Lexical Approach: Revisiting English Language teaching by Putting Theories into Practice

We could not talk about vocabulary teaching nowadays without mentioning Michael Lewis (1993), whose controversial, thought-provoking ideas have been shaking the ELT world since the publication of his book “The Lexical Approach”. The lexical approach is a method of teaching foreign languages . The basic concept on which this approach rests is the idea that an important part of learning a language consists of being able to understand and produce lexical phrases as chunks. Students are thought to be able to perceive patterns of language (grammar) as well as have meaningful set uses of words at their disposal when they are taught in this way. The most important highlight is the importance of vocabulary as being basic to communication. Lewis himself insists that his lexical approach is not simply a shift of emphasis from grammar to vocabulary teaching. The Chunks that he refers include collocations, fixed and semi-fixed expressions and idioms, which according to him, occupy a crucial role in facilitating language production and act as the key to fluency. The principles of the Lexical Approach have been around since Michael Lewis published 'The Lexical Approach' 20 years ago. It seems, however, that many teachers and researchers do not have a clear idea of what the Lexical Approach actually looks like in practice. In creating the pedagogical materials for Français interactif, the developers decided to move away from the traditional grammatical syllabus and adopt features of the Lexical Approach instead

A JPEG Corner Artifact from Directed Rounding of DCT Coefficients

JPEG compression introduces a number of well known artifacts including blocking and ringing. We describe a lesser known or understood artifact consisting of a slightly darker or lighter pixel in the corner of 8 x 8 pixel blocks. This artifact is introduced by the directed rounding of DCT coefficients. In particular, we show that DCT coefficients that are uniformly rounded down or up (but not to the nearest neighbor) give rise to this artifact. An analysis of thousands of different camera models reveals that this artifact is present in approximately 61% of cameras. We also propose a simple filtering technique for removing this artifact

An Evaluation of Forensic Facial Recognition

Recent advances in machine learning and computer vision have led to reported facial recognition accuracies surpassing human performance. We question if these systems will translate to real-world forensic scenarios in which a potentially low-resolution, low-quality, partially-occluded image is compared against a standard facial database. We describe the construction of a large-scale synthetic facial dataset along with a controlled facial forensic lineup, the combination of which allows for a controlled evaluation of facial recognition under a range of real-world conditions. Using this synthetic dataset, and a popular dataset of real faces, we evaluate the accuracy of two popular neural-based recognition systems. We find that previously reported face recognition accuracies of more than 95% drop to as low as 65% in this more challenging forensic scenario

PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS OF A GRINDING PROCESS USING THE ROUGH SETS THEORY

With continuous automation of the manufacturing industries and the development of advanced data acquisition systems, a huge volume of manufacturing-related data is now available which can be effectively mined to extract valuable knowledge and unfold the hidden patterns. In this paper, a data mining tool, in the form of the rough sets theory, is applied to a grinding process to investigate the effects of its various input parameters on the responses. Rotational speed of the grinding wheel, depth of cut and type of the cutting fluid are grinding parameters, and average surface roughness, amplitude of vibration and grinding ratio are the responses. The best parametric settings of the grinding parameters are also derived to control the quality characteristics of the ground components. The developed decision rules are quite easy to understand and can truly predict the response values at varying combinations of the considered grinding parameters

Phosphorylation of the activation loop tyrosine 823 in c-Kit is crucial for cell survival and proliferation.

The receptor tyrosine kinase c-Kit, also known as the stem cell factor receptor, plays a key role in several developmental processes. Activating mutations in c-Kit lead to alteration of these cellular processes and have been implicated in many human cancers such as gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), testicular seminomas and mastocytosis. Regulation of the catalytic activity of several kinases is known to be governed by phosphorylation of tyrosine residues in the activation loop of the kinase domain. However, in the case of c-Kit phosphorylation of Y823 has been demonstrated to be a late event that is not required for kinase activation. However, since phosphorylation of Y823 is a ligand-activated event, we sought to investigate the functional consequences of Y823 phosphorylation. By using a tyrosine to phenylalanine mutant of tyrosine 823 we investigated the impact of Y823 on c-Kit signaling. We here demonstrate that Y823 is crucial for cell survival and proliferation and mutation of Y823 to phenylalanine leads to decreased sustained phosphorylation and ubiquitination of c-Kit as compared to the wild-type receptor. Furthermore, the mutated receptor was upon ligand-stimulation quickly internalized and degraded. Phosphorylation of the E3 ubiquitin ligase, Cbl was transient followed by a substantial reduction in phosphorylation of downstream signaling molecules such as Akt, Erk, Shc and Gab2. Thus, we propose that activation loop tyrosine 823 is crucial for activation of both the MAPK and PI3K pathways and that its disruption leads to a destabilization of the c-Kit receptor and decreased survival of cells

THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA: A QUALITATIVE STUDY INTO THE ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTION OF YOUNG ADULTS TOWARDS PREVALENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Technological advances in the past decade have lead to the emergence of online platforms like social-networking sites, blogging sites, discussion forums which are extensively used by consumers to articulate their opinions and share their experiences. These developments have equipped consumers with vast knowledge and tools and hence, consumers actively participate in all stages of the marketing exchange process. Thus, the traditional channels of marketing communications are not sufficient to keep pace with the technology-savvy consumers of the modern era. This study explores the thriving potential of these internet-based platforms collectively known as “social media” as a powerful marketing communications tool. The social and psychological benefits consumers reap by engaging in the diverse forms of social media have been discussed and insights into how companies can harness the potential of social media are provided. This paper also seeks to ascertain the impact of social media interaction on aspects on consumer behaviour such as brand perception, purchase intention and brand loyalty. Previous literature demonstrates that users primarily seek to address certain needs like entertainment, networking, information-seeking, self-expression and building relationships through use of social media platforms. This research builds on prior research by providing further empirical evidence on the nature of consumer’s engagement in online platforms. 18 semi-structured in-depth interviews with users of social media were conducted to gain insight into consumer’s motivation for engaging in social media platforms. Findings suggested that users predominantly use social media to communicate and interact with friends and family. The power of social media to influence consumer decision making and increase brand awareness has also been discussed

A Review on the use of Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Brain MRI Analysis

Over the past 20 years, the global research going on in Artificial Intelligence in applica-tions in medication is a venue internationally, for medical trade and creating an ener-getic research community. The Artificial Intelligence in Medicine magazine has posted a massive amount. This paper gives an overview of the history of AI applications in brain MRI analysis to research its effect at the wider studies discipline and perceive de-manding situations for its destiny. Analysis of numerous articles to create a taxono-my of research subject matters and results was done. The article is classed which might be posted between 2000 and 2018 with this taxonomy. Analyzed articles have excessive citations. Efforts are useful in figuring out popular studies works in AI primarily based on mind MRI analysis throughout specific issues. The biomedical prognosis was ruled by way of knowledge engineering research in its first decade, whilst gadget mastering, and records mining prevailed thereafter. Together these two topics have contributed a lot to the latest medical domain

Progressing haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count syndrome: near miss case

A 25 years old women presented in labour room with 30 weeks’ pregnancy in labour with breech with previous two caesarean section and scar tenderness with foetal bradycardia (FHR 90) and jaundice. After caesarean section in emergency hour she started bleeding in abdominal drain while uterus was well contracted. On investigation and examination diagnosed as HELLP syndrome, managed promptly by medical teams of three departments (obstetrician, anaesthesia and medicine)

Prevalence of various dermatoses in pregnancy at a tertiary care centre in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India: an observational study

Background: This was a prospective study which was done to observe various skin lesions in pregnancy and to determine the most likely causes and their incidence in antenatal patients, it was noticed that many women in our institute were having pregnancy related cutaneous complaints thus this observational study was carried out so that better preventive measures and treatment options could be provided to these patients.Methods: Study was conducted in out-patient department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, TMU, Moradabad. All ANC cases between October 2017 to September 2018 having any type of dermatoses were included in the study irrespective of gestational age. 6348 patients appeared in OPD in the given time period out of which 1256 were included. In case of pruritus, liver function tests were done with USG whole abdomen and patients were reviewed by physician if required. Screening with VDRL, HCV, HbSAg and ELISA for HIV was done in all. Results were tabulated and analyzed.Results: 50.8% primi gravidas ,49.2% multi gravidas. age range 18-38 years. 29.3% presented in third trimester ,25.6% presented in second trimester. Physiological changes seen in all cases, 8.68% specific dermatoses of pregnancy. 40.4 % no complaints, 5.65% melasma, 90.8% hyperpigmentation, 94.6% linea nigra. Secondary areola 89.3%,striae 80.3% out of which 38.9%- primi gravidas and 41.40% -multi gravidas. 92.9% no change in hair density. Montgomery’s tubercles 30-50% of cases. spiders nevi 67%. No cases of palmar erythema. Pruritus gravidarum 38.53%. PUPPP 28.4%. Pemphigoid Gestationis 9.17%. Prurigo of pregnancy 18.34%. Pruritic folliculitis 1.8%. Eczema in pregnancy : pre-existing in 3.7% , out of which exacerbation 1, 3 unaffected. 3 chicken pox.1 filariasis.24 herpetic lesions (herpes simplex).1 scleroderma.17.27% pre-existing taenia infection . Scabies 20.46%.11 0.87% dual infection (scabies-taenia).Conclusions: This study highlights high prevalence of community acquired infections in our region like taenia, scabies giving rise to skin lesions in Antenatal women. Moreover, it highlights a probable association between the prevalence of skin lesions with factors like poor personal hygiene, overcrowding, low socioeconomic status, anaemia and poor nutritional status