An Empirical Study on the Effectiveness of Output Activities Focused on Oral Reading for Improving EFL Learners\u27 Speaking Skill

博士（学校教育学）兵庫教育大

An Empirical Study on the Effectiveness of Output Activities Focused on Oral Reading for Improving EFL Learners\u27 Speaking Skill

博士（学校教育学）兵庫教育大

An Analysis of Foreign Language Speaking Test Anxiety in Japanese EFL University Classes

The aim of this study is to understand the degree to which different factors contribute to student anxiety in the English conversation classroom in regards to speaking tests in English.Japanese university EFL students (N = 187) were asked to complete a 19-item questionnaire measured on a five-point Likert scale. It found that students have anxieties regarding their own abilities and making mistakes in front of others (dubbed as "the intrapersonal factor") as well as how they are being evaluated by their instructors (dubbed as "the interpersonal factor"). The study found that the intrapersonal factor is higher than the interpersonal factors independent of evaluators. It is plausible that the learners\u27 main concern is their internal matters.Furthermore, the intrapersonal factor does not show a significant difference between evaluators, arising regardless of their identity of the evaluator.On the other hand, the interpersonal factor is higher in the case of Japanese evaluators than in the case of native English speaking evaluators.That means when a Japanese English teacher is an evaluator, learners\u27 anxiety of the evaluators\u27 evaluation for their speaking gets higher

Extensive epidermoid cyst of the submental region

Epidermoid cysts are malformations that are rarely observed in the submental region. Imaging has an important role in surgical planning according to the size and location of the cyst in relation to geniohyoid and mylohyoid muscles. This article reports the case of a 15-year-old female patient complaining of submental swelling. The differential diagnosis included infection, tumor, ranula, and abnormalities during embryonic development. The lesion was surgically excised using an extra-oral approach. The histopathological examination revealed a cyst wall lined with stratified squamous epithelium with the presence of several horny scales consistent with the diagnosis of an epidermoid cyst. No recurrences were found after 1 year of follow-u

A Probabilistic Temporal Logic with Frequency Operators and Its Model Checking

Probabilistic Computation Tree Logic (PCTL) and Continuous Stochastic Logic (CSL) are often used to describe specifications of probabilistic properties for discrete time and continuous time, respectively. In PCTL and CSL, the possibility of executions satisfying some temporal properties can be quantitatively represented by the probabilistic extension of the path quantifiers in their basic Computation Tree Logic (CTL), however, path formulae of them are expressed via the same operators in CTL. For this reason, both of them cannot represent formulae with quantitative temporal properties, such as those of the form "some properties hold to more than 80% of time points (in a certain bounded interval) on the path." In this paper, we introduce a new temporal operator which expressed the notion of frequency of events, and define probabilistic frequency temporal logic (PFTL) based on CTL\star. As a result, we can easily represent the temporal properties of behavior in probabilistic systems. However, it is difficult to develop a model checker for the full PFTL, due to rich expressiveness. Accordingly, we develop a model-checking algorithm for the CTL-like fragment of PFTL against finite-state Markov chains, and an approximate model-checking algorithm for the bounded Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) -like fragment of PFTL against countable-state Markov chains.Comment: In Proceedings INFINITY 2011, arXiv:1111.267

Resolving the Trophic Relations of Cryptic Species: An Example Using Stable Isotope Analysis of Dolphin Teeth

Understanding the foraging ecology and diet of animals can play a crucial role in conservation of a species. This is particularly true where species are cryptic and coexist in environments where observing feeding behaviour directly is difficult. Here we present the first information on the foraging ecology of a recently identified species of dolphin (Southern Australian bottlenose dolphin (SABD)) and comparisons to the common bottlenose dolphin (CBD) in Victoria, Australia, using stable isotope analysis of teeth. Stable isotope signatures differed significantly between SABD and CBD for both δ13C (−14.4‰ vs. −15.5‰ respectively) and δ15N (15.9‰ vs. 15.0‰ respectively), suggesting that the two species forage in different areas and consume different prey. This finding supports genetic and morphological data indicating that SABD are distinct from CBD. In Victoria, the SABD is divided into two distinct populations, one in the large drowned river system of Port Phillip Bay and the other in a series of coastal lakes and lagoons called the Gippsland Lakes. Within the SABD species, population differences were apparent. The Port Phillip Bay population displayed a significantly higher δ15N than the Gippsland Lakes population (17.0‰ vs. 15.5‰), suggesting that the Port Phillip Bay population may feed at a higher trophic level - a result which is supported by analysis of local food chains. Important future work is required to further understand the foraging ecology and diet of this newly described, endemic, and potentially endangered species of dolphin