $\alpha$-enhanced thick disc.Comment: 21 pages, submitted to MNRA

HER3 and downstream pathways are involved in colonization of brain metastases from breast cancer

Introduction: Metastases to the brain from breast cancer have a high mortality, and basal-like breast cancers have a propensity for brain metastases. However, the mechanisms that allow cells to colonize the brain are unclear.Methods: We used morphology, immunohistochemistry, gene expression and somatic mutation profiling to analyze 39 matched pairs of primary breast cancers and brain metastases, 22 unmatched brain metastases of breast cancer, 11 non-breast brain metastases and 6 autopsy cases of patients with breast cancer metastases to multiple sites, including the brain.Results: Most brain metastases were triple negative and basal-like. the brain metastases over-expressed one or more members of the HER family and in particular HER3 was significantly over-expressed relative to matched primary tumors. Brain metastases from breast and other primary sites, and metastases to multiple organs in the autopsied cases, also contained somatic mutations in EGFR, HRAS, KRAS, NRAS or PIK3CA. This paralleled the frequent activation of AKT and MAPK pathways. in particular, activation of the MAPK pathway was increased in the brain metastases compared to the primary tumors.Conclusions: Deregulated HER family receptors, particularly HER3, and their downstream pathways are implicated in colonization of brain metastasis. the need for HER family receptors to dimerize for activation suggests that tumors may be susceptible to combinations of anti-HER family inhibitors, and may even be effective in the absence of HER2 amplification (that is, in triple negative/basal cancers). However, the presence of activating mutations in PIK3CA, HRAS, KRAS and NRAS suggests the necessity for also specifically targeting downstream molecules.Ludwig Institute of Cancer ResearchNational Breast Cancer FoundationUniv Queensland, Clin Res Ctr, Brisbane, Qld 4029, AustraliaQueensland Inst Med Res, Brisbane, Qld 4006, AustraliaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, EPM, Dept Anat Patol, BR-04024000 São Paulo, BrazilGriffith Univ, Brisbane, Qld 4011, AustraliaUniv Queensland, Ctr Magnet Resonance, Brisbane, Qld 4072, AustraliaEijkman Inst, Jakarta 10430, IndonesiaInst Nacl Canc, Dept Patol, BR-20230130 Rio de Janeiro, BrazilLab Salomao & Zoppi, Dept Patol, BR-04104000 São Paulo, BrazilCharles Univ Prague, Fac Med, Dept Pathol, Plzen 30605, Czech RepublicUniv Sydney, Inst Clin Pathol & Med Res, Sydney W Area Hlth Serv, Sydney, NSW 2145, AustraliaUniv Sydney, Westmead Millennium Inst, Sydney W Area Hlth Serv, Sydney, NSW 2145, AustraliaPeter MacCallum Canc Ctr, Dept Pathol, Melbourne, Vic 3002, AustraliaUniv Queensland, Queensland Brain Inst, Brisbane, Qld 4072, AustraliaRoyal Brisbane & Womens Hosp, Brisbane, Qld 4029, AustraliaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, EPM, Dept Anat Patol, BR-04024000 São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Broad Down, Devon: archaeological and other stories

publication-status: PublishedThis is a post-print, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication Journal of Material Culture, 2010, Vol. 15, Issue 3, pp. 345 - 367. Copyright © 2010 SAGE Publications. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at http://mcu.sagepub.com/content/15/3/345.shortThis article explores the knowledge construction process of an archaeological site in East Devon, UK. Bouncing off an oral historical account of the site that seems to run against scientific truth claims, the author investigates the story of how knowledge of the site has developed over the last two centuries. Building on previous work that explores the history and practice of archaeology, the article opens up questions of what counts as evidence. Then, taking a cue from more recent work that suggests a more dynamic and open-ended engagement with the landscape, the article turns to examine how the meaning of a site can be made and remade. As part of this endeavour, questions of what as well as who can ‘speak’ are examined and some space is opened up for the agency of ‘minor figures’, both human and non-human